Information Processing and the Instability of Political Outcomes Public Deposited

Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Last Modified
  • March 19, 2019
Creator
  • Epp, Derek
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science
Abstract
  • Studies in public policy document what is described as a `punctuation equilibrium' pattern of change, where negative feedback forces that act to maintain the status-quo are occasionally disrupted, leading to brief and dramatic changes before a new equilibrium is rapidly established. The causal process that explains this pattern rests on fundamental limitations to human cognition and institutional capacity and as such, is thought to be widely applicable across organizational structures. From this perspective, punctuations are inevitable to the policymaking process, rather than rare, idiosyncratic events. In this dissertation, I search for the limits of the punctuated equilibrium framework by identifying conditions under which proportional, as opposed to punctuated, change is possible. I identify variance across organizations in their ability to process and respond to new information and by leveraging this variance, interrogate the causal mechanism behind punctuated equilibrium; using data from U.S. government budgets with corporate and financial data points as reference. I identify two factors as having a powerful effect on the stability of outputs- the scope of organizational focus and the degree to which organizations take a decentralized, or market-based, approach to decision-making. When organizations are sufficiently limited in scope or decentralize decision-making, output distributions show fewer extreme changes. The dissertation argues that these conditions are not especially uncommon. The implication is that highly punctuated change distributions, while certainly abundant in the public sector, are not inevitable to human decision-making processes.
Date of publication
Keyword
Subject
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Stimson, James
  • Clark, Christopher
  • Gray, Virginia
  • Carsey, Thomas M.
  • Baumgartner, Frank
Degree
  • Doctor of Philosophy
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2015
Language
Publisher
Place of publication
  • Chapel Hill, NC
Access
  • There are no restrictions to this item.
Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
Epp_unc_0153D_15204.pdf 2019-04-11 Public