The National Constitution Center and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, as part of their ongoing conversations about how to restore the guardrails of American democracy, present a debate exploring what the people’s role in governing should be. SNF Agora Inaugural Director Hahrie Han, co-author of Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in 21st Century America, and Dan McLaughlin, senior writer at National Review Online, discuss the role of citizens in our current representative democracy, and explore the question: Should more power be returned to the American people? Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
This program is presented in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University part of the National Constitution Center’s Restoring the Guardrails of Democracy initiative, and made possible with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Participants
Hahrie Han is the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of several books, forthcoming volume Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty‑First‑Century (co-authored with Liz McKenna and Michelle Oyakawa). Her award-winning work has been published in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.
Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online. He was formerly an attorney practicing securities and commercial litigation in New York City, a contributing editor of RedState, a columnist at The Federalist, and a contributor to the Command Post. His writings on politics, baseball, and law have appeared in numerous other newspapers, magazines, websites, and legal journals.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Liz McKenna, Hahrie Han, and Michelle Oyakawa, Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First Century America
- Dan McLaughlin, National Review, “What Is Democracy For, Anyway?”
- Dan McLaughlin, National Review, “The Constitution and the Importance of Writing It Down”
- Federalist 51
- Hahrie Han, How Organizations Develop Activists: Civic Associations and Leadership in the 21st Century
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
- Liz McKenna and Hahrie Han, SNF Agora Center, “The AMOS Project and the Campaign for Universal Preschool”
- Federalist 10
- Ballotpedia, "Ranked Choice Voting (RCV)"
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