Also known as the window of discourse, this refers to the range of ideas considered to be acceptable in public discourse and hence likely to be adopted as policy. Politicians in any democracy generally do not propose ideas that fall far beyond the range of the Overton window as those ideas could be considered extreme and unacceptable to the voting public. Such public pressure can also discourage scholars from pursuing ideas that are considered too radical, thus perpetuating existing ideas on various policy issues. The idea is named after American public policy expert Joseph P. Overton.
