Are American Elections Sufficiently Democratic?

Posted by on September 22, 2008

Kicking off the second year of the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism—we invite you to join us for the first event of the 2008-2009 DCC Workshop Series, a lively discussion on this year’s theme: Civic Representation, Elections, and Public Opinion.  Stanford University Professor of Public Interest Law Pamela S. Karlan and Harvard University Professor of Political Philosophy Dennis F. Thompson will consider the question, “Are American elections sufficiently democratic?” Their conversation will be followed by a Q&A session and reception.

“Are American Elections Sufficiently Democratic?”

September 25, 2008, 6:30 p.m.

The National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium
525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA

Pamela S. Karlan
One of the nation’s leading experts on voting and the political process, Pamela S. Karlan is the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School and the founding director of the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, where students litigate live cases before the Court. 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.

Dennis F. Thompson
The Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at Harvard University, Dennis F. Thompson is also a professor of public policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Director emeritus of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Thompson’s most recent books are Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business, and Healthcare, Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United States, and Why Deliberative Democracy? with co-author Amy Gutmann.

Established with the aid of a $2.5-million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the School of Arts and Sciences, the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism (DCC) fosters an integrated approach to studying the interplay between democratic institutions, constitutionalism, and experiences of citizenship.