Introduction

Abstract

For social scientists, moments of crisis are not merely times of stress but also of flux, of choice, and of new possibilities. In the words of Peter Gourevitch, who wrote one of the most influential volumes on the comparative responses to international economic crisis of the 1970s:

Hard times expose strengths and weaknesses to scrutiny, allowing observers to see relationships that are often blurred in prosperous periods, when good times slake the propensity to contest and challenge. The lean years are times when old relationships crumble and new ones have to be constructed. It is then that institutions and patterns are built which will persist long into the next cycle.¹