STUDLAR, Donley T. <br/><br/>
Conceptualizing punctuated and non-punctuated policy change :  tobacco control in comparative perspective 

 - Los Angeles :  IIAS,  September 2014 
<br/><br/> How should we conceptualize major institutional and policy changes that take place in the absence of crises, shocks or big bangs? This article uses the case study of tobacco policy (in 23 democracies) to highlight the concept of phased transition towards paradigm change. It recognizes the importance of fundamental policy change while going beyond the binary distinction between the world at one point in time replaced by a fundamentally new political world in the next. It uses multiple measures of policy change over time to identify the magnitude and speed of change and considers how the current literature conceptualizes such outcomes.