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This article examines the idea that “policies make politics”. I seek to place this idea in the ongoing theoretical debate and demonstrate how it rejects behaviorist premises, as well as Harold Lasswell and David Easton’s classical model. The policy feedback argument and its ramifications substantiate reference literature on policy analysis, which makes it the founding argument inthe field of historical institutionalism. I show that the mechanism initially takes shape from the standpoint of state bureaucracy, as it affects the state’s administrative capacities, learning, and articulation with non-state actors. Paul Pierson then increases its scope, showing that the role policies play as resources, incentives, and sources of information is not restricted to government elites and interest groups, but may also apply to the electorate’s behavior more broadly. This discussion outlines key policy analysis concepts, highlights the internal nuances of the field, and sheds light on how theories and their analytical gains have developed historically.