Policy Feedback Theory

Mettler, Suzanne; SoRelle, Mallory E.

doi:10.4324/9780429494284-4

Cited by 135 publications

(115 citation statements)

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“…Scholars have now amassed robust evidence that public policies are not only the products of politics, they are also crucial inputs that feed back into the political system by affecting the attitudes and behavior of citizens, families, organizations, social groups, and political elites (Barnes, ; Barnes & Hope, ; Campbell, , ; Goss, ; Lerman & Weaver, ; Mettler, ; Michener, ; Morgan & Campbell, ; Pierson, 1993; Schneider & Ingram, ; Skocpol, 1992; Soss, 2000). As the literature on feedback has gained prominence, the theoretical infrastructure undergirding studies of feedback has developed significantly (Béland, ; Campbell, ; Mettler & SoRelle, ; Mettler & Soss, ; Patashnik & Zelizer, ; Weaver, ). Still, scholars have offered scant theorization of how race matters for policy feedback.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Still, scholars have offered scant theorization of how race matters for policy feedback. Even valuable and well‐cited meta‐analyses have overlooked race (Béland, ; Campbell, ; Mettler & SoRelle, ). In the succeeding pages, I present a framework that fills this important void, laying the groundwork for new directions in the study of policy, politics, and race.…”

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Policy Feedback in a Racialized Polity

Michener¹

2019

Policy Studies Journal

112

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American public policy is and has always been profoundly racialized. Yet, the literature on policy feedback lacks cohesive theorization of how race matters for feedback processes. This article offers a conceptual road map for studying policy feedback in the context of racialized politics. Drawing together the substantial (but largely disconnected) work that already exists in the fields of public policy and racial politics, I develop the racialized feedback framework to provide theoretical guidance on (i) when race should be a core focus of policy feedback research and (ii) how race structures the relationship between policy and polity. I argue that both the scope of the questions that scholars ask and the nature of the answers they find are altered when race is afforded an appropriately central role in research on policy feedback.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Policy Feedback in a Racialized Polity

Michener¹

2019

Policy Studies Journal

112

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“…The claim at the core of the contemporary concept of policy feedback that existing policies can shape politics and future policy developments is hardly new (Lowi, ) and the last quarter century has witnessed a rapid expansion in the scholarship on policy feedback (e.g., Béland, ; A. Campbell, ; Jacobs & Weaver, ; Mettler & SoRelle, ; Oberlander & Weaver, ; Pierson, ). Typically embedded in an historical institutionalist tradition that stresses the impact of historically constructed political and policy institutions on the politics of public policy (e.g., A. Campbell, ; Parsons, ; Pierson, ; Skocpol, ; Thelen, ; Weir, Orloff, & Skocpol, ), the concept of policy feedback broadly refers to how policies impact politics and policy change over time (Béland, ).…”

Section: Self‐reinforcing and Self‐undermining Policy Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy Feedback and the Politics of the Affordable Care Act

Béland¹,

Rocco²,

Waddan³

2018

Policy Studies Journal

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There is a large body of literature devoted to how “policies create politics” and how feedback effects from existing policy legacies shape potential reforms in a particular area. Although much of this literature focuses on self‐reinforcing feedback effects that increase support for existing policies over time, Kent Weaver and his colleagues have recently drawn our attention to self‐undermining effects that can gradually weaken support for such policies. The following contribution explores both self‐reinforcing and self‐undermining policy feedback in relationship to the Affordable Care Act, the most important health‐care reform enacted in the United States since the mid‐1960s. More specifically, the paper draws on the concept of policy feedback to reflect on the political fate of the ACA since its adoption in 2010. We argue that, due in part to its sheer complexity and fragmentation, the ACA generates both self‐reinforcing and self‐undermining feedback effects that, depending of the aspect of the legislation at hand, can either facilitate or impede conservative retrenchment and restructuring. Simultaneously, through a discussion of partisan effects that shape Republican behavior in Congress, we acknowledge the limits of policy feedback in the explanation of policy stability and change.

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“…Policy feedback theory (Mettler & Sorelle, ; Skocpol, ) addresses the interdependence among initial policies, consequent changes in political circumstances, and subsequent policy‐making adjustments that occur through filtering the unintended consequences that ensure in the process of policy formulation and implementation.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%