Madame Justice Will Save Our Democracy: Gender Bias and Perceptions of the High Court in Transitional Regimes

While existing literature has established that women leaders are stereotyped as more likely to uphold the norms of democracy, the power of this effect in the non-democratic context is not established. We address this gap and argue that the context of regime transition cultivates a unique dynamic in which the stereotypes associated with women justices become especially valuable to both citizens and the state. However, we argue that this perception of women contributing to the health of democracy is not constant across all citizens equally; instead, those people with high levels of hostile bias against women are more likely to view women as the potential saviors of the democracy. To test our theories, we offer original survey data from Thailand and Poland, two countries in the midst of regime transition. We find evidence that suggests that the impact of women justices on assessments of democratic health is indeed dependent on hostile bias in Thailand, but that the relationship is not found in Poland. Our results suggest that bias can sometimes operate in unexpected ways, and that scholars should consider multiple measures of different types of bias when investigating its effects on behavior

The Politics of Women\u27s Presence on High Courts: Bias and the Conditional Nature of Cultivating Legitimacy

While we know that women\u27s presence in the legislature positively impacts how citizens view the institution, little is known about the impact of women\u27s presence on the legitimacy of high courts. We argue that despite differences in public expectations for courts, women\u27s presence on the high court does impact citizen perceptions of legitimacy. However, this effect is dependent on both the level and the type of bias held by citizens. That is, when a person feels hostile bias toward women, the bias disrupts the potential legitimacy that the court could gain. On the other hand, we argue that benevolent sexism does not trigger any change in how citizens view the high court in a democracy. Using evidence from an experiment, we find that the presence of women on the high court has a strong positive impact on citizen perceptions of court legitimacy, though not among those with hostile gender bias

Women\u27s Representation in the Highest Court: A Comparative Analysis of the Appointment of Female Justices

The presence of women justices in the highest constitutional courts varies significantly across countries, yet there is little existing research that engages this substantial cross-national variation. Using an original data set of women’s representation in the constitutional courts in fifty democracies combined with qualitative case studies, we assess the effect of the selection mechanism on this variation and find that the existence of a “sheltered” versus “exposed” selection mechanism is a critical determinant of women’s presence. That is, when the selectors are sheltered from electoral accountability, they are less likely to select women as judges because they do not benefit from credit claiming. When the selectors are exposed and can claim credit, however, the unique traits and visibility of the highest court generate an incentive to appoint women

Economic Voting in Latin America: Rules and Responsibility

The impact of institutions on the economic vote stands as a well-established proposition for the advanceddemocracies of Europe. We know less, however, regarding the institutional effects on the economic vote in the developingdemocracies of Latin America. Carrying out an analysis of presidential elections in 18 Latin American countries, weoffer evidence that the usual Eurocentric conceptualization of the clarity of responsibility is not ideal for understandingthe economic vote in this region. There does exist a powerful effect of institutions on the economic vote within LatinAmerican democracies, but one uniquely associated with its presidential regimes and dynamic party systems. Rules for theseelections—such as concurrence, term limits, and second-round voting—suggest that we should reconceptualize the notionof the clarity of responsibility in Latin America, focusing more on individuals in power and their constraints, and less onthe political parties from which they hail

Supplemental Material - Madame Justice Will Save Our Democracy: Gender Bias and Perceptions of the High Court in Transitional Regimes

Supplemental Material for Madame Justice Will Save Our Democracy: Gender Bias and Perceptions of the High Court in Transitional Regimes by Christopher Shortell and Melody E. Valdini in Political Research Quarterly</p