Punctuated Equilibrium Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

In Agendas and Instability in American Politics (1993), Frank Baumgartner and Bryan Jones argue that debate on most policy issues remains confined to a small circle of interested players that constitute a policy domain. These players may be in conflict, but the terms of the debate and the outcome of policy decisions remains relatively stable over time, with only small, incremental changes. However, this policy stasis can change dramatically as issues are redefined and highly publicized events cause issues to be placed on the policy agenda. Policy questions then move from the relatively hidden confines of the policy domain to the highly visible locus of presidential or congressional politics. In these venues, the old relationships of the policy domain break down, and a policy is subject to dramatic change, thus leading to a punctuated equilibrium.

Baumgartner and Jones adapted their theory from evolutionary biology. Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge developed the punctuated equilibrium theory as a counter to the Darwinian belief that species evolved slowly over long periods of time. Gould and Eldredge argued that the evolution of most species remained stagnant over long periods of time—equilibrium—and that changes came in drastic bursts—punctuations. Baumgartner and Jones used this model as the basis to explain the evolution of public policy issues in the United States. Like evolution, policies often were characterized by long periods of stagnancy or incremental change, followed by sudden dramatic shifts.

Punctuated equilibria result when changing policy images push issues that were previously uncontested onto the broad public agenda. Policy images define the ways in which the public conceptualizes an issue. Because of widespread acceptance of the status quo, when people have a positive image of an issue, there is little likelihood that much change will occur. Policy change instead occurs when elites or specialists begin to challenge an accepted policy image based on research, external events, or problems with the implementation of existing policies. They create a negative image that is reinforced and popularized by media attention. Congress is then willing to undertake broad debate on the policy, which may result in substantial change to the status quo, thus creating a punctuated equilibrium.

The punctuated equilibrium model of policy development is an ambitious attempt to synthesize conceptions of policy making to establish an all-encompassing theory of policy change in the United States. Traditionally, variations of elite theory or pluralism have dominated the study of public policy. According to elite theorists, special interests that structure the political system for their own benefit primarily direct public policy. Special interests create policy monopolies that enable them to preserve the status quo by keeping policy making out of the public eye. Consequently, elite theorists argue that radical policy change is an anomaly. Pluralists take the opposite tact, arguing that the system is open to anyone who can mobilize an interest group. Thus substantial policy change can occur at any time.

Baumgartner and Jones’s theory has been termed neopluralism because it synthesizes elements from both of these broad theories. Their methodology of studying single areas of policy over decades allows them to show that policy is often dominated by special interests within policy monopolies. However, change is also possible when elites or public opinion pressure Congress for a change in the status quo.

Bibliography:

Baumgartner, Frank R., and Bryan D. Jones. Agendas and Instability in American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Policy Dynamics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
McFarland, Andrew S. “Neopluralism.” Annual Review of Political Science 10, no. 1 (2007): 45–66.
True, James L., Bryan D. Jones, and Frank Baumgartner. “Punctuatedequilibrium Theory: Explaining Stability and Change in American Policymaking.” In Theories of the Policy Process, 2nd ed., edited by Paul A. Sabatier, 155–188. Boulder:Westview Press.

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