106. Status quo

The “status quo” is one of the most complex and important concepts in public choice. It has normative content, though not as much as some outsiders have claimed. And it plays an important technical role in social choice and constitutional rules in two primary ways. First, the status quo is accepted as binding, so it does not need continual positive consent. Second, the status quo is the point of comparison for change and requires unanimous consent or at least a constitutionally dictated level of consent to be changed.