Doctoral Dissertation Research: Diversity and Judicial Legitimacy in State Courts

国家州法院中心认识到，在许多州，法官中缺乏种族和性别多样性仍然是一个问题。当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的代表性不足的后果是什么？州法官缺乏多样性会如何影响公众对司法判决和司法系统的态度？描述性代表和实质性代表对合法性的相对影响是什么？基于不同的个人期望，这种影响有何不同？本研究检验了合法性理论、社会认同理论和期望理论的假设。研究计划包括一个实验设计，利用对美国成年人样本的调查中嵌入的两个实验。有效公民和良好治理的基础在很大程度上依赖于赋予国家机构的合法性。法院尤其如此，因为法院的体制特点中往往含有反多数主义的因素。本研究对各州法院合法性差异的来源进行了检验。

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.