THE CONCEPT OF PATH DEPENDENCY IN THE STUDY OF INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Abstract

This article examines the theoretical foundations of the concept of path dependency within historical institutionalism, one of the leading strands of contemporary institutional theory and a component of the broader interdisciplinary approach known as new institutionalism or neo-institutionalism. It traces the revival of scholarly interest in political institutions in the 1980s, analyzes the emergence of neo-institutionalism, highlights its conceptual differences from traditional institutionalism, and outlines the principal strands within new institutionalism, with particular emphasis on historical institutionalism.
The study identifies the core characteristics of historical institutionalism, which assigns central importance to the temporal dimension of institutional development and to the historical contexts in which such development unfolds. It reviews competing interpretations of the concept of the institution within this strand and clarifies the conditions under which historical institutionalism proves analytically productive for the study of political development. Particular attention is devoted to the concept of path dependency as the theoretical core of historical institutionalism. The article explicates the logic of this concept, according to which trajectories established at early stages of institutional formation exert a lasting and often constraining influence on subsequent institutional evolution, significantly limiting the range of alternative developmental paths. Two principal types of path dependency are examined: increasing returns (positive feedback) and reactive sequences.
The article further addresses the notion of contingency as a necessary condition for the initial events that set path-dependent processes in motion. Special attention is paid to the concept of critical junctures, a key analytical category within path dependency theory. The study specifies the conditions under which particular events may be characterized as critical junctures—moments in which choices made by political actors are highly likely to shape subsequent institutional development and generate a path-dependent trajectory. Finally, the article points to certain inconsistencies in the use of the conceptual and terminological apparatus of path dependency across the literature, underscoring the need for further theoretical refinement.