ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author develops a framework with which he examines how legislation incorporates existing features of society which shape and limit its ‘effects’ which arise as it confronts obstacles in the course of the implementation. He distinguishes the relevant constraints that apply to the groups involved in making legislation as compared to those engaged in implementing legislation and he also emphasizes the importance of distinguishing different levels of analysis of these constraints. Then the author turns to a more specific discussion of the constraints which influenced the making and implementation of the 1965 rent act. He illustrates the application of his framework with reference to a case study of rent legislation. Some explanations of the effects of legislation reject the emphasis on external constraints in order to re-examine the internal constraints which condition the purposes of the legislator.
