Majority-supported U.S. policies pass only rarely, making countermajoritarian entrenchment tests unusable
Evidence
A countermajoritarian measure seems unpromising, given the pervasively countermajoritarian tendencies of the American political system. According to one recent study, the probability that a policy change supported by three-quarters of Americans will be enacted into law is only thirty-nine percent. And, as elaborated below, it is quite likely that many, perhaps even most, of the policies that have been enacted into law would not have been chosen by present majorities. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 421
Categorization
- XREF: Feeds directly into the reader’s core project on why rationalizing ideologies persist once embedded in law — the countermajoritarian baseline being unusable means entrenchment needs another metric. — 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; U.S. policy outcomes contradict majority preferences whenever elites or organized interests disagree; Consensus-based institutions let a minority block majority-supported policy. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2595 (+3 more)
- QUESTION: The 39% figure for policies backed by three-quarters of Americans is a specific empirical anchor worth chasing for the reader’s durability theory.
Broader Connections
- U.S. policy outcomes contradict majority preferences whenever elites or organized interests disagree
#contradicts(0.82) - Consensus-based institutions let a minority block majority-supported policy.
#corroborates(0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2595 - The US Senate’s narrow ideological range cannot fairly test the far-left ideologue hypothesis
#corroborates(0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2287 - Any single policy leaves most citizens feeling shortchanged
#expands(0.72)