Bibliograph

The judicial tug of war, how lawyers, politicians, and ideological incentives shape the American judiciary, Adam Bonica, Stanford University, California, Maya Sen, Harvard University, Massachusetts

Type

Label

The judicial tug of war, how lawyers, politicians, and ideological incentives shape the American judiciary, Adam Bonica, Stanford University, California, Maya Sen, Harvard University, Massachusetts

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The judicial tug of war

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

1195819506

Responsibility statement

Adam Bonica, Stanford University, California, Maya Sen, Harvard University, Massachusetts

Series statement

Political economy of institutions and decisionsCambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Sub title

how lawyers, politicians, and ideological incentives shape the American judiciary

Summary

Why have conservatives decried 'activist judges'? And why have liberals - and America's powerful legal establishment - emphasized qualifications and experience over ideology? This transformative text tackles these questions with a new framework for thinking about the nation's courts, 'the judicial tug of war', which not only explains current political clashes over America's courts, but also powerfully predicts the composition of courts moving forward. As the text demonstrates through novel quantitative analyses, a greater ideological rift between politicians and legal elites leads politicians to adopt measures that put ideology and politics front and center - for example, judicial elections. On the other hand, ideological closeness between politicians and the legal establishment leads legal elites to have significant influence on the selection of judges. Ultimately, the judicial tug of war makes one point clear: for good or bad, politics are critical to how judges are selected and whose interests they ultimately represent. --, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Introduction: The tug of war over the American judiciary -- The "American Aristocracy" -- The Bar, self-regulation, and judicial capture -- Politicians, their interests, and the judicial tug of war -- Political incentives and politicization in the Federal Courts -- Politicization in the States and across judicial selection mechanisms -- The politics of judicial reform -- The tug of war, polarization, and judicial conflict -- The relationship between the tug of war and polarization -- Conclusion: American courts in times of increasing polarization

Contributor