Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T11:11:40.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's Images of the Supreme Court: A Preliminary Mapping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2024

Greg A. Caldeira
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Social scientists have offered numerous explanations for the support the public accords to the United States Supreme Court. Easton and Dennis have advanced the contention that such support is at least in part the product of youthful idealization of the Court, and this hypothesis has gained widespread, if tacit, acceptance. This paper argues that their conclusion is largely the consequence of a methodological artifact (the use of fixed-response survey instruments), and offers evidence that most children are not only unaware of the Supreme Court and its functions but demonstrate little or no positive affect toward that institution. If this is so, then why has the Easton-Dennis explanation persisted, despite its implausibility and lack of empirical grounding? One possibility is that the notion of a reservoir of trust in the Supreme Court is a useful rhetorical weapon for both judicial activists and those who advocate judicial restraint. But if public perceptions and evaluations of the Court are not strongly held, we must face the danger that those views will be susceptible to manipulation by people who do know and care about it—political, social, and economic elites.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 11 , Issue 5 , Summer 1977 , pp. 851 - 871
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

For providing me with their data, I am grateful to Fred I. Greenstein, Princeton University, and Sidney G. Tarrow, Cornell University. During the course of writing this paper, I have incurred considerable intellectual debts to Fred I. Greenstein, Walter F. Murphy, and Barbara Young, all of Princeton University. For their helpful comments and criticisms, I am grateful to Richard L. Abel and Austin Sarat. None of these persons bears any responsibility for the final product.

References

ARNOLD, Thurman (1935) The Symbols of Government. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
BICKEL, Alexander M. (1962) The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
BLACK, Charles L. (1960) The People and the Court: Judicial Review in a Democracy. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
CALDEIRA, Greg A. (1975) “Comparative Judicial Politics: The Political Roles of Judges in Democratic Systems.” Unpublished paper. Princeton: Princeton University.Google Scholar
CALDEIRA, Greg A. (1977) “Lower Court Judges and the American Supreme Court: The Power of Legitimation.” Unpublished paper. Iowa City: The University of Iowa.Google Scholar
CALDEIRA, Greg A. and Fred I., GREENSTEIN (1978) “Partisan Identification and Political Socialization in Three Democracies,” 94 Political Science Quarterly (forthcoming).Google Scholar
CASEY, Gregory (1974) “The Supreme Court and Myth: An Empirical Investigation,” 8 Law & Society Review 385.Google Scholar
CASEY, Gregory (1975) “The Theory of Presidential Association: A Replication,” 19 American Journal of Political Science 19.10.2307/2110690CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLARKE, James W. and Henry C., KENSKI (1974) “Letter to the Editor,” 68 American Political Science Review 722.Google Scholar
COLES, Robert (1975) The Mind's Fate: Ways of Seeing Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
CONNELL, R. W. (1971) The Child's Construction of Politics. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
CONVERSE, Philip E. (1964) “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” in Apter, David E. (ed.) Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
CONVERSE, Philip E. (1970) “Attitudes and Non-Attitudes: Continuation of a Dialogue,” in Tufte, Edward R. (ed.) The Quantitative Analysis of Social Problems. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
DAHL, Robert A. (1957) “Decision-Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy-Maker,” 6 Journal of Public Law 279.Google Scholar
DENNIS, Jack (1975) Political Socialization Research: A Bibliography. Beverly Hills: Sage Professional Papers in American Politics 04-002.Google Scholar
DENNIS, Jack (1975) “Mass Public Support for the U.S. Supreme Court.” Paper delivered at a meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Itaska, Illinois.Google Scholar
DEVINE, Donald (1972) The Political Culture of the United States. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
DOLBEARE, Kenneth (1967) “The Public Views the Supreme Court,” in Jacob, Herbert (ed.) Law, Politics, and the Federal Courts. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
DOLBEARE, Kenneth and Phillip E., HAMMOND (1968) “The Political Party Basis of Attitudes toward the Supreme Court,” 32 Public Opinion Quarterly 16.Google Scholar
EASTON, David (1965) A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
EASTON, David (1975) “A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support,” 5 British Journal of Political Science 435.Google Scholar
EASTON, David and Jack, DENNIS (1969) Children in the Political System: Origins of Political Legitimacy. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
ENGSTROM, Richard and Michael, GILES (1972) “Expectations and Images: A Note on Diffuse Support for Legal Institutions,” 6 Law & Society Review 631.Google Scholar
FIELD, John O. and Ronald E., ANDERSON (1969) “Ideology in the Public's Conceptualization of the 1964 Election,” 33 Public Opinion Quarterly 380.Google Scholar
FRANK, Jerome (1930) Law and the Modem Mind. New York: Brentano's.Google Scholar
GILES, Michael (1973) “Lawyers and the Supreme Court: A Comparative Look at Some Attitudinal Linkages,” 35 Journal of Politics 480.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1965a) Children and Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1965b) “Popular Images of the President,” 122 American Journal of Psychiatry 523.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1966) “The Best-Known American,” 4 Trans-Action 12 (November).Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1972) Review of David Easton and Jack Dennis, Children in the Political System: Origins of Political Legitimacy, 87 Political Science Quarterly 98.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1973) “Letter to the Editor,” 68 American Political Science Review 720.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1974) “What the President Means to Americans: Presidential ‘Choice’ Between Elections,” in Barber, James David (ed.) Choosing the President. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. (1975) “The Benevolent Leader Revisited: Children's Images of Political Leaders in Three Democracies,” 69 American Political Science Review 1371.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I., Valentine, HERMAN, Robert, STRADLING, and Elia, ZURICH (1970) “Queen and Prime Minister: The Child's Eye View,” 369 New Society 635.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I., Valentine, HERMAN, Robert, STRADLING, and Elia, ZURICH (1974) “The Child's Conception of the Queen and the Prime Minister,” 4 British Journal of Political Science 257.Google Scholar
GREENSTEIN, Fred I. and Sidney G, TARROW (1970) Comparative Political Socialization: Explorations with a Semi-Projective Procedure. Beverly Hills: Sage Professional Papers in Comparative Politics 01-009.Google Scholar
HAINES, Charles Grove (1944) The Role of the Supreme Court in American Government and Politics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
HESS, Robert and Judith, TORNEY (1967) The Development of Political Attitudes in Children. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
HIRSCH, Herbert and Leon, DONOHEW (1968) “A Note on Negro-White Differences in Attitudes toward the Supreme Court,” 49 Social Science Quarterly 557.Google Scholar
JACKSON, Robert H. (1954) The Supreme Court in the American System of Government. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
KESSEL, John H. (1966) “Public Perceptions of the Supreme Court,” 10 Midwest Journal of Political Science 167.Google Scholar
KLEIN, James H. (1972) Lawyers and Appellate Judges: The Influence of Role Conceptions on Support for Courts. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Politics, Princeton University.Google Scholar
KOLSON, Kenneth and Justin, GREEN (1970) “Response Set Bias and Political Socialization Research,” 57 Social Science Quarterly 527.Google Scholar
KOMMERS, Donald P. (1975) “Comparative Judicial Review and Constitutional Politics,” 77 World Politics 282.Google Scholar
LANGTON, Kenneth and M. Kent, JENNINGS (1968) “Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States,” 62 American Political Science Review 852.Google Scholar
MARSH, David (1971) “Political Socialization: The Implicit Assumptions Questioned,” 1 British Journal of Political Science 453.Google Scholar
MASON, Alpheus Thomas (1956) Harlan Fiske Stone: Pillar of the Law. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
MASON, Alpheus Thomas (1962) “Myth and Reality in Supreme Court Decisions,” 48 Virginia Law Review 1385.Google Scholar
MERELMAN, Richard M. (1973) “Political Reasoning in Adolescence: Some Bridging Themes.” Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans.Google Scholar
MULLER, Edward N. (1970) “The Representation of Citizens by Political Authorities: Consequences for Regime Support,” 70 American Political Science Review 1149.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. (1962) Congress and the Court: A Case Study of the American Political Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1967) “Constitutional Courts, Public Opinion, and Political Representation.” Paper delivered at the Meetings of the International Political Science Association, Brussels.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1968a) “Public Opinion and the Supreme Court: The Goldwater Campaign,” 32 Public Opinion Quarterly 31.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1968b) “Public Opinion and the United States Supreme Court: A Preliminary Mapping of Some Prerequisites for Court Legitimation of Regime Changes,” 2 Law & Society Review 357.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1970) “The Supreme Court and Its Elite Publics: A Preliminary Analysis.” Paper delivered at the Meetings of the International Political Science Association, Munich.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1972) The Study of Public Law. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1973) “Diffuse Support for the United States Supreme Court: Operationalizing and Testing a Learning Model.” Unpublished manuscript. Princeton: Princeton University.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1974) “Explaining Diffuse Support for the U.S. Supreme Court: An Assessment of Four Models,” 40 Notre Dame Lawyer 1037.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (1976) “Diffuse Support for the United States Supreme Court: A Learning Model.” Paper delivered at a conference on Alienation and Support for Political Institutions, Stanford.Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F. and Joseph, TANENHAUS (n.d.) Public Opinion and the American Supreme Court. (forthcoming).Google Scholar
MURPHY, Walter F., Joseph, TANENHAUS, and Daniel, KASTNER (1973) Public Evaluations of Constitutional Courts: Alternative Explanations. Beverly Hills: Sage Professional Papers in Comparative Politics 01-045.Google Scholar
NAGEL, Stuart and Robert, ERICKSON (1966) “Editorial Reactions to Supreme Court Decisions on Church and State,” 30 Public Opinion Quarterly 647.Google Scholar
NIE, Norman and Kristi, ANDERSON (1974) “Mass Belief Systems Revisited: Political Change and Attitude Structure,” 26 Journal of Politics 540.Google Scholar
NIMMO, Daniel (1974) Popular Images of Politics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
PIERCE, John G. (1970) “Party Identification and the Changing Role of Ideology in American Politics,” 14 Midwest Journal of Political Science 25.Google Scholar
RePASS, David (1974) “Levels of Rationality Among the American Electorate.” Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
SARAT, Austin (1974) “Law and Public Opinion: A Critique.” Unpublished manuscript. Amherst, Mass.: Amherst College.Google Scholar
SARAT, Austin (1977) “Studying American Legal Culture: An Assessment of Survey Evidence,” 11 Law & Society Review 427.Google Scholar
SCHUMAN, Howard (1972) “Attitudes vs. Action versus Attitudes vs. Attitudes,” 36 Public Opinion Quarterly 342.Google Scholar
SEARING, Donald D. and Joel J., SCHWARTZ (1974) “Letter to the Editor,” 68 American Political Science Review 725.Google Scholar
SEARING, Donald D., Joel J., SCHWARTZ and Alden E., LIND (1973) “The Structuring Principle: Political Socialization and Political Belief Systems,” 67 American Political Science Review 415.Google Scholar
SEARS, David O. (1968) Review of Robert Hess and Judith Torney, The Development of Political Attitudes in Children, 38 Harvard Educational Review 571.Google Scholar
VAILLANCOURT, Pauline (1973) “The Stability of Children's Survey Responses,” 37 Public Opinion Quarterly 373.Google Scholar
WALKER, Diane (1973) Public Attitudes toward the Legal Justice System: Contact and Support. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina.Google Scholar
WALKER, Diane, Richard, RICHARDSON, Oliver, WILLIAMS, Thomas, DENYER, and McGAUGHY, John (1972) “Contact and Support: An Empirical Assessment of Public Attitudes toward the Police and Courts,” 51 North Carolina Law Review 45.Google Scholar
WEINSTEIN, Alan G. (1972) “Predicting Behavior from Attitudes,” 36 Public Opinion Quarterly 355.Google Scholar
WILDENMANN, Rudolph (1973) “Attitudes of Judges as a Subject of Comparative Study: Design, Theory, and Method of an Empirical Study of Judges in Germany.” Paper delivered at the Meetings of the International Political Science Association, Montreal.Google Scholar