Doctoral Dissertation Research: Diversity and Judicial Legitimacy in State Courts

国家州法院中心认识到，在许多州，法官席上缺乏种族和性别多样性仍然是一个问题。目前的项目旨在回答以下研究问题：什么是公民？州法院法官的代表性期望？妇女和少数民族在州法院代表性不足的后果是什么？州法官席上缺乏多样性如何影响公众对司法判决和司法系统的态度？描述性和实质性代表性对合法性的相对影响是什么？这种影响如何根据不同的个人期望而有所不同？研究检验了合法性理论、社会认同理论和期望理论的假设。该研究计划涉及一个实验设计，利用两个实验嵌入在美国成年人的样本调查。有效公民身份和善治的基础在很大程度上依赖于赋予国家机构的合法性。对于法院来说尤其如此，因为法院的体制特征往往具有反多数主义的内在因素。本研究检验了各州法院合法性差异的来源。

The National Center for State Courts recognizes that the lack of racial and gender diversity on the bench continues to be a problem in many states. The current project is meant to answer the following research questions: What are citizens? representation expectations of state court judges? What are the consequences of the underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in state courts? How does the lack of diversity on state benches affect public attitudes toward judicial decisions and the justice system more broadly? What is the relative impact of descriptive and substantive representation on legitimacy and how does this differ based on different individual expectations? The research tests hypotheses derived from legitimacy theory, social identity theory, and expectancy theory. The research plan involves an experimental design utilizing two experiments embedded in a survey of a sample of US adults. Much of the underpinning of effective citizenship and good governance relies on the legitimacy accorded to institutions of the state. This is particularly so for courts, which often have counter-majoritarian elements inherent in their institutional characteristics. This research tests on the sources of variation in legitimacy among state courts.