Incrementalism has been dominant in explaining policy change since its emergence. However, one of its limitations is that it cannot account for non- incremental policy changes. Thus, as an alternative, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory was suggested. This...
Incrementalism has been dominant in explaining policy change since its emergence. However, one of its limitations is that it cannot account for non- incremental policy changes. Thus, as an alternative, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory was suggested. This theory tries to explain both incremental and punctuated policy changes. Many international PET studies confirmed the existence of punctuation in the long-term policy change in different countries. Punctuation is understood as the result of the policy change process in diverse institutional structures. In this sense, the challenge that a new PET study encounters is to answer the following question: How do different institutional structures, like bureaucracy, influence the policy change process? The nature of environmental problems such as the complexity of understanding the causal relationship, conflicts with economic value, the existence of time differences between the cause and effects, and diffused impacts over multiple areas, delays response to the problems until external events or overwhelming demand trigger a change. Thus, it tends to show punctuated policy changes rather than incremental ones. However, there are few PET studies on environmental policy. Thus, this study aims to answer the question above by using the case of Korean local governments that have highly centralized bureaucratic systems, unlike the USA. First, this study examined whether there is punctuation in Korean local environmental policies using the local environmental budget data from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2022 through L-kurtosis analysis. Then, this study conducted the panel regression with random effects and the panel multi ordinal logistic regression. This study focused on institutional friction as the cause of policy change. It is what causes an interruption in the policymaking process. Bureaucratic and managerial friction are adopted as independent variables. The first model examined the relationship between dependent and independent variables, while the second model analyzed the likelihood of being in a higher category, a larger scale change. The two models showed slightly different results, but they have some significant variables in common. Bureaucratic friction variables were not significant in any models. Some of managerial friction variables, like a mayor from the liberal party, a mayor whose major career was an administrator, and a mayor whose highest education level is a high school graduate, seemed to be significant in both models. In economic control variables, Financial Independent Rate, Gross Regional Domestic Product, the number of energy businesses per capita, the number of construction per capita and the number of transportation businesses per capita were significant. One of the significant findings, the relationship between the Financial Autonomy Rate and the larger-scale environmental policy change, suggests the importance of local governments’ financial capacity in Korean local environmental policy changes. Although local governments are constrained due to the absence of legal authority in local environmental policies, more financial capacity still has a valid effect to bring about change