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Punctuated Equilibrium and the Information Disadvantage of Authoritarianism: Evidence from the P eople's R epublic of C hina
Author(s) -
Chan Kwan Nok,
Zhao Shuang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/psj.12138
Subject(s) - punctuated equilibrium , disadvantage , authoritarianism , opposition (politics) , democracy , disequilibrium , government (linguistics) , political science , political economy , economics , law , politics , medicine , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , ophthalmology , biology
According to the punctuated equilibrium thesis, government attention allocation alternates between long periods of stasis and dramatic spurts of disequilibrium because democratic institutions enable minority groups to obstruct change. This article presents a critical discrepancy in contemporary China, where punctuated instability is significantly more intense despite a lack of democratic institutions to empower minority obstructionism. Our empirical analysis further reveals that punctuated intensity goes even higher for Chinese regions facing fewer signs of social discontent. We attribute the intensification of punctuated dynamics to an information disadvantage arising from the lack of diverse, independent sources of information under authoritarianism. Our finding contributes to punctuated equilibrium theory by underlining the function of opposition groups not only as obstructionists but also as challengers to policy priorities. By marginalizing these challengers, authoritarian institutions confine attention to known problems, leading to serious delays in the discovery of and adjustment to emerging issues.