Punctuated Equilibrium and the Supreme Court
将间断均衡理论应用于最高法院，通过分析判例引用变化，发现法律政策变迁也遵循该理论模式，为理解司法政策变化提供新视角。
In the legislative and executive branches, policy scholars have used punctuated equilibrium ( PE ) theory to describe and explain patterns of change. However, there has been little examination of how PE might apply to courts and legal policy change. This article addresses that gap by providing evidence that legal policy change—here conceptualized as changes in what precedents the Supreme Court most often cites—is governed by PE theory. After making a prima facie case for the applicability of PE theory to the Court, I leverage network rankings of Supreme Court decisions to create a proxy for legal policy change that improves on existing measures. Using both a stochastic process model and an analysis of the punctuations the measure uncovers, I find strong evidence of PE processes.