Sticky Slopes Draft Posted
You can download the full text of the draft at my SSRN page. Below is the abstract:
Legal literature is replete with references to the infamous “slippery slope”, basically, where a shift in policy lubricates the path towards further (perhaps more controversial) reforms or measures. Less discussed is the idea of a “sticky slope”. Sticky slopes manifest when a social movement victory acts to block, instead of enable, further policy goals. Instead of greasing the slope down, they effectively make it “stickier”. Despite the lack of scholarly attention, sticky slope arguments show up again and again in legal argument particularly in areas focused on minority rights. Formal legal doctrine can create sticky slopes insofar as it reduces legal protections for marginalized groups as they gain political power. Informally, sticky slopes can also develop through backlash, through legal arguments whose valences drift from their original intention, or through social exhaustion at grappling with the problem of inequality to seemingly little effect. I argue that attentiveness to sticky slopes is important for two reasons. First, awareness of the prospect of a sticky slope can be important in long term social movement strategizing. Where social movements are in pursuit of a cluster of related political ends, they will want to choose their tactics carefully so as to minimize the degree that their past accomplishments can be turned against them. Second, when deployed by legal actors, sticky slope arguments sometimes do not play true causal roles, but instead act as a mask for other, less tolerable justifications. Unmasking sticky slope logic can force legal policymakers to be more explicit about the rationales and implications of their decision.
I’ll be presenting this paper at the 2010 Law and Society Conference this May, in a panel entitled “Social Change in Unexpected Ways”. The discussant is scheduled to be Gerald Rosenberg, Lecturer in Law and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and author of The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Any comments you have are greatly appreciated.
And I might note, in blogging solidarity, that this paper originally was a blog post I wrote back in May of 2008.
3 Responses to “Sticky Slopes Draft Posted”
But backing up, a “minority group” such as oh, say, GLBT etc. community must have a identifying factor wouldn't you say? And in the case of this group pleading for rights to marry, the only truly binding factor is that they engage in “other than monogamous heterosexual love”…ie the dismantling of the current definition of marriage as “between one man and one woman”.
So…. Here's your sticky problem, speaking of sticky… If you begin to descriminate on the “anything other than…” group or classification, you are guilty of just that descrimination. The legal battles that will ensue on behalf of polygamists [who are waiting quietly in the wings with baited breath to see how this plays out] will be a slam-dunk for inclusion.
When you tamper with 'normal', you realy do kick the barn door down and in some cases this may be a good thing. But in cases where a group rallies itself around a group of deviant BEHAVIORS instead of innate qualities, especially when an industry and other compelling studies have found that these behaviors not only are learned but also may be taught via the human mimcry mechanisms…you're playing with fire and walking down a false path of “compassion for minorities”.
So be careful in the wording of your sticky-slope treatise. If you base it on the premise of a “minority group”, you will be called to task to accurately and convincingly define that exact group because I assure you the definition itself will come under close scrutiny in future legal battles..
I have not yet read the full text of your draft yet—I plan to—but find the subject fascinating, and probably a contentious one, as perhaps brought to (my) mind by the comments by the previous commenter who introduced the GLBT “issue”.
It appears to me, in a way, as a very subjective one–something like the glass being half-full or half-empty.
The progress, or lack thereof, in bringing full rights to gays and lesbians may call in the minds of those opposed to expanding those rights a “slippery slope” where social and legal efforts to “lubricate” the slope are seen as a free-fall descent into Sodom and Gomorrah. On the other hand, to those for whom progress is not being made fast enough, it is a “sticky slope,” being made even stickier by these who constantly attempt to block such reforms.
So, yes, this could be a very interesting discussion, the slippery or sticky nature of the slope being all in the eye of the beholder.. I just hope it doesn't focus solely on the gay-lesbian issue, albeit the first two comments (including mine have addressed that.
Thanks, David
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