The concept of path dependency: definitions and theoretical controversies

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the main differencesand disputes among scholars who have dealt with the conceptof path dependency, analyzing how this subject was initiallyaddressed by the historical economic theory and the changes thatwere introduced to the concept once it was incorporated into thedebate within Political Science. In trying to unravel how historymatters, important differences arise between scholars in thedefinition of explanatory mechanisms, in the importance accordedto the theme of contingency and in the very specification of thetypes of sequences of events that could be considered as pathdependent.