Racial Policy Drift

This chapter examines the racial consequences of policy drift: strategic state inaction and blockage that allows laws to produce new effects without formal revision. Building on Desmond King’s account of “forceful federalism” and the need for federal activism to enforce civil rights laws, I argue that policy drift perpetuates and deepens racial inequality through seemingly color-blind institutions. Three cases illustrate this dynamic: felon disenfranchisement laws that exclude millions from the franchise, disproportionately Black; welfare state retrenchment and the rise of the gig economy, which leave many workers of color outside the safety net; and minimal-change redistricting cycles, which exacerbate racial malapportionment as America’s white population shrinks. These drifts emerge from categorical and interval freezing – laws designed for one era but left untouched as society transforms. As King notes, inequality is sustained by interlocking institutions in the expansive American state.

Race, Illiberalism, and the State, Editors: Kimberley Johnson and Randall Hansen