Journal of Law and Courts · 2015 · 311 citations · 50 references
Social SciencesInternational RelationsPolitical ScienceComparative PoliticsInternational Political TheoryJudicial PoliticsComparative Judicial PoliticsJudicial IndependenceTemporal Dependence ModelingDe Facto Judicial IndependenceDe Jure Judicial IndependenceIndependenceJudicial AutonomyJudicial Independence IndicesPolitical IndependenceStatistical Model SpecificationUnobserved Heterogeneity
The authors develop a new cross‑national measure of de‑facto judicial independence covering 200 countries from 1948 to 2012. They construct a statistical measurement model that handles temporal dependence, bounded latent concepts, missing data, and measurement error in time‑series cross‑sectional data. The resulting indices align with the conventional definition of independence, are more reliable than existing measures, and the model can be applied to other comparative‑politics concepts.
Abstract We present a new cross-national measure of de facto judicial independence, which is available for 200 countries from 1948 to 2012. To do so, we introduce a statistical measurement model for uncovering latent concepts commonly encountered in time-series, cross-sectional analyses in comparative politics and international relations. Our approach addresses unique challenges that arise in these data: temporal dependence in the observed and unobserved variables, conceptual boundedness in the latent quantity, and substantial missing data and measurement error in the observable indicators. The resulting measures match a common conceptual definition of independence with greater reliability than existing alternatives. The model is extensible to many concepts in comparative politics and international relations.
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