YVES SINTOMER is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political Science at Paris 8 University, France. Since 2009, he has also been guest professor at Neuchâtel University, Switzerland. RUDOLF TRAUB-MERZ holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tübingen, Germany where he specialized on the political economy of development in Africa. In 1986, he joined the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), ... Read moreand subsequently, became country representative in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. JUNHUA ZHANG is Professor in the Political Science department at the College of Public Administration at Zhejiang University, China. He served as the Director of the Asian Center for Development and Transformation in Berlin, Germany until 2006. Show Less