Path dependence in historical sociology¶
Mahoney, J. (2000). Path dependence in historical sociology. Theory and Society, 29(4), 507-548.
Cited by¶
4 citations across 3 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Critical Juncture
- The mechanism—contingency at a moment of high sensitivity—transfers across historical, organizational, biological, and technological domains, as Mahoney (2000) systematizes in his typology of self-reinforcing and reactive sequences.
This sourceDistinguishes critical-juncture causation (the moment of selection) from subsequent reproduction mechanisms via self-reinforcing and reactive sequences; supports the typology-of-sequences claim in the Structural Signature.
- The mechanism—contingency at a moment of high sensitivity—transfers across historical, organizational, biological, and technological domains, as Mahoney (2000) systematizes in his typology of self-reinforcing and reactive sequences.
- Historical Determinism
- Toynbee's challenge-and-response theory (A Study of History, 1934–1961) exemplifies this trade-off: the cyclical structure renders civilizational history intelligible in a unified frame, but at the cost of forcing diverse contingent events (diplomatic accidents, individual leadership decisions, technological surprises) into the procrustean bed of structural cycles.
- The resulting historiography became a laboratory for testing determinism: Marxist historians like Plekhanov (The Role of the Individual in History, 1898)
- Path Dependence
- This reasoning surfaces the role of critical junctures—moments when multiple paths are feasible and small perturbations can steer the system toward different equilibria, a concept Mahoney (2000) places at the center of historical-sociological causal analysis.
This sourceDistinguishes critical-juncture causation (the moment of selection) from subsequent reproduction mechanisms (utilitarian, functional, power, legitimation) that perpetuate the locked-in path; separates threshold dynamics from perpetuation structure.
- This reasoning surfaces the role of critical junctures—moments when multiple paths are feasible and small perturbations can steer the system toward different equilibria, a concept Mahoney (2000) places at the center of historical-sociological causal analysis.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Not recorded. Neither this nor any other of the 4 citations of this work carries a recorded support check.
Was it audited? Yes. A second, independent pass read the citation against the article text and recorded a verdict.
Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.
See how references were verified.
Registry ID ref:22d9be6bf341 · see in the full table