Political institutions,punctuated equilibrium theory,and policy disasters |
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Authors: | E. J. Fagan |
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Affiliation: | Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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Abstract: | This paper develops a theory of the relationship between policy disasters and political institutions. Policy disasters, defined as avoidable, unintended extreme negative policy outcomes, are important political, and historical events above that receive relatively little attention from political scientists and scholars of public policy. Using the predictions of punctuated equilibrium theory, I argue that systems with higher error accumulation will experience more policy disasters. Systems with more veto players and weaker information flows will experience more policy disasters, but information flows will have a stronger impact than veto players. I test this theory using data on financial crises and natural and technological disasters across 70 countries over 60 years. I find strong evidence that systems with weaker information flows and more veto players tend to have greater policy disaster risk. |
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Keywords: | punctuated equilibrium theory political institutions policy disasters democracy 间断平衡理论 政策失败 民主 teoría del equilibrio puntuado fracaso de las políticas democracia |
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