Fragmented U.S. lawmaking institutions structurally favor slow incremental change over sweeping reform

Evidence

There is, in short, a strong structural bias within our existing lawmaking institutions in favor of government’s acting more slowly and incrementally. Whatever their ideological bent, sweeping law reforms in response to new information or values are very difficult to accomplish without institutional change. Yet, those same institutions needing reform resist just that possibility. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 170

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to legal-institutions thread of the LGST 1110 polyad — this is the structural-bias point that explains why environmental statutes are so hard to pass and so often modified. — connects to: Three institutional changes caused the 1990s environmental-lawmaking collapse. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 667; States stepped in to fill the federal environmental-regulatory void after Kyoto withdrawal — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1095; Public institutional routines change incrementally rather than through wholesale overhauls — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 424 (+11 more)
• ADDENDUM: Reinforces the ‘radical redistributive acts through deliberately conservative institutions’ theme from ch0 of this same book — institutions resist reform and reform requires institutional change.

Broader Connections

• Public institutional routines change incrementally rather than through wholesale overhauls #corroborates (0.90) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 424
• Law changes by layered accretion rather than revolutionary overhaul. #corroborates (0.90) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 75
• American lawmaking is fragmented across thousands of local special-purpose bodies, not just legislatures #expands (0.82) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 440
• Reform can be stolen through procedural speed and surprise rather than force #contradicts (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1042
• Courts change policy through five distinct incremental mechanisms rather than just landmark rulings #expands (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3171
• Crises drive reactive lawmaking while slow social shifts shape law durably #complicates (0.72) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4406
• Structural constitutional rules resist change despite eroding functional justification #expands (0.72)
• Fundamental social change erupts when progress is blocked by anachronistic institutions #contradicts (0.72) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 251
• Slow incremental corporatist reform can transform social structure without violent shocks #corroborates (0.70)