The Politics of Litigation

45 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2017

See all articles by Jeb Barnes

Jeb Barnes

University of Southern California - Department of Political Science

Date Written: September 16, 2017

Abstract

Litigation is part of the American policymaking playbook as diverse groups routinely turn to courts to pursue their agendas. All of this litigation raises questions about its consequences. This essay examines the literature on the political risks of litigation. It argues that this literature identifies four potential risks — crowd out, path dependence, backlash and individualization — but offers less insight into the likelihood of these risks in practice. It ends by offering suggestions about how to advance our understanding of when litigation casts a negative political shadow in the current age of judicialization.

Keywords: litigation, rights, backlash, path dependence, crowd out, individualization

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K40, K41

Suggested Citation

Barnes, Jeb, The Politics of Litigation (September 16, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3037991 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3037991

Jeb Barnes (Contact Author)

University of Southern California - Department of Political Science ( email )

2250 Alcazar Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

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