Law and Order and the Risk of Policy Overreaction

Chapter 6 shows how an initial turn toward a harsher policy stance on law and order can set in motion positive policy feedback and lead to policy overreaction. It discusses the mechanisms that may lead to such overreaction building on Pierson’s framework. From the empirical evidence gathered, it seems plausible that especially the valence character of security-related issues, which make them issues on which elections can be won, creates a dynamic leading to policy feedback. However, this depends on the extent of the initial policy change: whereas overreaction can be diagnosed in the United Kingdom and France, the cases of Germany and Sweden show that positive feedback is not necessarily the case.