  The rupture of a medium under stress typifies breakdown phenomena. More
generally, the latter encompass the dynamics of systems of many interacting
elements governed by the interplay of a driving force with a pinning disorder,
resulting in a macroscopic transition. A simple mean-field formalism
incorporating these features is presented and applied to systems representative
of fracture phenomena, social dilemmas, and magnets out of equilibrium. The
similarities and differences in the corresponding mathematical structures are
emphasized. The solutions are best obtained from a graphical method, from which
very general conclusions may be drawn. In particular, the various classes of
disorder distribution are treated without reference to a particular analytical
or numerical form, and are found to lead to qualitatively different
transitions. Finally, the notion of effective (or phenomenological) theory is
introduced and illustrated for non-equilibrium disordered magnets.
