I’ve read up on the topic but can’t get clarity. For instance, what’s the difference between path dependency and a simple reluctance to change?
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In short, it means that society and history matters. US is the way it is, due to American society and history.
It can be explained by game theory. Somewhere in the history events or decisions happened that led to either A or B. A or B then led to Z or Y. And so on and so on.
One example would be our calendar system. It’s very ineffective and illogical. Yet everyone uses it. Changing it would be possible but it would cost so much resources, it’s far easier to just go on with it.
I think a good example is the QWERTY keyboard layout. Today it is so etablished and recognised that even if someone makes a better and more efficient layout it would be very hard to replace the QWERTY layout simply because we are all so used to it and no one really wants to bother with learning a better layout. The same is true in governance and institutions where rules are so ingrained that they are very hard to change and thus they became path dependent and resilient to change, even though there could be better rules. It is kinda like conformity 🙂
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