When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change

TLDR

The expansion of governmental activity has led scholars to argue that public policy structures shape political change, yet empirical research remains largely anecdotal and lacks general hypotheses. This article proposes that policy feedback operates via two main mechanisms and calls for a research agenda to test broader propositions about when policies become politically consequential. Policies generate resources and incentives for actors and supply information and cues that shape their interpretations, thereby influencing elites, interest groups, and the public.

Abstract

As governmental activity has expanded, scholars have been increasingly inclined to suggest that the structure of public policies has an important influence on patterns of political change. Yet research on policy feedback is mostly anecdotal, and there has so far been little attempt to develop more general hypotheses about the conditions under which policies produce politics. Drawing on recent research, this article suggests that feedback occurs through two main mechanisms. Policies generate resources and incentives for political actors, and they provide those actors with information and cues that encourage particular interpretations of the political world. These mechanisms operate in a variety of ways, but have significant effects on government elites, interest groups, and mass publics. By investigating how policies influence different actors through these distinctive mechanisms, the article outlines a research agenda for moving from the current focus on illustrative case studies to the investigation of broader propositions about how and when policies are likely to be politically consequential.