POLS 264 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Path Dependence, P. W. Botha
20 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
History matters or the notion that the past influences the future . What has happened in past defines alternatives for the future. Historical sequences in which contingent events set into motion institutional patterns or event chains that have deterministic properties (mahoney 2000) Events that are not expected to take place and cannot be predicted: Assassinations: the iconic one being that of franz ferdinand in 1914 cited as the event that put in motion the events that led to ww1. Market collapses: the new york stock market in 1929 triggered deep economic depression in the international system because of ideas of protectionism the way to solve was cited to be ceasing trade. The crash of 1987 was immediate in global impact and relative value of international currencies changed. Inventions: the capacity of inventions to radically alter what follows from especially those in weapons and weapons systems. Importation of gunpowder technology and the adaptation to cannon technology walled cities of europe disintegrated.
