Letters to leaders: Political participation and punctuated equilibrium theory

26 October 2022, Version 1
This content is an early or alternative research output and has not been peer-reviewed at the time of posting.

Abstract

Is there a steady, consistent flow of public opinion to political leaders? Or are the public usually fairly quiet, with occasional periods of shouting from rooftops? Research has shown that policy agendas are punctuated, with long periods of stasis and short periods of major change, there is a paucity of research on punctuation of public opinion and political participation. This paper advances punctuated equilibrium theory by applying this approach to political participation. I use new datasets of the volume and topic of letters to the Australian Prime Minister and American President. I find clear evidence that that individuals’ decision to participate is punctuated. I also find that topics with a high volume of letters have a higher level of punctuation, supporting the theory that punctuations can occur when the conflict is expanded, and public is drawn into the conflict. These results extend punctuated equilibrium further up the policy process chain.

Keywords

Punctuated equilibrium theory
PET
Public opinion
Political participation

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.