In the U.S., it's often said that the legislative process is intentionally slow. It was designed that way so that laws could be changed, but not capriciously. Changing a law is supposed to require significant thought, deliberation, and justification.
I'd like an alternative for "intentionally slow." I'm looking for one adjective (a short phrase would be acceptable, but not preferred) to express two important aspects:
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The slowness of the process
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The intentionality of this design (the slowness is a feature, not a bug)
In case it helps, when I think about the first aspect, I think about viscosity. The normal use of viscosity has nothing to do with legislation. However, I think it's useful to think of the legislative process as neither an immutable solid nor a watery liquid, but rather a very viscous liquid. The shape of the law can and does change, but only very slowly.
Therefore the word(s) I'm looking for connotes something like "intentional viscosity." It should be easily understandable and would ideally require no explanation. I'd also like something that is more frequently used in the context of politics than the given example of "viscosity."
Does such a word/phrase exist?
Best Answer
Perhaps deliberate:
There's also the overused (in my opinion) Kafkaesque. It's close, although not exactly what you're after, since it usually implies a frustrating, perhaps unnecessary complexity as well, rather than an intentional well-behaved slowness:
I would go with deliberate, or a related word like careful, cautious, painstaking, etc.
There is also gradual, I suppose, although it feels strange to me here for reasons that I can't explain. You may have some success with it or one of its synonyms, though:
(All definitions from Dictionary.com)