Judicial Independence and Political Competition: Comparing Democracies Over Time

Scholars of comparative courts have long been fascinated with variations in judicial independence across states, regimes, and time. Whether independence, in turn, depends on political competition remains an open question, as extant research has reached uncertain conclusions, often relying on questionable assumptions and data sources. This paper presents a formal model predicting the conditions under which legislative political competition causes a political power vacuum, which necessitates judicial independence and policy making. In short, when an ineffectual legislature cannot address a policy seeker's proposal, the courts can intervene, causing a de facto increase in judicial independence. Empirical results confirm these theoretically derived expectations, as aggregate measures of political competition across space and time cause significant changes in de facto judicial independence. Our findings have practical implications regarding when we might observe policy-seekers litigating issues rather than seeking legislation.