^aDepartment of Politics, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK. E-mail: fiona.ross@bristol.ac.uk

Abstract

The popularity of path dependence theory is based on a swell of studies that have embraced a loose set of premises, many of which are unfalsifiable. Although scholars have devised some innovative means of broadening the theory, they have yet to develop a flexible model that is also systematic and theoretically elegant. This paper argues that layering morphogenetic social theory on top of a loose version of path dependence cannot resolve a number of critical difficulties that impair the explanatory and descriptive utility of non-economic specifications. However, morphogenetic social theory does promise an alternative and improved lens through which we can understand institutional development in the absence of path dependence theory.