[cwal37]

I don't think it's at the root, but I do think it's an important factor. I come from the world of environmental science and policy, and it's clearest there. Environmental law in particular, which was one of my favorite subjects in grad school (incidentally, it's really interesting to see how federal environmental protections started in the US then migrated to Europe and became stronger there).

I tried to couch my comment in fairly broad terms (with plenty of caveats) because I know it's not universally applicable. However, I do truly believe that it is an important idea to understand when parsing differences in policy reactions between the USA and Europe. Specific implementations may come down to pre-existing biases, but I think it's still crucial to know what the PP is and how it could be applied in a more black and white situation. To me, it's all about having some knowledge of the frameworks in play in a given situation.