Punctuated Equilibria and Budgets in the American States

Self Cite

In this article, we contrast the long‐term consequences of incrementalism and punctuated equilibrium. We test what the impact of each of these types of policy change is on long‐term budgetary outcomes for the American states. Policy scholars have applied both theoretical approaches to the study of budgetary spending as an extension of policymaking. Given the two contrasting paradigms of policy change, we develop the following line of inquiry: Does punctuated equilibrium create a different budget in the long term than incrementalism? We address this question through an analysis of American state budgets because the U.S. states provide a rich variation in both budgetary outcomes and political institutions. We use budget data from all American states across all government functions for the period between 1984 and 2009. We find that, first, state budgets and budget functions vary in their degree of punctuation and, second, the degree of punctuation in a state's budget function corresponds to smaller long‐term growth. Additionally, the kind of spending matters: allocational budget categories are more likely to exhibit punctuations.

Section: Perspectives On Budgets and Policy Changesupporting

confidence: 81%

The Tortoise or the Hare? Incrementalism, Punctuations, and Their Consequences

Breunig

Koski

2012

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“…The state governments in the United States (Breunig & Koski, ) and local governments in Denmark (Baumgartner et al, ) exhibit varying levels of punctuated intensity. The same should be expected of authoritarian governments at the regional level.…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Punctuated Equilibrium and the Information Disadvantage of Authoritarianism: Evidence from the People's Republic of China

Chan¹,

Shuang²

2015

According to the punctuated equilibrium thesis, government attention allocation alternates between long periods of stasis and dramatic spurts of disequilibrium because democratic institutions enable minority groups to obstruct change. This article presents a critical discrepancy in contemporary China, where punctuated instability is significantly more intense despite a lack of democratic institutions to empower minority obstructionism. Our empirical analysis further reveals that punctuated intensity goes even higher for Chinese regions facing fewer signs of social discontent. We attribute the intensification of punctuated dynamics to an information disadvantage arising from the lack of diverse, independent sources of information under authoritarianism. Our finding contributes to punctuated equilibrium theory by underlining the function of opposition groups not only as obstructionists but also as challengers to policy priorities. By marginalizing these challengers, authoritarian institutions confine attention to known problems, leading to serious delays in the discovery of and adjustment to emerging issues.

“…It has been even more influential in the study of the policymaking process. In 1993, Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones published Agendas and Instabilities in American Politics (Baumgartner and Jones, [1993] 2009), a reformulation of the study of policymaking that has reinvigorated the study of large‐scale policymaking patterns (Breunig & Koski, 2006, p. 364; Mortensen, 2005, p. 931). This book brought Eldredge and Gould's concept into political science in a spectacularly influential manner.…”

Section: Bringing It All Back Homementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Prindle¹

2012

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.