Overton Window

One-line: Joseph Overton’s model of the band of policy ideas politically “acceptable” at a given moment — and the lever by which today’s radical becomes tomorrow’s common sense.

Utopia For Realists uses it as the mechanism of utopian politics: to make a radical idea reasonable, you stretch the bounds of the radical, shifting the whole window. It dovetails with Milton Friedman’s claim that ideas “lying around” during a crisis become the ones adopted, and Albert Hirschman’s observation that utopias are first attacked as futile, dangerous, and perverse — then quickly seen as commonplace once enacted.

Related concepts

• Joseph Overton — originator of the model the band of “politically acceptable” policy ideas is named for.
• Utopia For Realists — uses the window as the mechanism of utopian politics: stretch the radical to shift the whole band.
• Milton Friedman — his claim that ideas “lying around” during a crisis become the ones adopted is the supply side of a window shift.
• Albert Hirschman — his observation that utopias are first attacked as futile, dangerous, and perverse, then seen as commonplace once enacted, traces the same band moving.

Where this appears

• Utopia For Realists