INTEGRATED MODELS OF JUDICIAL DISSENT

This paper presents the first integrated models of judicial dissent at the individual level. The models synthesize elements derived from att itudinal, jurisprudential, and contextual approaches to the study of j udicial behavior by application of a neo-institutional perspective. Th e neo-institutional approach emphasizes the interaction of individual preferences, case facts, and environmental forces with institutional r ules and structures. Individual judicial votes on death penalty cases from 1980 through 1988 in six state supreme courts are examined employ ing pooled PROBIT analysis. The results indicate that justices' decisi ons to dissent reflect significantly more than mere attitudinal disagr eement, reactions to various types of case facts or responses to conte xtual forces. Rather, dissents are the product of all of these types o f variables interacting with institutional rules and arrangements. As neo-institutionalism suggests, institutional arrangements serve to con dition the effects of personal attributes, case characteristics and co ntextual variables on judicial choice and as such are critical determi nants of the judicial vote.