7. A New Lease? The Uncertain Political Future of Consumer Financial Protection

From Personal Responsibility to Political Mobilization: Using Attribution Frames to Overcome Policy Feedback Effects

“…As such, consumer financial protections embody both the privatizing and personalizing elements of policy design and implementation that are central to the growth of market logic and mechanisms at the heart of the neoliberal turn in U.S. policymaking. This increased borrowing under increasingly risky terms creates real consequences for American families, yet borrowers have largely avoided political avenues to address their growing dissatisfaction with finance despite government’s overwhelming role in the creation and regulation of the financial industry (McCarty et al, 2013; Kirsch & Mayer, 2013; SoRelle 2020).…”

“…In short, policy experiences shape people's attributions of responsibility for that issue. 1 One of the most significant trends with respect to U.S. policymaking since the 1970s has been a turn towards enacting public policies designed to make the provision of many public goods and the protection of American finances subject to market logic and market institutions (Hacker, 2006;Mettler, 2011;Soss et al, 2011;SoRelle 2020). Privatization, and the ensuing market logic that treats beneficiaries as consumers, attenuates the link between the state and its denizens (Hackett, 2019) and places the burden of maintaining financial security squarely on the shoulders of American families.…”

“…The development of attributions can be influenced by many factors, but I contend that one of the most notable is a person’s experience with public policies. Once enacted, public policies, particularly those that become durable features of the political landscape, have the capacity to shape future politics in a variety of ways (Hall, 1986; Lowi, 1972; Mettler & SoRelle, 2017; Steinmo et al, 1992; Skocpol, 1992). Among those effects is the ability to influence attributions.…”

The political benefits of student loan debt relief

“…First, it systematically explores whether support for debt relief might meaningfully translate to political action-an assumption that has been merely speculative thus far. This is especially important to probe because studies find that public support for other reforms related to debt and credit often do not translate to political action-even in the survey context (SoRelle, 2020(SoRelle, , 2022b. We also move beyond the more general insights gleaned from opinion polls by examining how specific details of student debt forgiveness proposals-including amount and type of debt to be forgiven-shape the likely dynamics of electoral support.…”

Privatizing Financial Protection: Regulatory Feedback and the Politics of Financial Reform

“…Beginning in the 1930s and escalating in the 1970s, policy makers actively pursued the so-called democratization of credit. By adopting consumer financial regulations that loosened restrictions on consumer loan terms, policy makers boosted lenders' potential profit margins, encouraging them to extend credit to people who might otherwise require public assistance (Krippner 2011;Prasad 2012;Quinn 2019;SoRelle 2020;Thurston 2018). This tradeoff established what scholars dub a US "credit-welfare state."…”