The Politics of Kludges

This paper develops a model of policymaking under political conflict. In the model, policy changes may take the form of kludges: incremental modifications to existing policy that leave fundamental ineciencies unresolved, resulting in excessively complex policies. Kludged policies emerge and persist when there is political conflict between ideologically opposed parties. Parties are more likely to implement policy kludges in the presence of frictions that impede policymaking. Further, political conflict may lead to obstructionist behavior, whereby one party deliberately introduces policy kludges to impede opponents’ attempts to change policy.