Entrenchment can be functional, via empowered constituencies, not only formal legal rules

Evidence

Political entrenchment can occur formally, but it can also occur functionally. Incumbent power holders can preserve their hold on office by manipulating the formal rules of election law; but they can also manipulate substantive policy in order to neutralize their political opposition, mobilize their own supporters, and define the polity that will decide their next election. Likewise, if formal legislative entrenchment is off the table, power holders can lock in their policies and programs by organizing and empowering a constituency that will resist retrenchment or by delegating decision-making authority to an institution that will remain politically committed to preservation. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 370

Categorization

• XREF: Key to the reader’s model: ideologies get sticky not (only) by constitutional text but by ‘organizing and empowering a constituency that will resist retrenchment’—mirrors Pierson-style path dependence where beneficiaries acquire veto power. — connects to: Restrictive labor laws entrench party advantage without any formal rule change. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 14; Political actors entrench power through functional mechanisms as readily as formal legal rules — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 42; Constitutions entrench policies through structure and rights much as legislation and elections do — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 462 (+10 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Central theoretical resource for distinguishing rhetorical from embedded ideology: the mechanism for stickiness is the creation of a self-interested defending constituency plus a structurally committed institution.

Broader Connections

• Functional political entrenchment works without changing formal legal rules #expands (0.95) — 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 #expands (0.85) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 48