Limiting Policy Backlash: Strategies for Taming Countercoalitions in an Era of Polarization. Issue 1 (September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Patashnik, Eric M.
• Other Names: Hacker Jacob S. guest-editor.; Pierson Paul guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 685:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 47
• Page End: 63
• Publication Date: 2019-09
• Subjects: policy feedback -- partisan polarization -- policy sustainability -- backlash -- policy design; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716219862511
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7162

Abstract

Policy backlash occurs when people or organizations mobilize against a policy during or after its enactment, diminishing the power of supporters and reducing the likelihood of the policy's subsequent entrenchment and expansion. This article analyzes backlash as a case of negative policy feedback and explores some of the mechanisms through which backlash occurs among elites, organized groups, and mass publics. The main focus is on the politics of "backlash prevention": using strategies to minimize the prospects of countercoalitions against policies serving diffuse or marginalized constituencies in an era of partisan polarization. These strategies include increasing the progressivity of programs after they have become embedded, recognizing that reforms can threaten the social identities and status of constituencies, and increasing reliance on low-visibility taxes. While countercoalitions cannot be completely neutralized in today's contentious political environment, these strategies can load the dice in favor of sustainable change.