A single policy can both defund opponents and reward allies.

Evidence

Here again, the same policy that neutralizes political opposition can also mobilize political support. Tort reform seems to have played this dual role for the Republicans in the 1990s and 2000s: not only did it impede the ability of trial lawyers to finance Democratic candidates, it also protected Republican business constituencies from high-dollar tort judgments and thus incentivized (and better enabled) this constituency to act as funders for the Republican Party. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 276

Categorization

• SEED: A strong comparative angle: identify policies in other domains (licensing, zoning, campaign law) that simultaneously defund one coalition and cement another.
• XREF: Connects to broader literatures on policy feedback and how legal entrenchment outlives the rhetoric that justified it. — connects to: Incumbents use policy to both neutralize opposition and mobilize supporters to entrench themselves. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 247; Policies can entrench themselves by weakening their own enemies’ political capacity — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 201; Policies create their own supportive constituents and destroy their opponents — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 204

Broader Connections

• Policies create their own supportive constituents and destroy their opponents #expands (0.92) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 204
• Policies can entrench themselves by weakening their own enemies’ political capacity #expands (0.88) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 201