ABSTRACT
The contributors to this volume discuss a range of issues and realities in four different continents during the course of several different historical periods. There is evidently more to these works than can be discussed in detail in this short conclusion. It therefore makes sense to limit the discussion to two of the most important topics. One has to do with the ways in which economic policy making have changed under pressure of crisis; the other with how democracies, or semidemocracies, have responded to a prolonged period of financial adversity. How and why have democracies and their institutions mostly withstood this stress test on such a large scale?
