TY - JOUR
T1 - Public Perceptions of the Supreme Court
T2 - How Policy Disagreement Affects Legitimacy
AU - Strother, Logan
AU - Gadarian, Shana Kushner
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2022/4/1
Y1 - 2022/4/1
N2 - It is widely agreed that dissatisfaction with Supreme Court decisions harms the Court's standing among the public. However, we do not yet know how or why Court performance affects legitimacy. We examine the role that mass perceptions of the Supreme Court's institutional nature - particularly how "political"it is - plays in assessments of its legitimacy. We find that policy disagreement with Supreme Court decisions causes individuals to view that decision, and the Court itself, as being political in nature. We then show that the more political people think the Court is, the less legitimate they consider it to be. In this way, we show that policy disagreement with decisions strongly and directly reduces Court legitimacy.
AB - It is widely agreed that dissatisfaction with Supreme Court decisions harms the Court's standing among the public. However, we do not yet know how or why Court performance affects legitimacy. We examine the role that mass perceptions of the Supreme Court's institutional nature - particularly how "political"it is - plays in assessments of its legitimacy. We find that policy disagreement with Supreme Court decisions causes individuals to view that decision, and the Court itself, as being political in nature. We then show that the more political people think the Court is, the less legitimate they consider it to be. In this way, we show that policy disagreement with decisions strongly and directly reduces Court legitimacy.
KW - legitimacy
KW - polarization
KW - Supreme Court
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135952110&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85135952110&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/for-2022-2043
DO - 10.1515/for-2022-2043
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135952110
SN - 1540-8884
VL - 20
SP - 87
EP - 134
JO - Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics
JF - Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics
IS - 1
ER -