Importing Concepts from Biology into Political Science: The Case of Punctuated Equilibrium

Abstract

From the 1950s to the 1990s, the “incrementalist” model dominated theories of policymaking. Since Baumgartner and Jones's Agendas and Instability in American Politics was published in 1993, however, the “punctuated equilibrium” model, borrowed from evolutionary biology, has supplanted the incrementalist model. But what do such alien models do to the discipline of political science, and what does the discipline do to the models, when they are thus imported? In this article, I first discuss the functions of concepts in political science, then discuss and analyze the creation and meaning of the concept of punctuated equilibrium in biology, then trace its transformation as it was initially adopted by political scientists, then analyze the manner in which its meaning developed and altered as it grew in popularity within the discipline, and finally assess its value to political science now. I will conclude with some general observations about the process of importing concepts from outside the discipline.

The Evolution of Contractual and Relational Governance in IS Outsourcing

“…This finding is consistent with the basic punctuated equilibrium model and stresses the usefulness of punctuated equilibrium to describe human affairs [59]. Our results also demonstrate that revolutions are triggered by 37 strong events and as a consequence contractual and relational governance are significantly and purposefully changed.…”

From There to Here: Punctuated Equilibrium to the General Punctuation Thesis to a Theory of Government Information Processing

“…Change encompassed incremental adjustment within policy subsystems and nonincremental, punctuated change when the subsystems assigned the policy could no longer contain the demands for change and the macropolitical institutions (Congress, the presidency, and the political parties) got involved. As had other scholars, we emphasized the incrementalist adjustment patterns within subsystems, leading David Prindle (2012) to refer to our approach as punctuated incrementalism . We saw these adjustment patterns as incomplete because the subsystem adjustments among affected interests omitted the disinterested, a theme that both Redford (1969) and Burnham (1970) stress.…”

Theories of the Policy Process: Contemporary Scholarship and Future Directions

“…Its essence is a trope inspired by the natural sciences (paleontology), which provides an explanatory framework on which to ground empirical observations (Howlett & Migone, ; Prindle, ). In order to rid the framework from the pitfalls of the metaphor, Prindle () suggests renaming it “punctuated incrementalism”; indeed Howlett and Migone () find incrementalism to be very much a salient component of PET. There is a binary quality in Punctuated Equilibrium as its space is occupied by either incrementally occurring change or bursts.…”