10 - Windows of Opportunity

Summary

Because the rules of the competitive game are tremendously flexible, there are few limits to the amount of change that can be achieved through SBM. Therefore, it may seem that, in SBM, ``all options are on the table at any time. This is not quite the case.In practice, there are limits to what can be achieved by SBM at any given moment. Ideas that are too far from the status quo cannot even be entertained, so the practical options are limited to a window around the status quo. This is called the Overton window. Moreover, legislative (as opposed to regulatory) change does not happen gradually over time. Instead, change is punctuated: the status quo lasts for a long time and then, suddenly, all the change happens at once. Therefore, when SBM involves a legislative change, there are narrow windows of opportunity.