Countermobilization - Policy Feedback and Backlash in a Polarized Age

"While government policies can build supportive coalitions, they can also mobilize powerful opposition forces. What causes backlashes in the American political system? Why do some policies generate resistance among political elites and mass publics? Drawing on case studies of key issues from immigration and trade to healthcare and gun control, Eric Patashnik explores how policies stimulate backlashes by imposing losses, overreaching, or challenging existing arrangements to which people are strongly attached. He argues that backlash politics is fueled by polarization, changes in American culture and society, and the negative feedback from activist government itself. Countermobilization shows that backlashes arise when policy motives, constituency means, and political opportunities converge, and debunks the claim that backlash politics is exclusively a right-wing phenomenon. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners of U.S. politics and public policy, offering practical lessons for anyone who wishes to identify backlash risks-and design against them"--

About the author

Eric M. Patashnik is professor of public policy and political science at Brown University. His books include Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted.

Product details

• Authors: Eric M. Patashnik, Patashnik Eric M.
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2023
• EAN: 9780226829876
• ISBN: 978-0-226-82987-6
• No. of pages: 256
• Series: Chicago Studies in American Politics
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Radicalism, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / National, Politics & government, United States of America, USA, Central / national / federal government, Political ideologies and movements, Centrist democratic ideologies, Right-of-centre democratic ideologies, Backlash;Polarization;Policy Feedback;Public Policy