Clarissa Rile Hayward is a political theorist at Washington University in St. Louis whose research and teaching focus on questions central to understanding and evaluating political life: "What is social power, and how does it shape human freedom?" "What does democratic government entail, and what are its practical and institutional implications?" "How do social actors create and maintain identities?" Unlike theorists who attempt to answer such questions by relying exclusively on what Rawls called "ideal theory," Hayward approaches these problems by examining their concrete manifestations, writing theoretical work that is grounded in the analysis of institutions and practices. The result is an engaged form of political theory, addressed not only to other specialists in the field, but more generally to social and political theorists, social scientists, and others who are concerned with questions of power, democracy, and identity.