The Overton Window

    The Overton Window is a theory I was curious to learn more about. The Overton Window is a model for understanding how ideas in society change over time and how they influence politics. Imagine there is a scale from no government regulation to total government control. The Overton Window is the range of ideas in the middle of those two extremes that the public is willing to consider and accept in society. Ideas inside the Overton window are ideas that are politically safe; they are ideas that the public is ready to accept. Ideas outside this window are ideas that might be too radical for the public to accept. 

    This idea was first developed in the mid-1990s by Joseph Overton. He was the senior vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan research and educational institute in Michigan. In other words, they are a think tank. Think tanks are important in the discussion of the Overton window because they have the potential to shift it. Anything that gets ideas out in the open so that it can be discussed and debated has the potential to shift the overton window. Think tanks do this by creating social and intellectual settings that force people to argue and become aware of their own biases. Think tanks also channel knowledge between scholars, policy makers, and civil society and convert theory into insights and recommendations. Other forces that have the potential to shift the overton window include the media, entertainment, crises, and historical events. Sometimes, politicians can even move the window themselves by endorsing a policy outside the window although this is rare.

    This idea of the Overton window affects society as a whole because politicians are limited in what policy ideas they can support. If they support ideas that are outside of the window, they risk losing or not getting reelected. They are going to pursue policies that society will accept as legitimate options for policies. It tells a lot about politicians themselves because they will not always support policies they truly believe in, but rather policies that will not hurt their electoral chances.

    The range of policy options available to a politician are shaped by ideas, social movements, and shared norms and values within a society. What this means for us is that it’s really up to us to ultimately determine the types of policies that politicians will get behind. Joseph Lehman was a colleague of Joseph Overton who further developed the idea of the Overton window after Overton died. Lehman said in an interview, “The most common misconception is that lawmakers themselves are in the business of shifting the Overton window. That is absolutely false. Lawmakers are actually in the business of detecting where the window is, and moving to be in accordance with it.” This means that our social institutions are more impactful in shaping our politics than we think. This means that our workplaces, our media, our schools, our charities, and our families are more important in shaping politics than we give them credit for. 

    This is something that gives me hope. I often get discouraged when policies are passed that I do not support or am aligned with because I feel like I have no power and cannot really do anything about it. A thought that runs through my mind is, ‘What else can I do besides vote?” Starting the movement in our own communities is what we can do. We can contribute to social movements in more ways than protesting in the streets. We can start by supporting them in our very own homes.

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