In the United States judges can either be appointed by an elected official, or directly elected by the voters themselves. Brian Palmer looked at how the different types of judges compare:

• Appointed judges make fewer rulings. This might be because they don’t have to justify their tenure to voters by pointing to the number of rulings they have made.
  • America’s Supreme Court – which is entirely appointed – is indicative of the trend. In the past 30 years the number of cases they’ve made rulings on has shrunk by 50%.
• While the number of rulings might be lower, appointed judges produce higher quality rulings. Their rulings are more likely to be cited by others.
• Some studies suggest that elected judges are more partisan – although other studies disagree. Even if they are though, this is not necessarily a bad thing since the judiciary shouldn’t be entirely independent of its constituency.

Read more of Palmer’s fascinating musings about the merits of elected versus appointed justices over here.

Source: Slate