What Is Known about Punctuated Equilibrium Theory? And What Does That Tell Us about the Construction, Validation, and Replication of Knowledge in the Policy Sciences?

Abstract

This article reviews how the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) has been applied in studies analyzing policy change. It builds on a systematic evidence synthesis of peer-reviewed empirical literature that is based on the core readings by Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones. The article identifies trends in the geographical and policy focus of PET studies; maps, explores, and interrogates how core concepts of PET are applied in empirical analyses; and, finally, assesses the analytical and explanatory power of PETwhen applied to empirical phenomena. The article finds that PET studies have contributed a great deal to our knowledge on particular cases, but that more often than not PET is applied in a selective manner. The article deals with the implications of these findings for further theory development in policy analysis.

Assessing Policy Process Knowledge: A Systematic Review of Three Theoretical Approaches that are Applied to Cases of Policy Change

“…This resulted in a sample of more than 34,500 documents (see Table A.1). From these we selected those that were likely to focus on policy change and those that were likely to be empirical—that is, to introduce novel data or a novel case study (following Van der Heijden & Kuhlmann, ; Kuhlmann & van der Heijden, ). To narrow down our sample, we carried out automated full‐text searches on the joined combinations of the phrases “polic*/polit*/institution*” AND “chang*/transform*.” Here, the “*” functions as a multiple word wildcard operator (e.g., the term “chang*” allows one to search for a string of words including “change,” “changes,” “changing”).…”

“…This has resulted in a great deal of insight about how, where, why, and with what frequency scholars apply these theoretical approaches. However, less is known about the validity of the accumulated knowledge that has resulted from their application (Heikkila & Cairney, ; Kuhlmann & van der Heijden, ; Van der Heijden & Kuhlmann, ).…”

“…This has resulted in a great deal of insight about how, where, why, and with what frequency scholars apply these theoretical approaches. However, less is known about the validity of the accumulated knowledge that has resulted from their application (Heikkila & Cairney, 2018;Kuhlmann & van der Heijden, 2018;Van der Heijden & Kuhlmann, 2017). This article takes a modest but relevant step in filling this knowledge gap, by asking: What is the variety of applications of these theoretical approaches in empirical studies?…”

“…Because the structure and length of a journal article limits us in the extent to which we can explore the validity of knowledge creation in policy analysis, we focus on just three theoretical approaches that deal with policy change: punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) (Baumgartner & Jones, , ), incremental change (Mahoney & Thelen, ; Streeck & Thelen, ), and institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, ). We go beyond previous systematic literature reviews on PET (Kuhlmann & van der Heijden, ) and incremental change (Van der Heijden & Kuhlmann, ) by asking questions that go beyond single approaches and focus on concepts of policy change in policy analysis more broadly. As will become clear in the article, we found, on the one hand, sufficient overlap in the application of these three theories to suggest patterns of usage across them, and, on the other hand, differences in the application of the three theoretical approaches.…”

Dinâmicas orçamentárias dos governos locais paranaenses: Seguindo o incrementalismo ou equilíbrio pontuado?

“…Enquanto os arcabouços teóricos do processo de política costumavam enfocar a estabilidade, Baumgartner e Jones descobriram que a estabilidade não era permanente, sob a alegação de que as políticas tendem a ser estáveis por muito tempo e que essa estabilidade pode, às vezes, ser interrompida por mudanças políticas rápidas e substanciais (Kuhlmann & Van Der Heijden, 2018).…”