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Hideko Magara (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is Professor of Political Science at Waseda University in Tokyo. She is the author of various books and articles on comparative politics. Her recent works include an edited volume Economic Crises and Policy Regimes: The Dynamics of Policy Innovation and Paradigmatic Change (2014), a co-edited volume with Stefano Sacchi The Politics of Structural Reforms: Social and Industrial Policy Change in Italy and Japan (2013), and articles such as “Divergent Fate of Left Parties in Political Economic Regime Transitions: Italy and Japan in the 1990s,” in M. Ido, ed., Varieties of Capitalism, Types of Democracy and Globalization (2012). She is presently heading an international research project, Growth, Crises, Democracy: The Political Economy of Social Coalitions and Policy Regime Change, which introduces a new research design to analyse how political leaders and citizens can overcome the weaknesses inherent in democracy and escape from an economic crisis by establishing an effective social coalition. Magara was formerly President of the Japan Association for Comparative Politics, and she is currently an associate member of the Science Council of Japan. She received the Cavaliere Medal from the President of Italy for her contribution to the studies of Italian politics.