Fritz W. Scharpf is codirector of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany, and a former director of the International Institute of Management and Administration, Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin. He has taught at the Yale Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, and at the University of Konstanz. He has published widely on constitutional law, democratic theory, policy formation and policy implementation, political economy, negotiation theory, and game theory.

• Introduction, 1 Policy Research in the Face of Complexity, 2 Actor-Centered Institutionalism, 3 Actors, 4 Actor Constellations, 5 Unilateral Action in Anarchic Fields and Minimal Institutions, 6 Negotiated Agreements, 7 Decisions by Majority Vote, 8 Hierarchical Direction, 9 Varieties of the Negotiating State