The National Constitution Center and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University recently presented a conversation exploring how significant the role of “we the people” should be in governing. The panel debated whether more power should be returned to the American people and, if so, what reforms should be enacted to meet that goal? National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen was joined by Dan McLaughlin, senior writer at National Review Online and professor Hahrie Han, co-author of Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in 21st Century America and the inaugural director of the SNF Agora Institute.
This panel was streamed live on June 23, 2021.
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This episode was produced by Jackie McDermott, Tanaya Tauber, John Guerra, and Lana Ulrich. It was engineered by David Stotz and Greg Scheckler.
TRANSCRIPT:
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This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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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