POLICY LEGITIMACY AND THE SUPREME-COURT - THE SOURCES AND CONTEXTS OFLEGITIMATION

Conflicting evidence regarding the abihty of the Supreme Court to conf er policy legimacy suggests that the process of legitimation is both s ubtle and multifaceted. Two aspects of this process are examined here. First, the relationship between policy legitimacy and policy agreemen t is explored. Experimental tests demonstrate that policy legitimacy e merges from a direct process of symbolic legitimation, and through an indirect process of persuasive legitimation. Second, the mediated char acter of Supreme Court ruling is examined as it relates to the Court's ability to enhance policy legitimacy. Experimental tests reveal diat the Coures power of legitimation remains consistent regardless of vari ance in the specific content of news coverage. Collectively, findigs h ighlight the intricacy of policy legitimation while providing evidence that die institutional legitimacy maintained by the Supreme Court can produce significant shifts in policy evaluations.