Debates on the best method for selecting judges are ongoing in legal, editorial, and academic circles. The issues revolve around preferences for judges who are accountable to the public or who are independent. In the last four decades, the issues of selecting and removing judges have re-emerged in quite different guises, tied to quite distinctive issues with the themes of French democracy and English liberalism persisting as the main lines of thought about the judiciary. French political history has been one of variety, lacking apparent continuity. With the French Revolution, progressively political considerations pushed aside the electoral system in favor of a system of appointment. The history of America, unlike that of France, has been relatively stable and continuous in its evolution. The legacy of Jacksonian democracy continues to thrive through the election of judges in many American States. The political cultures of each nation have each had an influence on judicial institutions. Notes, references, and index.