Candidates for public office in the United States frequently justify their positions on education policy priorities by stating the need to strengthen the nation’s economic competitiveness against new global challengers. In this article, the authors investigate the consequences of this form of policy motivation for attitudes toward and support of public schooling in the United States. Using a national survey experiment where a two-question prime on international competitiveness is randomized across respondents, the authors test for differential responses to attitude items that have been included regularly since the 1970s in the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll and the General Social Survey. The results suggest that framing educational policy with the goal of enhancing international competitiveness lowers subjective assessments of the quality of local schooling without increasing interest in additional spending to improve the nation’s education system.
Civil legal problems are common in everyday life, but the costs of obtaining legal representation create barriers to legal action and contribute to disparities in access to justice. Some individuals, however, may have informal access to legal assistance through personal network ties with lawyers, enhancing their responses to justiciable problems. In this study, we draw from theories of social capital and network formation to examine the distribution and mobilization of network‐based legal expertise. Using nationally representative survey data, we find that network‐based access to lawyers is widespread, and most people who have ties to lawyers expect to informally mobilize legal assistance when facing a problem. But people who are most likely to afford formal legal representation are also most likely to have informal access to lawyers. Thus, while informal access to lawyers may shape responses to legal problems, it may also exacerbate inequalities in experiences with civil justice events.
Social classifications are increasingly interrelated, far‐reaching, and consequential for socioeconomic outcomes. We use the concept of marginalized legal categories to describe how the law disadvantages individuals or groups by transforming inherently ordered social classifications into consequential legal categories, employing intestacy laws as an illustration. Using the Survey of Consumer Finances, we find that more than 21% of American families have forms that are marginalized by intestacy classifications, and that such forms are more common among individuals of color and those with less wealth. Yet, many individuals with these family structures hold assets and lack access to intestacy‐avoidance mechanisms, giving consequence to the application of these laws. We conclude by discussing implications of legal classification for inequality.
There is widespread concern among scholars, court actors, and policy makers that the number of pro se litigants is increasing. However, we have little empirical evidence of the scope of pro se litigation, especially in the federal court system. Using data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on all civil case filings since 1999, we investigate the prevalence and rate of pro se litigation in federal district courts. We find no evidence of a dramatic rise in pro se litigation, but we document substantial variation in rates of pro se litigation by type of case and circuit of filing. The results have implications for our understanding of self-representation and for the development of policies addressing access to civil justice.
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