Jack Deschler, "Why Can't Liberals Place the Court? A Lack-of-Information Explanation” (joint work with Maya Sen)
As the Supreme Court has shifted to the right compared to the general public, the public has been increasingly unable to identify the actual ideological alignment of the Court. We offer an explanation based on the lack of information the general public has regarding Supreme Court cases. A Supreme Court case, though often considered a referendum on a President's policy choice, is actually a binary decision of whether or not to overturn a lower court decision. When laypersons only think about the Court's decision in reference to their personal ideal point and the President's ideal point, they ignore the information added by the lower court, and thus misplace the Supreme Court on the ideological spectrum.
The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00–2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.
LOCATION: CGIS Knafel room K354, or virtual via Zoom STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20250225T170000Z DTEND:20250225T180000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR