Description
Assessing the empirical implications of many theoretical models of judicial politics requires a measurement strategy for placing relevant actors (judges of lower courts, justices of the Supreme Court, members of Congress, and the President) in the same policy space. We take up this challenge in three steps. We begin by explicating our measurement strategy, and then by explaining its advantages over previous efforts. Next we explore the results of our approach, and provide a descriptive look at data it yields: a "Judicial Common Space" score for all justices and judges serving between 1953 and 2000. The last section offers three contemporary applications---all of which, we hope, shore up the suitability and adaptability of the Judicial Common Space for research on law and courts.
Date made available | Jan 21 2009 |
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Publisher | Harvard Dataverse |