Path Dependence

A processual concept in political and institutional analysis: outcomes and trajectories are constrained by prior choices because early decisions, critical junctures, and self‑reinforcing mechanisms (increasing returns, coordination effects, sunk costs) create lock‑in that amplifies small initial differences and makes subsequent change more difficult and path‑contingent.

A model that explains how contingent events, prior decisions, and self‑reinforcing mechanisms constrain and shape subsequent social or technological trajectories so that early choices exert disproportionate influence on later outcomes.