Policies can entrench themselves by weakening their own enemies’ political capacity

Evidence

Other examples of political feedback effects focus on entrenchment by way of disempowering enemies. For example, scholars have documented how airline deregulation reduced the economic and political cohesion of the industry and therefore the political pressure that could be applied in favor of recartelization. Similarly, international trade agreements and free-trade policies tend to channel wealth and (consequently) political power away from import-competing interests and toward export interests and therefore to erode their own opposition while building their own support. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 201

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the sticky-ideology-vs-disposable-rhetoric question: this is the causal mechanism of enemy-disempowerment as entrenchment, complementing Pierson/path-dependence work on self-reinforcing policy feedback. — connects to: Co-optation reforms can backfire by fueling the resistance they aim to defuse — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 547; Policies entrench by reshaping who holds political power. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 194; Policies create their own supportive constituents and destroy their opponents — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 204 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Some policies are self-consciously designed to entrench themselves and their creators. #expands (0.92)
• Seemingly substantive policy domains conceal underlying partisan self-entrenchment battles. #exemplifies (0.82) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 536
• Absorbing enemy elites decapitates opposition; hegemony precedes state power #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 430
• Equalizing resources lets dominated parties defend themselves and end domination #complicates (0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 341
• Effective rebuke against a power-bearer reduces their domination over others. #complicates (0.78) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 328
• Totalitarian regimes legitimize eliminating opposition as unnecessary and weak #corroborates (0.76)
• A government can manufacture crisis to construct its own people as enemy #expands (0.76) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 111
• Interdependence-based power parasitically undermines both politics and its own domain #complicates (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 770