Economic activity cannot fully explain the scale of the American legal profession

Evidence

But economic activity alone cannot explain the size of the American legal profession. Some advanced industrial countries get along with far fewer lawyers. Japan, for example, has fewer than 20,000 attorneys- fewer than are graduated by American law schools in a single year- although efforts are underway to double the number of attorneys in order to serve smaller towns and rural areas. In addition, whereas economic growth in the United States has been fairly steady, the size of the American legal profession has fluctuated, alternating between periods of rapid growth-such as the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries- and periods of relative stability (see Figure 4. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 999

But economic activity alone cannot explain the size of the American legal profession. Some advanced industrial countries get along with far fewer lawyers. Japan, for example, has fewer than 20,000 attorneys—fewer than are graduated by American law schools in a single year. In addition, whereas economic growth in the United States has been fairly steady, the size of the American legal profession has fluctuated, alternating between periods of rapid growth—such as the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries—and periods of relative stability (see Figure 4.1). — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 657

Categorization

• QUESTION: Japan comparison invites why non-economic factors drive U.S. litigation levels.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 999; G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 657
• XREF: connects to: American lawyer density doubled in fifty years and far exceeds Britain’s and Germany’s. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1003; Economic level is necessary but not sufficient for explaining other levels; The economic level cannot by itself determine other social levels (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Juridico-political ideology masks the economic’s determinant role under capitalism #contradicts (0.88)
• Economic structures are necessary but not sufficient to explain political and ideological features #corroborates (0.85)
• Economic level is necessary but not sufficient for explaining other levels #corroborates (0.82)
• The economic level cannot by itself determine other social levels #expands (0.80)
• The economy’s weight relative to society varies historically rather than ontologically #expands (0.78) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1176