Bureaucracy and Democracy: Are ‘We the People’ in Charge Any More? with Timothy Sandefur Timothy Sandefur is the Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation and holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government. Sandefur was named the Barry Goldwater Chair in American Institutions at ASU for 2023-2024. We all learned in school about “how a bill becomes a law.” But most of the laws that govern our lives aren’t actually written by elected representatives at all.
The upcoming sequence of anniversaries over the next few years focuses renewed attention on the American Revolution. How should a history with an increasingly contested understanding be taught? Where does it fit in civic education? How does commemorating key episodes in our American story relate to historical scholarship?
What is the state of civic education in universities? What are its prospects? Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership opened as a pioneering initiative in 2017 and provided a model for new programs elsewhere. A discussion with leaders behind these programs provides an assessment of their impact.
While civic education often takes a top-down approach to teaching patriotism, other formative influences operate in local communities from the bottom up and reflect their strengths or weaknesses. How do communities foster the “habits of heart and mind” behind reflective patriotism? Where does civic education fit in the project of revitalizing towns and regions facing other problems?
Long seen as forming character and introducing students to a shared tradition, the liberal arts have taken an increasingly critical view of society and its institutions. What tensions exist between liberal arts and civic education. How might they be addressed? Can humanistic study encourage participation in public life and community- mindedness?
The greatest peril to our country comes not from threats abroad but angry divisions at home that undermine citizenship. The Bill of Obligations sets forth a plan of action for civic education to revitalize American Democracy. Dr. Richard Haass is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and senior counselor with Centerview Partners. A former Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department and veteran diplomat, he has served in four presidential administrations.
The great civil rights leaders Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. both understood themselves to be American patriots but offered very different proposals for promoting the country’s welfare. Professor Lucas Morel contrasts their views, noting the strengths of each, to draw lessons for 21st-century America. Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University.
Democracy is more often invoked than defined or described in public debate. What does that word then mean? Smith argues forcefully that American Democracy can be dated from the afternoon of November 19,1863 when Abraham Lincoln announced “a new birth of freedom” in the Gettysburg Address. His words linked for the first time the struggle against slavery with the struggle for democracy both at home and abroad.
Maintaining republican government and ordered liberty requires certain virtues—both intellectual and moral—among the people. Without them, the US Constitution's structural constraints cannot check ambition.