***Develop an argument for whether independent judiciaries strengthen or weaken democracy.** Use one or more of the following course concepts in your response. Life terms Accountability Rule of law In your response you should do the following: ✓ Respond to the prompt with a defensible claim or thesis that establishes a line of reasoning using one or more of the provided course concepts. ✓ Support your claim with at least TWO pieces of specific and relevant evidence from one or more course countries. The evidence should be relevant to one or more of the provided course concepts. All nations have a judiciary. The judicial system in a given country is responsible for the interpretation of the law. Some nations have independent judiciaries, which are separate from the other branches of the government. Independent judiciaries strengthen democracy through the stability of life terms for judges and the separation of powers which enables all citizens to be held accountable before the law. One way independent judiciaries strengthen democracy is through the stability of life terms. While none of the AP Nations have judges with life terms, some of them have a similar equivalent of having a mandatory retirement age late in life. This has the similar effect that life terms have, which is this stability of having the same judges throughout many different executive leaders, policy issues, and political events. One example of the stability that comes from having judges with a long tenure can be seen in the UK. The UK has a mandatory retirement age of 75, which enables the judges to serve for a long time. This age was raised from 70 to 75 in 2021. This allows the UK to be able to have a more independent judiciary due to the judges staying throughout many terms of different Prime Ministers. This allows the judges to be less swayed by the politics of the day, which in turn allows them to make decisions that will benefit the people more than the Prime Minister that elected them or the party that endorses them. Another way independent judiciaries strengthen democracy is through the separation of powers that enables all citizens and government leaders to be held accountable before the law. One example that shows this is China's judiciary system. In China, their judiciary system is not very independent from the executive branch, and this is seen through the use of the courts to punish political opposers. There is a 99% chance conviction rates with the courts. With the courts convicting political opponents, there is not a way for the corrupt leaders to be held acountable for their actions. China is not a democracy, so it is evident that the non-separation of powers and unaccountability leads to less democracy. Some may argue that independent judiciaries don't strengthen judiciaries because life terms allow one person to be a judge for many years, and push their own agenda. This is simply not true. Judiciaries have multiple different judges, often different in ideas and beliefs. People don't want to stick out and cause the contention, so the judges will work together to align their decisions with the law. Also, judges only have the power to interpret the law. Not to make the law, or enforce it, just to interpret it. It is hard to push an agenda when all the judges do is interpret what the law gives them. Independent judiciaries strengthen the democracy of a nation, through separation of powers which enables citizens and leaders to be held accountable before the law, and through the stability of life terms and like equivalents.