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Democracy Talk: Theory of Constitutional Failure—The American Case

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Location: Geddes Hall Coffee House (View on map.nd.edu)

Golden Dome with American flag and Notre Dame flagGolden Dome with American flag and Notre Dame flag

The idea that the United States is on the verge of a constitutional crisis has become commonplace. However, what we have seen is not one moment of crisis but instead an era of constitutional collapse where our democratic institutions are failing to fulfill their responsibilities, argues Jack Rakove, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University.
 
John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, will give introductory remarks.
 
 

Jack Rakove is the William R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and professor of Political Science, emeritus, at Stanford University. After completing his Ph.D. in History at Harvard University, where he studied under Bernard Bailyn, Rakove joined the faculty of Colgate University in 1975, then moved to Stanford five years later.

He is the author of eight books, including The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (Alfred Knopf, 1979); Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (Alfred Knopf, 1996), which won the Pulitzer Prize; Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2010), which was a finalist for the George Washington Prize; and A Politician Thinking: The Creative Mind of James Madison (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017). He has edited seven other books, including The Unfinished Election of 2000 (Basic, 2001) and (with Colleen Sheehan), The Cambridge Companion to The Federalist (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Rakove is a past president of the Society for the History of the Early American Republic and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Event Details

Theory of Constitutional Failure: The American Case
April 24, 2 to 3 p.m.
Geddes Hall Coffee House 
 
The Democracy Initiative aims to foster a campuswide call for public service and responsible citizenship. The signature event series “Democracy Talks” offers accessible and engaging opportunities for all students and members of the Notre Dame community to better understand current events and pressing policy issues. These talks are often in partnership with campus centers and institutes and elevate experts from the Notre Dame faculty as well as practitioners and policymakers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Originally published at strategicframework.nd.edu.