Contemporary · Governance & Power · Model

The Overton Window

Joseph P. Overton · 1998

"Overton proposed that at any time only a window of policies feels politically acceptable — and that serious change requires moving the window itself, not just proposing a policy inside the current one."

The idea

Overton, a vice president at the Mackinac Center, noticed in the 1990s that politicians rarely move public opinion; they move within the window public opinion already allows.

Why it works

The takeaway — recall it first

Checks and Balances & the Separation of Powers

"Montesquieu and the Federalists argued that concentrating power in one body makes its abuse inevitable — so liberty requires splitting power across competing institutions that can check each other."

Montesquieu / The Federalists · TreatiseContinue→