Judicial Activism and the Persuasive Power of Governmental Institutions: An Experimental Design

Abstract

This paper utilizes an experiment to test whether governmental institutions can generate public support and legitimacy for a policy change they undertake. I hypothesize that the Supreme Court can generate more support for a policy change than Congress, but judicial activism would undermine the Court’s persuasive power. The control group is asked whether they favor civilian trials or military commissions for trying terrorism suspects. Two treatment groups are exposed to a fictitious newspaper article saying either Congress or the Court had changed policy to allow civilian trials. A third treatment group is exposed to the same article about the Court with an added sentence criticizing the Court for engaging in judicial activism. The data indicate that the Court and Congress possess similar levels of persuasive power and that accusations of judicial activism actually enhance support for the policy change.