His tales of life inside this secretive institution have struck a deep chord at home and abroad, where the American-educated Miyamoto is seen as the most trenchant "insider" critic of the Japanese establishment to come along in decades.

Since retiring as Premier of Western Australia in 2006, Geoff Gallop has returned to his pre-political career as an academic. In the role of public intellectual, Gallop has focused on matters of the self within: society, contemporary politics, pragmatics, fundamentalism, fairness, and the meaning and importance of well-being for public policy and the person. From the international to the national, and down to the individual, Gallop brings a measured voice to the many debates that are universal, relevant, and personal. Gathered from public speeches and newspaper columns, this book of Gallop's essays is gently provocative and intellectually admirable, yet retains a personal voice.

Closing a critical gap in the literature examining the strained relationship between the U.S. and Japan, this book synthesizes the economic, political, historical, and cultural factors that have led these two nations, both practitioners of capitalism, along quite different paths in search of different goals. Taking an objective, multidisciplinary approach, the author argues that there is no single explanation for Japan's domestic economic or foreign trade successes. Rather, his analysis points to a systemic mismatch that has been misdiagnosed and treated with inadequate corrective measures. This systemic mismatch in the corporate strategy, economic policies, and attitudes of the U.S. and Japan created and is perpetuating three decades of bilateral economic frictions and disequilibria. As long as both the U.S. and Japan deal more with symptoms than causes, bilateral problems will persist. This book's unique analysis will encourage a better understanding on both sides of the Pacific of what has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen if corporate executives and policymakers in the two countries do not better realize the extent of their differences and adopt better corrective measures.

Political scandals, governmental instability and the poison-gas attack in central Tokyo show that Japan is passing through a serious social crisis. It affects virtually every social unit: family, school, company, political parties, religions and the nation. And it worries every segment of the population, young and old, men and women, management and labour, the elite and the plebe. Among other things, workers are growing dissatisfied with company life, families are undermined by discord and divorce, even the ruling Liberal Democratic Party collapsed (as did many of its opponents). The Japanese are ever harder to lead and the politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen who once led them are increasingly ineffective. Thus, while many reforms are mooted, and some are initiated, very few are actually implemented. Under these conditions, the many negative trends cannot be halted - let alone reversed - and the crisis should worsen.

European and American specialists in economic and political processes move beyond earlier debates to look seriously, systematically, and innovatively at social change and protest, with particular attention to the influence of economic change and variation on contentious politics. The essays take up two widely recognized but much contested questions in contentious politics: how threats and opportunities faced by potential participants in joint political action affect the likelihood, character, and consequences of that action; and, how economic change and variation either a) constitute significant political threats and opportunities or b) shape responses to political threats and opportunities. Contributors: Maria Kousis, Charles Tilly, Marc Giugni, Julie Berclaz, Marc Steinberg, Jeffery Broadbent, Klaus Eder, John K. Glenn, Dieter Rucht, Richard Hogan, Maryjane Osa, Cristina Corduneanu-Husi.

The bestselling classic that examines the history of economic thought from Adam Smith to Karl Marx—“all the economic lore most general readers conceivably could want to know, served up with a flourish” (The New York Times). The Worldly Philosophers not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas—namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines. In a bold new concluding chapter entitled “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?” Heilbroner reminds us that the word “end” refers to both the purpose and limits of economics. This chapter conveys a concern that today’s increasingly “scientific” economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics. Thus, unlike its predecessors, this new edition provides not just an indispensable illumination of our past but a call to action for our future.