About the Editors and Contributors

Sergio Bitar

Sergio Bitar is an engineer, economist, and politician. He served Chile as a minister in the cabinet of President Allende. After the coup he was a political prisoner and then in exile. He later served as a senator, as head of the Party for Democracy and as a minister in the governments of Presidents Lagos and Bachelet. He is president of Chile's Foundation for Democracy and director of the Global Trends and Latin America’s Future project at the Inter-American Dialogue. MPP, Harvard University/

Abraham F. Lowenthal

Abraham F. Lowenthal, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Southern California, founded the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin America programme, the Inter-American Dialogue and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He has published on Latin American politics, inter-American relations democratic governance and US foreign policy. PhD, Harvard University

Genaro Arriagada

Genaro Arriagada is a political scientist and politician. He served as Minister of the Presidency in the cabinet of Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle and Ambassador to the United States. He has been general secretary and vice-president of the Cristian Democratic Party. He was Chief Executive of the “NO” campaign in the 1988 plebiscite vote that defeated Pinochet. He has published widely on Chilean and Latin American politics.

Jane L. Curry

Jane L. Curry is professor of political science at Santa Clara University. A scholar of the Polish transition, she is also a specialist on central and eastern European journalism studies and transformation. She has recorded more than 200 interviews with Polish, Serbian, Georgian and Ukrainian participants in their countries’ transitions from Communist rule. PhD, Columbia University

Bahtiar Effendy

Bahtiar Effendy is the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, State Islamic University, Jakarta. As a Professor of Politics, he has published widely on Indonesian democracy, relations between religion and the state, and politics in the Islamic world. PhD, Ohio State University

Steven Friedman

Steven Friedman is director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg. A former trade unionist, journalist, and an academic, he has published widely on the South African transition to democracy, especially the role of the citizen in strengthening democracy. PhD, Rhodes University

Frances Hagopian

Frances Hagopian is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Visiting Ass ociate Professor for Brazil Studies in the Department of Government at Harvard University. She has published extensively on comparative politics in Latin America, with emphasis on democratization, political representation, political economy, and religion and politics. PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Soledad Loaeza

Soledad Loaeza is a professor at the Center of International St udies at El Colegio de México. Her areas of expertise include political systems and elections, presidential power in Mexico and democratization in Mexico. She is a member of International IDEA’s Board of Advisers. PhD, Institut d'études politiques de Paris

Kwame A. Ninsin

Kwame A. Ninsin is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Ghana and is scholar in residence at the Institute for Democratic Governance in Accra. His areas of expertise include the political economy of Ghana, Ghana’s democratic transition and globalization in Africa. PhD, Boston University

Mutiara Pertiwi

Mutiara Pertiwi is a junior researcher at the Institute for International Studies, State Islamic University, Jakarta. Her publications focus on Indonesian democracy, Asian non-traditional security issues, international relations in Southeast Asia, global governance and humanitarianism. MA (Hons), Australian National University

Charles Powell

Charles Powell is director of the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid. He is a specialist on Spain’s transition to democracy, the role of the King in the transition, Spanish politics, and the political and security relationship between Spain and the US. PhD, Oxford University

Mark R. Thompson

Mark R. Thompson is director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre and professor of politics at the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. His expertise is on authoritarian rule and comparative democratization, particularly in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. PhD, Yale University

Georgina Waylen

Georgina Waylen is a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. She is a specialist on comparative politics with a focus on gender and politics, international political economy, transitions to democracy, and governance and institutions. She is co-director of the Feminism & Institutionalism International Network.