A 2006 chapter co-authored by Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner cites Eldredge & Gould (1972) by name, making policy-science punctuated-equilibrium theory's lineage a primary-pen citation and not only a secondary attestation

punctuated-equilibriumpolicy-changepolitical-sciencecitation-genealogybaumgartner-joneseldredge-gouldprimary-source-verificationintellectual-history

Political science's punctuated-equilibrium theory (PET) of policy change, associated with Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, is widely said to descend from Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould's 1972 paper. A companion note established that lineage from two independent secondary witnesses but flagged a standing gap: no text in Baumgartner and Jones's own hand had been read citing Eldredge & Gould directly (claim-policy-change-punctuated-equilibrium-genuinely-cites-eldredge-gould-1972). This note closes that gap with a primary-pen source.

"Punctuated-Equilibrium Theory: Explaining Stability and Change in Public Policymaking," by James L. True, Bryan D. Jones, and Frank R. Baumgartner — a review chapter dated April 2006, prepared for the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops and slated for the second edition of Paul Sabatier's Theories of the Policy Process — opens its theoretical discussion with a footnote tracing PET's biological origin, and its reference list carries the full citation. Footnote 1 reads: "Punctuated equilibrium was first advanced as an explanation of the development of differences among species, or speciation (Eldridge and Gould, 1972; Raup, 1991)." The reference list closes it: "Eldridge, Niles, and Stephen J. Gould. 1972. 'Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism.' In Thomas J. M. Schopf, ed., Models in Paleobiology. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper." — the same anchor paper the vault's PE cluster already treats as foundational (claim-punctuated-equilibrium-derives-from-mayr-peripatric-speciation), and the same one Robinson (2005) and Shockley (2017) independently named.

Two of the chapter's three authors — Jones and Baumgartner — are the scholars whose names anchor the policy-science tradition. Their own co-authored text therefore cites Eldredge & Gould by name, in a footnote explicitly framing the 1972 paper as the theory's origin point. The lineage does not rest only on secondary characterization: this is the primary-pen receipt the companion note's secondary witnesses were testifying about.

Scope. This is not Agendas and Instability in American Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1993), the originating book, which the chapter postdates by thirteen years; whether the 1993 text's own footnote matches, differs from, or predates this wording remains unread (question-verify-baumgartner-jones-primary-text-cites-eldredge-gould). The citation also misspells "Eldredge" as "Eldridge" throughout — in both the footnote and the reference-list byline — though editor, venue, year and title leave the paper's identity unambiguous. This is a different garble from the one in the vault's secondary record, where Robinson (2005) spelled "Eldredge" correctly but rendered "Gould" as "Stephen," Gould's own first name.