The first chapter is a brief and useful history of judicial selection, which would have benefited from a more
analytic conclusion. In the next chapter the authors present the major contribution of the book, a model for understanding
judicial recruitment. They note that despite a hefty literature on judicial recruitment, the research has neither
reached firm conclusions about the effects of formal methods of selection nor developed a unified framework from
which to integrate the study of federal and state judicial selection. The model they posit contains characteristics
that are common to all forms of judicial selection, which thereby elevates the opportunities both for comparative
analyses of different systems and for understanding the role that selection plays in judicial behavior.
Sheldon and Maule stipulate in their model that all recruitment systems share a common recruitment sequence-from
initiation, to screening, to affirmation. Judicial candidacies are initiated either by the aspirant (self-initiation)
or another person or group (other-initiation). Similarly there are two forms of screening: comparative, in which
one candidate is judged against another; qualifying, in which candidates are evaluated against a set of requisite
qualifications. Affirmation is those actors and processes involved in the final and formal selection of judges.
This recruitment sequence is the "common denominator" for selection research. What distinguishes
different modes of selections from each one another is the range and number of participants who are active and
effective at various steps in the sequence. At the extremes, a large number of participants who are active at
each step results in a high articulation selection system, with the converse of a small number of sporadic actors
producing a low articulation system. In elective selection systems, for example, the level of articulation is
a function of the voter turnout (participation), the number of candidates on the ballot (contestedness), and the
size of the winning margin (competitiveness). For appointive systems, the level of articulation is measured by
the size of the qualified candidate pool, the number of endorsements by salient political groups, submission of
ratings by bar associations, amount of lobbying for various candidates by interested persons and groups, and the
degree of visibility or publicity in the affirmation end of the process. As such the model accommodates all selections
systems.
The grist of the model is the degree of articulation endemic to a selection system, measured by the number of
effective participants in the three stages of the recruitment sequence. High articulation systems foster a balance
in the two competing values of the judicial dilemma, whereas low articulation systems are skewed toward either
accountability or independence. Following the earlier work of John Wahlke on state legislatures, each type of
system manifests two distinct "roles." In high articulation judiciaries jurists adopt either a steward
(balancing public demands) or politico (balancing political demands) role. In low articulation systems the role
options are delegate (public or political deference for the accountability species) and trustee (reliance upon
one's own judgment for the independence variety).
For the most part, the remainder of the book consists of suggestive--highly suggestive, indeed--ways to apply
the model to various modes of judicial selection, with each chapter opening with useful background on the type
of system, followed by an extended illustration. The chapter on nonpartisan electoral system, with Washington
being the case study, is the most useful because the authors collected information to subject the model to empirical
scrutiny. The chapters on partisan elections (Texas), legislative selection (South Carolina), appointive (New
Jersey), and merit commission (Florida) systems are more exploratory in nature. The chapters on the three tiers
of the federal judiciary astutely demarcate both the obvious and subtle differences among the levels with respect
to range and intensity of interaction of the assortment of players and interested publics. Also included are ten
appendices totaling about sixty pages that range from reports to sample ballots to nominee questionnaires to testimony
before confirmation committees.
Sheldon and Maule's work is a very important contribution to the study of judicial process and judicial behavior,
in no small part because it helps to unite the two. It also takes the step of integrating the study of judicial
selection with the political process of which it is a part, opening up along the way a host of possibilities for
the comparative study of selection systems. The significance of the work by necessity is limited by the need for
further empirical testing. Yet it is well worth the attention of judicial scholars, and with the background discussions
of various types of selection systems it is a book worthy of consideration for advanced undergraduate and graduate
courses on judicial process.
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