On the Ideological Foundations of Supreme Court Legitimacy in the American Public
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6231196 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brandon L Bartels (0000-0002-5144-4758, George Washington University), Christian D Johnston (0000-0001-6704-7629, Duke University), Christopher D Johnston |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 184-199 |
| Publication date | 2013-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2012.00616.x |
| OpenAlex | W1868775365 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 184 |
| References cited | 28 |
Conventional wisdom says that individuals’ ideological preferences do not influence Supreme Court legitimacy orientations. Most work is based on the assumption that the contemporary Court is objectively conservative in its policymaking, meaning that ideological disagreement should come from liberals and agreement from conservatives. Our nuanced look at the Court's policymaking suggests rational bases for perceiving the Court's contemporary policymaking as conservative, moderate, and even liberal. We argue that subjective ideological disagreement—incongruence between one's ideological preferences and one's perception of the Court's ideological tenor—must be accounted for when explaining legitimacy. Analysis of a national survey shows that subjective ideological disagreement exhibits a potent, deleterious impact on legitimacy. Ideology exhibits sensible connections to legitimacy depending on how people perceive the Court's ideological tenor. Results from a survey experiment support our posited mechanism. Our work has implications for the public's view of the Court as a “political” institution
Epistemology · Ideology · Institution · Legitimacy · Majority opinion · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Public opinion · Sociology · Supreme court · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Philosophy
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Attitude Attribution
| Unique citing works | 184 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 14,15 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 184 |