ARE AMERICAN ELECTIONS TRULY DEMOCRATIC?
Thursday, September 25, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Free. Reservations Required. Please call 215.409.6700 or order online.online.
Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach
Kirby Auditorium
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA
The National Constitution Center, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania’s program on Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutionalism, welcomes two distinguished scholars to address the timely and provocative question, "Are American Elections Truly Democratic?" Participants include Harvard University’s Dennis F. Thompson and Stanford Law School’s Pamela S. Karlan. Professor Thompson is one of the nation's leading political philosophers and he has written extensively on democracy, fairness, and electoral processes. Professor Karlan is the nation's leading expert on electoral laws and a frequent commentator on legal issues in the national media. Jack H. Nagel of the University of Pennsylvania moderates.
Dennis F. Thompson is the founding Director of Harvard's university-wide ethics program, now the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. His books include Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United States; Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business and Healthcare; Political Ethics and Public Office; and Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption. He is also the joint author with University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann of Why Deliberative Democracy? and Democracy & Disagreement. Thompson has served as a consultant to the Joint Ethics Committee of the South African Parliament, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Health and Human Services. He received his BA in philosophy summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary and holds a PhD in political science from Harvard.
A scholar and award-winning teacher, Pamela S. Karlan, is also the founding director of the Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, where students litigate live cases before the Court. One of the nation’s leading experts on voting and the political process, she has served as a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission and an assistant counsel and cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Karlan is the co-author of three leading casebooks on constitutional law and related subjects, as well as more than four dozen scholarly articles. She is a widely recognized commentator on legal issues and is frequently featured on programs such as the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1998, she was a professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law and served as a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Abraham D. Sofaer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Moderating this conversation is Jack H. Nagel, Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Steven F. Goldstone Endowed Term Chair. He has served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences and, prior to that, Chair of Penn’s Political Science Department. Nagel’s research and teaching center on democratic theory and practice, electoral systems, and political participation. In a 2007 paper published in the Journal of Politics, Nagel analyzed the functioning of the Electoral College in the first four U.S. presidential elections and he is currently at work with Vincent Merlin on assessing the likelihood of disputed elections under the national popular vote as compared with the present Electoral College system.
The garage at the National Constitution Center will be closed for this program. Parking for this event is available for $7.50 at the Independence Visitor's Center garage located on 5th Street between Market and Arch Streets. Parking availability is subject to change. Please call the Center on the day of the program for more information. Please also see our directions by public transportation. http://www.constitutioncenter.org/visiting/VisitorInformation/index.shtml#Map
For reservations please call 215.409.6700 or order online. Programs at the National Constitution Center begin promptly and latecomers may not be admitted to the program. Please note that this program is subject to change.
Link:
University of Pennsylvania’s program on Democracy, Citizenship and Constitutionalism