CAPITOL
HILL BRIEFING & DISCUSSION
"American
Democracy's Uncertain Future -- And Is California An Unsettling
Vision Of Our Democratic Destiny?"
___________
Thursday, August 21, 2003
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
1300 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, DC
You are
invited to join us for a discussion of the future trajectory of the
nation
and its democratic institutions with a
special focus on California
featuring
former Congressman Glen Browder, a professor at the Naval
Postgraduate
School (California) and Jacksonville State University
(Alabama),
and author of "The Future of American Democracy: A Former
Congressmans
Unconventional Analysis."
Leon
Panetta, former White House chief of staff and now director of the Leon
&
Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy at the California State
University
at Monterey, says Browders book "challenges all of us to
awake
and
restore the fundamental strength of our democracy."
Browder
comments, "Current public discussion about American democracy is a
stale
orthodoxy of simplistically-progressive ideas buttressed by
theoretically-limited
and politically-cautious analysis; furthermore, those
who
muster sufficient civic courage to sound the alarm too often are
afflicted
with excessive ideological arrogance."
He notes that, "Growing
philosophical
tensions over historic ideals, cultural values and principles
of
governance are transforming our national democratic experiment. Our civic
mix of
people, politics and government no longer works the way it has in the
past. Therefore, it is time for serious national
dialogue about America."
California,
Browder says, raises "particularly tricky questions and provides
some
useful points of guidance about important developments -- the delicate,
difficult,
dangerous interplay among diversity, divergence, dissentience,
and
democracy -- in future America."
Details about his book and the ideas it
presents
are available at http://www.futureofamericandemocracy.org .
Former
Sen. Mike Gravel (National Initiative For Democracy) will assess
Browders
provocative analysis and recommendations, and audience Q&A will
follow. The session is open to the public.
The
briefing will take place on Thursday, August 21, 2003, at 10:00 a.m., in
Room
1300 of the Longworth House Office
Building.
________________________________________
Tim
Ransdell, California Institute for Federal Policy Research
419 New
Jersey Avenue SE, Basement Level, Washington, DC 20003
Voice:
202-546-3700 -- Fax: 202-546-2390 -- Cell: 202-425-3700
<mailto:ransdell@calinst.org> Web: <http://www.calinst.org>
_________________________________________