Gans, Carl. "Punctuated Equilibria and Political Science: A Neontological View." Politics and the Life Sciences 5, 2 (February, 1987):220-27.
[Five commentaries and author response, pp. 228-44]
Introduction. When I was invited to participate in a symposium designed to consider the possible implications of the theory of punctuated equilibria for the study of political science, I faced the need to reexamine some fundamental questions. These transcended such issues as whether and how frequently the phenomenon referred to as punctuated equilibrium occurred, and whether it might indeed be similar to some phenomena studied by political scientists. Rather, I felt it necessary to establish for myself whether, when, and how any biologically based theory or set of hypotheses could be applied to the realm of the social sciences and what cautions might be demanded by such application.
I here approach these questions mainly from the viewpoint of a neontologist who studies the characteristics and performance of presently living animals. The present article presents a simple set of concepts that helped me clarify my thinking about these topics; I hope that it will be useful to others as well.
Before any set of hypotheses is transferred from one discipline to another, it is essential to consider how it was generated, against what background, and with what assumptions. Are the corollaries and concepts common to the discipline in which the hypotheses originated and congruent with those of the discipline to which the hypotheses are to be applied? As I do not expect that the readers wish now to engage in an elaborate study of the primary literature about biological evolution, I have adopted a seat-of-the-pants approach to principles, relying more upon the internal logic of the argument than upon authority. I hope, however, that lack of jargon and of multiple references does not imply that the following statements are oversimplified.
The theory of punctuated equilibria applied to changes in the rate of modification of organisms during historical time; the process of such change represents evolution. Such evolution has occurred in the past and continues to occur at present and the mechanisms of this evolutionary change are subject to naturalistic explanation. It may be useful, however, as part of present analysis, to deal briefly with the way organisms (with particular phenotypes) are produced anew in each generation, and to consider how this replicative mechanism is modified to allow evolutionary change with time. Next, it is necessary to consider the hypothesis that the change involved punctuated equilibria: what does the hypothesis state, how was it generated, and to what extent does it fit (or require modification of) the previously proposed mechanisms of change? Information about the nature of organismic change and the way our understanding of this has been affected by the theory of punctuated equilibria permits an approach to the more general question of whether and when these or other biological theories may be utilized as models for the social sciences.