Policy Feedback Theory

Abstract

Policy Feedback Theory sits at the intersection of the two approaches: it brings political considerations to bear on policy analysis, assessing how policies affect crucial aspects of governance. It can also enrich studies of the policy process by highlighting how policies created previously affect the likelihood and form of future policy creation. The initial impetus for studies of policy feedback emerged from the historical institutionalist tradition, and Pierson's theory provided an intellectual bridge linking the logic of institutional development and path dependence to the study of individual political behavior. Political behavior scholars were poised to incorporate new ideas about policy feedback into well-developed approaches to understanding citizen engagement and participation and to test them empirically. The analytical purview of policy feedback is poised to address a wide array of political dynamics. Policy Feedback Theory is indispensable for scholars trying to understand how policies, once developed, reshape politics.