Claus Offe, born 1940, was Professor of Political Science at Humboldt University, Berlin, where he held a chair in Political Sociology and Social Policy. His previous positions include professorships at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, where he served as director of the Center of Social Policy Research. He has held research fellowships and visiting professorships in the US, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands. Since 2006 he has been Professor of Political Science at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. His fields of research are democratic theory, transition studies, EU integration, and welfare state and labour market studies. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in these fields, a selection of which is reprinted as Herausforderungen der Demokratie. Zur Integrations- und Leistungsfähigkeit politischer Institutionen (2003). Recent book publications in English include Varieties of Transition (1996), Modernity and the State: East and West(1996), Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies (1998, with J. Elster and U.K. Preuß), Reflections on America. Tocqueville, Weber, und Adorno in the United States (2005) and Europe Entrapped (2014). Ulrich K. Preuß is Professor emeritus of Law and Politics at Freie Universität Berlin and at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. In 1989-90, he co-authored the draft of the constitution as a participant of the Round Table of the German Democratic Republic. He has taught at, among others, Princeton University, New School University, the University of Chicago and Haifa University. He served as a judge at the Staatsgerichtshof (State Constitutional Court) in the Land Bremen [state of Bremen] from 1992 unitil 2011. His book publications include, among others, Constitutional Revolution. The Link Between Constitutionalism and Progress, 1995; Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies. Rebuilding the Ship at Sea (co-authored with Jon Elster and Claus Offe), 1998; Krieg, Verbrechen, Blasphemie. Zum Wandel bewaffneter Gewalt [War, Crime, and Blasphemy. On the changing character of armed conflict]. 2nd ed. 2003; Bedingungen globaler Gerechtigkeit, 2010.