{"pk":61668,"title":"Representatives in Robes? How California Respondents think of Judicial Representation","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>Many have identified the tension between conceptualizing judges as legal versus political actors. One dimension of this tension is the extent to which we should or do think of judges as political representatives, both broadly and in ways that are either similar to or distinct from elected political representatives. In this project, we address the role of judges as representatives and then assess whether and to what extent California residents think of judges as representatives. Using public opinion data of California residents from the CalSpeaks survey fielded in the spring of 2021, we find that about a third of respondents do consider judges representatives in some way. While we find no gender differences in perceptions of judicial representation and very limited racial differences, there are strong age differences: younger respondents were significantly more likely to indicate that judges are representatives in some way compared to older respondents. This project informs how Californians understand the role of the courts, which might have consequences for judicial legitimacy and effectiveness.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"Judicial Politics"},{"word":"political representation"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9tq189dz","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Nancy","middle_name":"Bays","last_name":"Arrington","name_suffix":"","institution":"California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo","department":"Political Science"},{"first_name":"Matthew","middle_name":"","last_name":"Moore","name_suffix":"","institution":"California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo","department":"Political Science"}],"date_submitted":"2025-12-16T00:05:04.112000Z","date_accepted":"2025-12-29T18:12:46.506000Z","date_published":"2026-03-18T23:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"Publication File","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cjpp/article/61668/galley/49093/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cjpp/article/61668/galley/48666/download/"},{"label":"Publication File","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cjpp/article/61668/galley/49093/download/"}]}