Claude Lefort is the Director of Studies Emeritus at the ?cole des Hautes ?tudes en Sciences Sociales. He was formerly a Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a Professor at the University of S?o Paolo in Brazil, at the Sorbonne, and at the University of Caen. A former student and collaborator of the French phenomenologist Maurice Mereleau-Ponty, Lefort was a cofounder of Socialisme ou Barbarie. David Ames Curtis is a freelance translator, editor, and writer who was nominated for the French-American Foundation Translation Prize in 1996.