Public Lecture
Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency
What is the relationship between the growth of presidential power and the failure of democratic institutions in the United States? Join us on Wednesday, March 25 at 5:00pm in Wegmans Hall 1400 to hear Will Howell, Professor and Dean of the School for Government and Policy at Johns Hopkins University, discuss his book, coauthored with Terry Moe, Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency. Howell's and Moe's historically informed account shows how the concentration of power in the U.S. President is rooted in opposition to the growth of the U.S. administrative state that began in the 1960s. The result is a "strongman presidency" that puts american democracy in imminent danger.
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Film Screening
My Imaginary Country
Cinema and Politics Series
Join us on Thursday, March 19, at 5:30pm in Dewey Hall, room 1-101 for a screening and discussion of Patricio Guzman's 2022 documentary film My Imaginary Country, which explores the massive street protests that took place in Santiago, Chili in 2019 -- the largest in the country's history. We'll start with light refreshments, watch the film, and then enjoy an in-depth discussion, featuring Professors of Political Science Gretchen Helmke and Anderson Frey, and Professor of Modern Languages and Cultures Luis-Maria Rojas-Rimachi.
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Public Lecture
An ER for the Rule of Law: Lawyering in an Era of Democratic Erosion
Judicial systems are designed to uphold and interpret the law, but who holds those in power accountable to it? Around the world, democracies have grappled with the challenge of prosecuting elected officials who abuse their authority to undermine democratic institutions. In practice, enforcing accountability against political leaders is extraordinarily difficult. What obstacles stand in the way, and how can lawyers and judges respond to them? Sonia Mittal, clinical lecturer and associate research scholar in law at Yale Law School, will explore these questions in this year’s Cutler Lecture, open to the public and held on Wednesday, February 25 at 5:00pm in Wegmans Hall, room 1400. Mittal is a former senior counsel and assistant U.S. attorney who played a leading role in major DOJ investigations. She is a scholar of constitutional failure with publications in the Harvard Law & Policy Review; Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization; Northwestern Law Review; Stanford Law Review Online; and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law.
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Film Screening
Death of Stalin
Cinema and Politics Series
Join us for a screening and discussion of Armando Iannucci's outrageous black comedy The Death of Stalin, on Thursday, February 19, at 5:30pm in Dewey Hall, room 1-101. We'll start with light refreshments, watch the film, and then enjoy an in-depth discussion, moderated by Randy Stone, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Skalny Center for Polish and East European Studies.
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