Journal Entries #7

Are We Stuck in Place? At this point you would be justified in saying, "You're depressing me."

Nonetheless, there is good news in Historical Institutional Theory akin to the Buddha's key insight that life is always changing so you can never cling to anything in your life whether the experience is happy or sad. On the one hand it sucks, on the other hand when things are bad you can also count on circumstances to change so you aren't always stuck in bad times.

What overcomes path dependency?

Losers. They actually (sort of) rule. On this point Historical Institutional Theory says organizations rely on rules and always make decisions. Decisions always create winners and losers. So far, this isn't rocket science.

Decisions always provoke the unhappy campers and they hold the key. Because losers aren’t happy, they push for changing the rules. Since there are always rules and decisions, and thus losers, policy is never set in stone, but in state of permanent flux.

Take a moment to give some thought to the current political climate. What points of conflict do we have now? Where are folks pushing for change?