Divide and Deal

"Michele Barrett engages timely issues in great range and depth: humanism, anti-humanism, and ecological responsibility; the disciplinary constitution of objects of study and the writerliness of theory; the relationship of politics and aspiration. She supplements Marxism, interacts with post-structuralism, situates postmodernism in postmodernity, and remains firmly focused on historical change within feminism. She brings us all the way into popular culture, and ends with a virtuoso encounter between Virginia Woolf and Michel Foucault." -Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "In this astute and lively book, Michele Barrett takes the reader on a memorable and informed trip through the highs and lows of twentieth-century culture and its analysis. Imagination in Theory explores the dynamism of the century-long association of literature and theory, and provides one of the best arguments for the productive energy of that alliance." -Cora Kaplan, "Imagination has not been contemporary social theory's strongest suit. Michele Barrett is one of the few theorists who has consistently argued for its importance, and in these elegantly written, lucidly formulated, vigorously argued essays, she develops and enlarges her exploration of this complex terrain of inquiry." -Stuart Hall,

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. He is the editor or author of numerous books, most recently Political Contingency (NYU Press) and Rethinking Political Institutions (NYU Press). Peter Swenson is Saden Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Daniela Donno is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Introduction Ian Shapiro, Peter A. Swenson, and Daniela DonnoPart I Institutions 1 Welfare Regimes and Redistribution in the South Jeremy Seekings 2 Distributional Conflicts in Mature Welfare States Isabela Mares 3 Th e Politics of Tax StructureSteffen Ganghof 4 AIDS, Inequality, and Access to Antiretroviral TreatmentNicoli Nattrass 5 Distributive Politics and Formal Institutions in New DemocraciesVoting in the Russian State Duma, 1994 - 2003 Jana KunicovaPart II Individuals 6 Religion and Social InsuranceKenneth Scheve and David Stasavage 7 Moral Values and Distributive PoliticsWoojin Lee and John Roemer 8 Giving the People What They Want? Age, Class, and Distribution in the United States Christopher HowardPart III Coalitions 9 Good Distribution, Bad Delivery, and Ugly PoliticsPeter A. Swenson 10 Democracy and Distributive Politics in India Pranab Bardhan 11 The Political Uses of Public OpinionMayling Birney, Ian Shapiro, and Michael J. GraetzAbout the Contributors Index