Entrenchment is not unusual but a defining feature of all extended democracy

Evidence

Recognizing the general path-dependence of human history is obviously a long leap from the specific phenomena of legislative and electoral entrenchment and their close functional analogues. But that is the point. If the salient feature of entrenchment is that past political decisions continue to hold sway over the present, then entrenchment is a vastly broader category than is commonly perceived. To the extent history matters—which is to say, to a virtually unlimited extent—present political decisions will be shaped and constrained by prior choices. Ongoing rule by the dead hand of the past is a ubiquitous and unavoidable feature of temporally extended democracy. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 502

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The load-bearing theoretical move of the chapter: collapsing accidental functional entrenchment, deliberate constitutional entrenchment, and general path-dependence into one category reframes what ‘anti-entrenchment’ reform could even mean.
• QUESTION: If all temporally-extended democracy is dead-hand rule, what distinguishes a healthy constitutional regime from a genuinely problematic one? The claim threatens to make the book’s own anti-entrenchment critique vacuous by overgeneralization.
• XREF: connects to: Entrenchment means past decision makers asymmetrically constrain future political choices. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 486; Entrenchment pervades democratic politics far beyond legislative and election rules — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 536; Political entrenchment means making political change more difficult than it otherwise would be — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 47 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Entrenchment pervades democratic politics far beyond legislative and election rules #expands (0.92) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 536
• Entrenchment is defined only as obstacles blocking present majority will #qualifies (0.82) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 57
• Political entrenchment means making political change more difficult than it otherwise would be #expands (0.78) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 47
• Some political entrenchment is deliberately designed, not merely incidental #corroborates (0.78) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 202
• Entrenchment can be functional, via empowered constituencies, not only formal legal rules #expands (0.76) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 370
• Political entrenchment is coextensive with history’s influence if defined by dead-hand sway #complicates (0.75) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 502
• Entrenchment can serve public ends like precommitment and stability, not just self-serving power #corroborates (0.75)