The contributions to this volume encompass a wide range of subjects pertaining to the analysis, understanding and evaluation of economic systems in regard to their structural as well as to their behavioral and evolutionary aspects: capitalism, socialism, institutions, rules, ownership, power, participation, agency, incentives, conflict, cooperation, productivity, and investment behavior. But it seems to me that the underlying common denominator is somehow related to the quest for an economic régime that is able to bring about an acceptable trade-off between efficiency and participation (democracy) in modern society. It may be held that this quest has seemingly been removed from the agenda as a consequence of the decline and fall of socialism in the world. But such a conclusion would certainly be premature, and for several reasons. In the first place, it is debatable whether the socioeconomic system in Eastern Europe had anything more in common with traditional images of socialism than collective ownership of the means of production and planning.