Overton window explained

The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.[1] It is also known as the window of discourse.

The term is named after the American policy analyst Joseph Overton, who proposed that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.[2] [3] According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that time.

Summary

In the early 1990s Overton described a spectrum from "more free" to "less free" with regard to government intervention, oriented vertically on an axis, to avoid comparison with the left/right political spectrum.[4] As the spectrum moves or expands, an idea at a given location may become more or less politically acceptable. After Overton's death, his Mackinac Center for Public Policy colleague Joseph Lehman further developed the idea and named it after Overton.[5]

The political commentator Joshua Treviño has postulated that the six degrees of acceptance of public ideas are roughly:[6]

The Overton window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. It says politicians can act only within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window. Proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, seek to convince people that policies outside it should be deemed unacceptable. According to Lehman, who coined the term:

According to Lehman, the concept is just a description of how ideas work, not advocacy of extreme policy proposals. In an interview with The New York Times, he said:

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Giridharadas . Anand . How America's Elites Lost Their Grip . 22 November 2019 . . 21 November 2019.
  2. Web site: Joseph P. Overton . . 30 August 2013.
  3. Web site: A Brief Explanation of the Overton Window . Mackinac Center for Public Policy. 22 November 2019.
  4. Web site: Glenn Beck Highlights Mackinac Center's "Overton window" . Lehman . Joseph G. . 23 November 2009 . . 16 April 2017.
  5. Web site: How an Obscure Conservative Theory Became the Trump Era's Go-to Nerd Phrase . Robertson . Derek . . 25 February 2018 . 10 September 2019.
  6. Web site: Treviño . Joshua . 29 April 2006 . The Overton window. . https://web.archive.org/web/20060716000532/http://www.swordscrossed.org/?p=50 . 16 July 2006 . 28 June 2023 . Swords Crossed.

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