![handle is hein.cow/anamacp0685 and id is 1 raw text is: Policy
Feedback in an
Age of
Polarization
By
JACOB S. HACKER
and
PAUL PIERSON
A large body of research has explored how policies,
once enacted, reshape public opinion, governing insti-
tutions, and political organizations-a process known as
policy feedback. Yet this productive research agenda
has yet to be translated into practical recommendations
of the sort regularly provided by other social science
research. This volume of The ANNALS presents the
findings of a major collective effort to do just this. The
Policy Feedback Project (PFP) is an effort to develop
research-backed arguments about how policy feedback
might be harnessed to address collective problems in
today's age of partisan polarization and economic ine-
quality. This article orients readers to our collective
approach and summarizes some of the contributing
authors' findings. In particular, we show how the feed-
back effects of policies could be used to (1) tackle long-
standing public problems that have resisted effective
responses, (2) increase the long-term durability of pol-
icy initiatives designed to address these problems, and
(3) build political momentum and power to facilitate
the adaptation and expansion of these initiatives over
time.
Keywords: American politics; public policy; policy
feedback; interest groups; partisan polari-
zation
The articles in this special issue all emerged
out of the Policy Feedback Project (PFP), a
unique effort to assist policy-makers seeking to
revitalize American democracy and improve
public policy. The project was founded with the
goal of deepening our understanding of the ways
in which policies, once enacted, reshape public
opinion, governing institutions, and political
organizations-a major area of research in
Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political
Science anl linretor of the Institution for Social and
Policy Studies at Yale University. He is the author or
coauthor of five books and numerous articles on
American politics and policy and a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Correspondence: jacob.hacker@yale.edu
DOI: 10.1177/0002716219871222
ANNALS, AAPSS, 685, September 2019
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