Neutralizing opponents and mobilizing supporters are interchangeable entrenchment tactics

Evidence

The discussion so far highlights the ways that incumbents can use substantive policy to neutralize political opposition, in much the same way that poll taxes and primary rules were used to neutralize opposition. But policy can just as easily be used to selectively mobilize political support. From an electoral entrenchment perspective, these are interchangeable tactics: both are ways of using the power of incumbency to shift the rules of the political game in incumbents’ favor. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 247

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharply frames the book’s theoretical concept: entrenchment subsumes both negative (neutralizing) and positive (mobilizing) policy moves as symmetrical.
• XREF: connects to: Tort reform both defunded Democrats and mobilized Republican funders. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 276; 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; Dominant ideology recruits the dominated by neutralizing rival ideologies’ antagonism (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Absorbing rival elites into the ruling bloc decapitates and neutralizes opposition #exemplifies (0.90)
• Dominant ideology recruits the dominated by neutralizing rival ideologies’ antagonism #exemplifies (0.85)
• Political forces rise by dismantling and recoding competitors’ existing elements #corroborates (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1102
• Threat can redirect hostility toward unrelated weaker outgroups #exemplifies (0.75) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 20
• Mutually invulnerable retaliation forces neutralize each other’s deterrent role #qualifies (0.70) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 582