Doctoral Dissertation Research: Judicial elections and the three properties of legitimacy

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This proposal uses an experimental design embedded in a nationally representative survey to test the impact of the four main varieties of judicial selection method (JSM) - appointment system, retention election, non-partisan election and partisan elections - on the legitimacy of state supreme courts. The experiment determines the impact of JSM by manipulating the salience of each institutional arrangement in a person's thoughts. Legitimacy varies on three properties called magnitude, persuasiveness and stability, and JSM impacts each. Magnitude is the amount of legitimacy an individual attributes to an institution. The persuasiveness of legitimacy is legitimacy's power to induce the mass public to accept displeasing decisions. The stability of legitimacy is the ability of an institution's legitimacy to withstand the negative pressure of displeasing decisions without a reduction in legitimacy. The legitimizing power of elections is predicted to increase the magnitude of legitimacy, but elections are predicted to reduce the persuasiveness and stability of legitimacy. The predictions are developed using a synthesis of Positivity Theory, framing theory, and the fundamental differences between legitimacy derived from elections and that derived from principled decision-making.An essential question in any political system is how to select public officials. While normative arguments are important in answering this, empirical reality should not be ignored. The question of legitimacy is especially important for courts that cannot rely on the purse or sword to enforce their decisions. This proposal provides new evidence about how the various JSMs impact judicial legitimacy, and for the first time uses an experimental design to answer this question. Using an experiment allows stronger claims of causation than extant research based on cross-sectional correlations. Additionally, the proposed experimental design and analysis examines all three properties of legitimacy while existing research concentrates solely on determining what causes changes in the magnitude of legitimacy.