Punctuated Equilibrium

A model of policy dynamics in which long periods of relative stability and incremental change are interrupted by brief, large-scale shifts in policy attention, institutional arrangements, or outputs when constraints temporarily relax or attention and venue align.

A model of historical and evolutionary change asserting that long intervals of relative stability are interrupted by comparatively brief episodes of rapid structural transformation; ‘rapid’ and ‘long’ are relative to the temporal and analytical scale employed.