Too Liberal, Too Conservative, or About Right? The Implications of Ideological Dissatisfaction for Supreme Court Legitimacy

43 Pages Posted: 5 Oct 2015

See all articles by James L. Gibson

James L. Gibson

Washington University in St. Louis - Department of Political Science

Michael Nelson

Pennsylvania State University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: October 4, 2015

Abstract

Scholars have rediscovered the theory of institutional legitimacy, with a vengeance. This reinvigorated attention has produced some vexing controversies, none of which is more important than that of whether the Supreme Court’s legitimacy depends upon satisfying the ideological expectations of the American people. That debate has recently been enlarged by hypotheses about whether ideological dissatisfaction’s influence depends upon citizens’ beliefs about legal realism and processes of decision-making. Unfortunately, serious measurement issues cloud the literature. Here, we reconsider these questions using a nationally representative sample. We first show that ideological dissatisfaction has practically no impact on legitimacy, irrespective of how dissatisfaction is measured. We then test hypotheses from Positivity Theory, especially the hypothesized conditional effects of citizens’ beliefs about judicial decision-making, politicization, and ideological dissatisfaction on legitimacy. We conclude that the influence of ideological dissatisfaction has been overstated; greater threats to legitimacy lie in beliefs that judges are just ordinary politicians.

Keywords: Supreme Court Legitimacy, Public Opinion, Diffuse Support

JEL Classification: K40

Suggested Citation

Gibson, James L. and Nelson, Michael, Too Liberal, Too Conservative, or About Right? The Implications of Ideological Dissatisfaction for Supreme Court Legitimacy (October 4, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2669122 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2669122

James L. Gibson (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis - Department of Political Science ( email )

One Brookings Drive
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
United States

Michael Nelson

Pennsylvania State University - Department of Political Science ( email )

University Park, State College, PA 16801
United States

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