The notion of stability is one that refers to the permanence of the characteristics of an element or a situation through time, its condition of stable or constant. Stability can be applied as a characteristic to certain physical phenomena as well as social, historical, political, economic, cultural or individual phenomena as long as the idea of constancy and permanence of the elements that make up such phenomenon is maintained.
In general, the notion of stability is related to a myriad of physical or natural phenomena that occur in the environment and whose main characteristic is the maintenance of its elements under certain conditions over time. This means that stability is thus the presence of components that remain as such regardless of the change of other external factors. A case of stability for the natural sciences could be the permanence of the characteristics of matter, for example, the stability of the water in a container. If it changed its volume, its movement or its essential components, stability would no longer be a characteristic for it.
However, the term stability can also be used for social or human phenomena in which the same situation of permanence of certain elements occurs. In this sense, the stability applied to human phenomena not so easily quantifiable is in any case visible and measurable according to socially imposed parameters. For example, the stability of an institution such as the family depends on the maintenance of certain ties and relationships in an orderly and reproductive way according to what each society understands by such terms. At the same time, the political stability of a government can mean the permanence in time of the officials assigned to that role. Finally, the emotional or economic stability of a person can mean the permanence of certain conditions of order and constancy in their daily life.
