History matters is a cliché whose validity is widely assumed, but political scientist Paul Pierson shows precisely how history matters in his book Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis (2004). By extending economic historians concepts of positive feedback and path dependence to the field of politics, Pierson offers novel insights as to why some things in the social world change and others stay the same.
Politics in Time
By Andrew R. Rutten
This
article
appeared in
the Fall 2006 issue of The Independent Review.
Other Independent Review articles by Andrew R. Rutten | ||
Fall 2003 | The New Economy (Pre)Dux; or, What History Teaches Us about the Wired World | |
Summer 2001 | Rethinking the New Deal Court: The Structure of a Constitutional Revolution | |
Spring 1999 | Can Anarchy Save Us from Leviathan? | |
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