Balkinization: "Is America Governable?"

"Is America Governable?"

Sandy Levinson

Those of you who know my postings over the years know my pessimism about the answer to the question in the subject heading. More to the point, though, is that this is the title of a major conference I have organized to take place at the University of Texas Law School the weekend after Inauguration, January 24-26. We will obviously know by then whether we have jumped over the fiscal cliff or slid down the austerity slope, whether it is really likely that anything is going to be done about the free availability of all sorts of weaponry and ammunition, whether the United States is likely to continue paying its debts, and so on. I anticipate that the discussions will be web-streamed and possibly even on C-SPAN, given the quality of the participants, many of whom have published recent books altogether relevant to the topic, and continuing timeliness of the subject (unless Republican lions and Democratic lambs really are frolicking with one another and we can talk about what has accounted for this unexpected development). There is no cost for attending. I see no point to opening this for discussion. I will be offering some other posts shortly on American ungovernability that I will certainly open up.

The official website of the conference is https://www.utexas.edu/law/conferences/governable/

Is America Governable?

University of Texas School of Law, January 24-26, 2013

Conference Schedule (tentative)

Thursday, 5:30-7:30pm (Law School Auditorium):

The State of the Union, Evan Smith (moderator)

Mickey Edwards, Bill Galston, Sandy Levinson, Tom Mann, Norman Ornstein, Alan Wolfe

Friday (Eidman Courtroom)

9:15-10:45am: Compromise and governance, Elizabeth Sherman (moderator)

Mickey Edwards, Jane Mansbridge, Jack Rakove, Dennis Thompson

11:00-12:30pm: So How Well Did Our Electoral System(s) Do in 2012?, Joseph Fishkin (moderator)

Edward (Ned) Foley, Heather Gerken, Richard Hasen, Mark Rosen

LUNCH: 12:45-2 Atrium Luncheon talk: Larry Lessig: Is the Republic Still in Danger of Being Lost? Lessons from the 2012 Elections

Eidman Courtroom

2:15-3:3:45 pm: “The People’s Branch”: Is Congress Hopeless?, John Fortier (moderator)

Sarah Bilder, John Ferejohn, Tom Mann, David Mayhew, Norman Ornstein

4:00--5:30 pm: Executive branch(es) and governance: A Cause for Optimism or Fear?, Jeff Tulis (moderator)

Philip Bobbitt, Jacob Gersen, Stephen Griffin, Tom McGarity, Stephen Skowronek

Saturday (Eidman Courtroom)

9:15-10:45am: Governance and the judiciary, Scot Powe (moderator)

Adam Liptak, James Gibson, Alan Tarr

11:00-12:15: Governance from the State perspective, Lynn Baker (moderator)

Bruce Cain, John Dinan

1:30-3:30pm: Thinking about the future (and outside the box?), Jack Balkin, moderator

James Fishkin, David Orentlicher, Ernesto Cortes

Participants

Lynn Baker, University of Texas Law School

Jack Balkin, Yale Law School

Sarah Bilder, Brookings Institution, George Washington University

Philip Bobbitt, University of Texas Law School, Columbia Law School

Bruce Cain, University of California at Berkeley

Ernesto Cortes, Industrial Areas Foundation

John Dinan, Wake Forest University

Mickey Edwards, Aspen Institute

John Ferejohn, New York University School of Law

James Fishkin, Stanford University

Joseph Fishkin, University of Texas Law School

Edward (Ned) Foley, Moritz School of Law, Ohio State University

John Fortier, Bipartisan Policy Center

William Galston, Brookings Institution

Heather Gerken, Yale Law School

Jacob Gersen, Harvard Law School

James Gibson, Washington University of St. Louis

Stephen Griffin, Tulane Law School

Richard Hasen, University of California at Irvine School of Law

Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School

Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School

Adam Liptak, New York Times

Thomas Mann, Brookings Institution

Jane Mansbridge, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

David Mayhew, Yale University

David Orentlicher, University of Indiana School of Law

Thomas McGarity, University of Texas Law School

Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute

Lucas A. (Scot) Powe, University of Texas Law School

Jack Rakove, Stanford University

Mark Rosen, Chicago-Kent School of Law

Elizabeth Sherman, American University

Stephen Skowronek, Yale University

Evan Smith, Texas Tribune

Alan Tarr, Rutgers University

Dennis Thompson, Harvard University

Jeffrey Tulis, University of Texas

Alan Wolfe, Boston College

Posted 3:44 PM by Sandy Levinson [link]