Question

Passage A
Historical analysis often isolates the mid-fourteenth century as the critical inflection point in the dissolution of European feudalism, attributing this seismic shift primarily to the demographic catastrophe of the Black Death. The sudden eradication of roughly one-third of the population created an unprecedented labor shortage. According to this demographic model, the sudden scarcity of laborers radically shifted the economic balance of power. Peasants, previously bound to the land and subject to heavily extractive seigniorial dues, suddenly found their labor in high demand. Landlords were forced to compete for workers by offering better wages, lower rents, and greater mobility, effectively unwinding the coercive apparatus of serfdom. Over time, these market dynamics dissolved feudal ties, replacing them with early capitalist wage-labor relations. From this perspective, the transition away from feudalism was an inevitable economic correction dictated by the stark realities of supply and demand following a biological shock. The sheer mathematical reality of the labor market superseded centuries of entrenched legal tradition, demonstrating how exogenous natural events can fundamentally rewire socioeconomic structures.

Passage B
While the demographic devastation of the fourteenth-century plague undeniably shocked the European economy, attributing the collapse of serfdom exclusively to population decline ignores profound regional divergences that fundamentally challenge the demographic determinist model. If labor scarcity automatically dissolves coercive agrarian relations, one would expect serfdom to have crumbled uniformly across the continent. Yet, while peasant bargaining power indeed increased in Western Europe, the exact same demographic crisis in Eastern Europe precipitated the "Second Serfdom." There, landlords responded to the labor shortage not by offering concessions, but by successfully tightening legal restrictions, tying peasants even more harshly to the land to secure agricultural output for lucrative grain export markets. This divergence suggests that demographic shocks act merely as catalysts, not primary causes. The true determinant of feudalism's trajectory was the pre-existing institutional framework and the relative political leverage of the contending social classes. In the West, peasant communities possessed robust institutional organization capable of resisting landlord coercion; in the East, the nobility possessed disproportionate political dominance. Consequently, the transition out of feudalism must be understood primarily through the lens of institutional structures and class conflict, not mere biological accident.

Based on the texts provided, which of the following statements accurately describe shared analytical goals pursued by the authors of both Passage A and Passage B? (Select all that apply.)