State admission policy can entrench policy by selectively admitting states.

Evidence

It follows that the state is (an institutionalization of) the exercise of power. It is, by both design and effect, the institutionalized elevation of the interests - political, economic, legal, social, cultural - of some to the exclusion or devaluation of others. State power thus is exercised and embodied in the name of, and through the institutionalized apparatuses of, the state on behalf of some (always more or less contested) interests to the exclusion of others. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1736 (#expands, via linked claim)

Other kinds of impediments to political change blur the boundary between entrenchment and ordinary politics. Suppose that Social Security persists not (just) because of interest group mobilization but because of its increasing popularity over time, as Americans have learned from their experience under the program that mandatory savings for retirement is more beneficial than they initially imagined. One could view this dynamic of endogenous preference change as a mechanism of entrenchment on the theory that this kind of pathdependent increase in political support should count as a special impediment to ordinary political change. Or suppose that critical support for preserving Social Security stems from the expectation among workers that the earmarked taxes they have paid into the program are now owed to them by the government upon retirement, or by the reliance of many Americans on the existence of Social Security payments to support their retirement, leading them not to save through other vehicles. One could also view these kinds of adaptive preference shifts as mechanisms of entrenchment. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 56 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Political entrenchment means making political change more difficult than it otherwise would be; Balanced state admissions locked in the antebellum slavery status quo. — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 295; Entrenched policy outcomes can be locked in through either electoral or legislative means — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 161 (+3 more)

Related

• Learning and adaptive preference shifts under a policy can themselves function as entrenchment (similarity 0.80)
• The state institutionally elevates some interests by excluding and devaluing others. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Some policies are self-consciously designed to entrench themselves and their creators. #expands (0.85)
• The state institutionally elevates some interests by excluding and devaluing others. #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1736
• Learning and adaptive preference shifts under a policy can themselves function as entrenchment #expands (0.78) — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 56