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Judging the Judiciary: Understanding Public Confidence in Latin American Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ryan Salzman  and
Adam Ramsey
Ryan Salzman
Affiliation:
Political science at Northern Kentucky University. ryanwsalzman@gmail.com
Adam Ramsey
Affiliation:
Department of Government and Economics at North Central Texas College. alphapirho_02@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Although there is a substantial literature examining public confidence in the judiciary in developed nations, scholars have paid scant attention to analyzing judicial confidence in developing countries. Building on extant work regarding developed nations and introducing original hypotheses in the context of developing nations, this research explains influences on public confidence in Latin American judiciaries by developing a theory that focuses on the potential influences of institutional quality, experiences, and individual attitudes. The hypotheses are empirically tested with the rich individual-level data compiled by the Latin American Public Opinion Project 2006 survey. The results indicate that a variety of factors influence public confidence in Latin American courts; the role of context explains points of consistency and divergence with research on developed nations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , Spring 2013 , pp. 73 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2013

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