Re-Earning Continuity: Justificatory Drift and the Burden of Institutional Renewal

Yueru Li
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Yueru Li: Self-Employed

No z8vpt_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Modern institutions often continue by default. Reformers must show why change is necessary, while institutional guardians frequently need not show why continuity remains justified. This article argues that default continuity is not merely stability; it is a procedural privilege that allocates the burden of justification. Once the factual, normative, or institutional conditions supporting an arrangement have materially changed, continuity should be re-earned through lawful review procedures calibrated to institutional layer, rights impact, reversibility, coordination value, and transition costs. The article develops a lifecycle diagnostic organized around five questions: what has drifted, where the mismatch is located, who benefits from default continuity, what renewal procedure is required, and what lawful default applies if review fails. Renewal may reaffirm, recalibrate, restrict, redesign, monitor, shorten, or terminate an arrangement; it is not a bias toward reform. The argument builds on historical institutionalism, sunset clauses, deliberative democracy, adaptive governance, policy feedback, and policy-termination research, but shifts the object of analysis from institutional change to the default procedural status of institutional continuity.

Date: 2026-07-05
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:z8vpt_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/z8vpt_v1

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