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{{short description|Range of ideas tolerated in public discourse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{about|the political concept|the 2010 novel|The Overton Window}}
[[File:Overton Window diagram.svg|thumb|right|An illustration of the Overton Window, along with Treviño's degrees of acceptance]]

The '''Overton window''' is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Giridharadas |first1=Anand |title=How America's Elites Lost Their Grip |url=https://time.com/5735384/capitalism-reckoning-elitism-in-america-2019/ |access-date=22 November 2019 |work=Time |date=21 November 2019}}</ref>  It is also known as the '''window of discourse'''. The term is named after American policy analyst [[Joseph P. Overton]], who stated that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within this range, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.<ref name="mackinac2">{{Cite web |url=http://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=12 |title=Joseph P. Overton|website=[[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]] |access-date=30 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="mackinac1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.mackinac.org/12887 |title=A Brief Explanation of the Overton Window |website=Mackinac Center for Public Policy|access-date=22 November 2019}}</ref> According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician can recommend without appearing too extreme to gain or keep public office given the climate of [[public opinion]] at that time.

Colin Mortimer, the Director of the Center for New Liberalism at the Progressive Policy Institute, has claimed that in the 21st century, the "Overton window" concept has been altered from its original form by political extremists, who have [[misinterpretation|misinterpreted]] it as a strategy rather than a theorem.<ref name="Exponents2020">{{cite web |last1=Mortimer |first1=Colin |title=The Myth of the Overton Window |url=https://exponentsmag.org/2020/02/20/the-myth-of-the-overton-window/ |website=Exponents |publisher=Exponents Magazine}}</ref>{{Reliable source?|date=May 2021}} In particular, the term "Overton window" has been [[reappropriation|re-appropriated]] by [[alt-right]] [[white supremacists]], as a gauge for the viability of their propaganda.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nadler |first1=Anthony |title=News on the Right: Studying Conservative News Cultures |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |page=75 |isbn=9780190913540 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5x2yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Shannon |last2=Valasik |first2=Matthew |title=Alt Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White |date=2020 |publisher=University of California Press |page=50 |isbn=9780520300446 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yeXwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mondon |first1=Aurelien |last2=Winter |first2=Aaron |title=Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream |date=2020 |publisher=Verso Books |page=127 |isbn=9781788734233 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51vaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA127}}</ref> Ironically, Joseph Lehman, the man who originally coined the term and refined its definition, later admitted that he intended for it to demonstrate the extent to which political [[think tanks]] can alter public policy.

==Summary==
Overton described a spectrum from "more free" to "less free" with regard to government intervention, oriented vertically on an axis, to avoid comparison with the left/right political spectrum.<ref name="Glenn">{{Cite web |url= http://www.mackinac.org/11398 |title=Glenn Beck Highlights Mackinac Center's "Overton window" |last=Lehman |first=Joseph G. |date=23 November 2009 |publisher=[[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]] |access-date=16 April 2017}}</ref> As the spectrum moves or expands, an idea at a given location may become more or less politically acceptable. After Overton's death, his [[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]] colleague Joseph Lehman further developed the idea and named it after Overton.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/25/overton-window-explained-definition-meaning-217010 |title=How an Obscure Conservative Theory Became the Trump Era's Go-to Nerd Phrase |last= Robertson |first=Derek  |work=[[Politico]] |access-date=10 September 2019}}</ref>

Political commentator [[Joshua Treviño]] has postulated that the six degrees of acceptance of public ideas are roughly:<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/9/205251/2950 |title=Why the Right-Wing Gets It—and Why Dems Don't [updated] |last= thereisnospoon |date=10 May 2006 |website=[[Daily Kos]] |access-date=9 May 2018}}</ref>
* Unthinkable
* Radical
* Acceptable
* Sensible
* Popular
* Policy

[[File:Overton Window.svg|thumb|350px|A new idea fills the window of what the public regards as unthinkable, causing the desired idea to shift into the window of what the public views as sensible, without its proponents necessarily having explained any benefits of the desired idea.{{Disputed-inline|Article needs an image|date=July 2012}}]]
The Overton window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. Politicians can only act within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window. Proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, seek to convince people that policies outside it should be deemed unacceptable. According to Lehman, who coined the term, "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 then moving to be in accordance with it."<ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/25/overton-window-explained-definition-meaning-217010 |title=How an Obscure Conservative Theory Became the Trump Era's Go-to Nerd Phrase |last= Robertson |first=Derek |work= Politico|access-date=10 September 2019}}</ref> 

According to Lehman, the concept is just a description of how ideas work, not advocacy of extreme policy proposals. In an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'', he said, "It just explains how ideas come in and out of fashion, the same way that gravity explains why something falls to the earth. I can use gravity to drop an anvil on your head, but that would be wrong. I could also use gravity to throw you a life preserver; that would be good."<ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/overton-window-democrats.html |title=How the Politically Unthinkable Can Become Mainstream |last=Astor |first= Maggie |work=New York Times|access-date= 10 September 2019}}</ref> The [[door-in-the-face technique|"door-in-the-face" technique]] of persuasion is similar.

In 1998, [[Noam Chomsky]] said:
{{Quote|text=The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |date=1998 |title=The Common Good |url= https://archive.org/details/commongood00chom|url-access=registration |publisher= Odonian Press}}</ref>}}

==See also==
* [[Creeping normality]]
* [[Hallin's spheres]]
* [[Opinion corridor]]
* [[Moral relativism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web|last=Pilgrim|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Pilgrim|title=W3C and the Overton window|date=23 August 2006|publisher=[[Mark Pilgrim|Dive into Mark]]|url=http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/08/23/overton-window|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718035511/http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/08/23/overton-window|archive-date=18 July 2011}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.mackinac.org/12481|title=An Introduction to the Overton Window of Political Possibility|publisher=Mackinac Center for Public Policy|date=8 April 2010|last=Lehman|first=Joseph G.}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/overton-window-democrats.html|title=How the Politically Unthinkable Can Become Mainstream|work=The New York Times|date=26 February 2019|last=Astor|first=Maggie}}

{{Biases}}

[[Category:Crowd psychology]]
[[Category:Public opinion]]
[[Category:Policy]]
[[Category:Political concepts]]
[[Category:Political realism]]
[[Category:Political spectrum]]