Definition: Overton Window

The range of acceptable ideas in a population within a certain time frame. Coined in the mid-1990s by Joseph P. Overton (1960-2003), vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan, the Overton Window changes as the public changes, and radical ideas become common.

Technology Speeds Things Up
Once considered a fringe idea, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is quite normal today. In less than a dozen years, the personal computer became a common household appliance, and in a little more than a dozen years, half the world owned a smartphone.