Blocking formal entrenchment hydraulically increases functional substitutes

Evidence

If avenues of formal entrenchment are foreclosed, the obvious alternative would be for political actors to pursue functional entrenchment strategies instead. As we have emphasized, such strategies often seem to be close substitutes for formal legislative and electoral entrenchment. No doubt they are not perfect substitutes. Political actors who make use of formal entrenchment devices presumably do so because they are more effective or less costly than the functional alternatives. At the very least, however, we should predict that shutting down formal entrenchment mechanisms would have the effect of increasing the use of functional alternatives. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 431

Categorization

• XREF: Hydrostatic ‘balloon’ substitution in law maps to the reader’s question of when ideological expression shifts channel from law to informal institutions. — connects to: Entrenchment analysis must bracket preference formation and judge only barriers to present majority will — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 57; Functional political entrenchment works without changing formal legal rules — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 173; Political entrenchment operates through informal and coercive means, not only formal legal rules — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 48 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Entrenchment often arises from unintended path-dependent feedback, not strategic design #expands (0.85) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 492
• Functional fixedness blocks creative solutions requiring atypical object use #qualifies (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2223
• Aggressive impulses target innocent substitutes when the real frustrator is powerful #exemplifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1563
• Constraints within activity domains paradoxically expand effective freedom of action #complicates (0.72)
• Conditional, functional programming renders power universal yet bounded #complicates (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 670