Procedural justice theory and evaluations of the lawmaking process

Americans believe that Congress' most important duties are passing laws and dealing with the nation's problems. A majority, however, disapprove of the way that these functions are carried out. Drawing on procedural justice literature, this article examines the role that process perceptions play relative to preferred outcome in people's legitimacy assessments. In particular, a controlled experiment tests the argument that the weight assigned to procedural justice considerations relative to policy considerations is in part a function of the information environment and the types of issues under deliberation.