Multiple institutional paths can realize the same political goal

Evidence

The labor mobilization example shows how within a given society there are often alternative means to achieve a certain end. Workers can mobilize via the creation of unions, the creation of political parties, or both. This ubiquitous phenomenon I refer to as substitutability; an alternative term is equifinality. Both substitutability and equifinality stress that there are multiple paths to a given goal. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts, 437

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces substitutability/equifinality as the concept describing alternative means to one end.
• XREF: Echoes causal-equivalence and ‘multiple paths to a goal’ reasoning seen in the reader’s institutional and social-capital material. — connects to: Political actors insulate favored policies by refashioning institutional context across many domains — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 25