Since 1989, post-communist countries have undergone profound changes in their political, economic, and social structures and institutions. Across a range of development outcomes-in terms of the speed and success of reforms-transition is an “unhappy process.” The “happiness gap,” i.e. the...

"Looking at Japan, this book traces crisis narratives across three decades and ten policy fields, with the aim of disentangling discursively manufactured crises from actual policy failures. Mired in national crises since the early 1990s, Japan has had to respond to a rapid population decline; the...