Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy

The story is the same in many places: citizens aren't currently wild about their leaders. As John A. Burtka IV writes in the introduction to Gateway to Statesmanship, the "examples of elite failures are so ubiquitous that there is no reason to chronicle them all here." Better, Burtka argues, to turn to history to "rediscover the time-tested principles of leadership."Listen to or watch the conversation here: https://civicsforlife.org/rediscovering-political-leadership-with-john-a-burtka-iv/You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

December 6 marks the anniversary of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in America in 1865. In this podcast, we look at the paradox of enslavement and our forefathers' emphasis on liberty and equality. In this unique conversation, hear from a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who is now the Monticello Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer, speaking on "The Paradox of Liberty. Would you like to watch the conversation with the presentation? You can find it here: https://oconnorinstitute.org/constitution-series-august2020-monticello/You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Ambassador Eizenstat joined the O'Connor Institute to discuss his latest book, The Art of Diplomacy, which in one readable volume covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord, and has earned glowing reviews from people as different in outlook as Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger. Diplomacy is a craft founded on trust and compromise. What lessons might its history hold for international and domestic politics today?  Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat has served in six U.S. administrations, Democrat and Republican, holding senior positions such as Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He recommended to President Jimmy Carter a Presidential Commission on the Holocaust, headed by Elie Wiesel, which led directly to the congressional approval of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Today, he is Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Today, we share a conversation that looks at the impact of stereotypes, how they affect us, and what we can do to limit their adverse effects. This discussion is led by Stanford Professor Dr. Claude M. Steele, an expert on social psychology, and initially took place as part of our Constitution Series Webcasts focusing on Equality and Justice for All. While this is a challenging topic, Dr. Steele leads us through where we came from and the hope psychologists see today.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

As students return to classrooms across the country this fall, we are resharing important conversations on landmark cases related to education. Today, we look at one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th Century - Brown v. Board of Education. This detailed conversation with Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of the late Rev. Oliver L Brown, who brought the suit represented by NAACP Chief Council Thurgood Marshall, examines the history behind the case.  You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

As preparations for the 2024 General Election approach, the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy sat down with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) President Secretary Steve Simon (D-MN), President-elect Michael Watson (R-MS), and NASS Executive Director Leslie Reynolds to discuss important bipartisan aspects of election administration, including election security, voter registration, poll worker recruitment, and evolving technology.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

We are pleased to take a new look at this conversation with Dr. Spencer Crew, in which he discusses the importance of making African American history accessible to the public. Art and documents in a museum can be an important way to experience and understand cultures in new ways. Dr. Spencer Crew has worked in public history institutions for more than twenty-five years. He served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years and worked at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution for twenty years. From 2019 to 2020, he served as the interim director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture as the Smithsonian conducted a nationwide search for a permanent director. Today, he serves as the Robinson Professor of U.S. History at George Mason University. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Empty office buildings. Workforce changes allow for more remote work. American downtowns are struggling. The pandemic-led changes in where and how we work and live have weakened and withered many urban cores. The office vacancy rate in Houston is some 26 percent; in Phoenix it is above 20 percent. This shift means fewer workers, fewer businesses to serve them, less tax revenue, and hollowed-out neighborhoods. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh of Columbia University coined the term "urban doom loop" to describe the cycle now taking hold in American downtowns, and he believes the biggest challenges are yet to come. But we are not without hope. Can urban America be saved? The O'Connor Institute welcomes Drs. Van Nieuwerburgh and Tracy Hadden Loh of the Brookings Institution to discuss. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

We are excited to revisit this fascinating discussion with Judge Douglas Ginsburg as he delves into past, present, and future struggles for liberty through the lens of the US Constitution - just in time for the 4th of July and the celebration of our Country’s independence. Judge Ginsburg is the author of Voices of Our Republic, the companion to the 2020 three-part PBS series, A More or Less Perfect Union.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy presents a conversation with author and historian Claire Rydell Arcenas and Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. In her book America's Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life, Rydell Arcenas seeks to better understand and illuminate the crucial 17th century philosopher by showing how he influenced Americans at different historical moments. Widely known as the founding father of modern “liberal” thought, Locke pioneered the ideas of natural law, social contract, religious toleration, and the right to revolution that proved essential to both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution that followed.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

There is broad scholarly agreement that our current political world owes much to what Thomas Paine was the first to call the "age of revolutions"—that is, the several late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century decades during which revolutions rocked the globe.But what gave rise to the age of revolutions? Why, suddenly, were era-spanning monarchies being toppled? Were revolutionaries motivated by democratic ideals, as some have argued, or, as others believe, merely advancing a newer version of illiberalism? And in what ways, if any, was the American Revolution exceptional? Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, author of the new book The Age of Revolutions and the Generations Who Made It, joins the Institute to discuss.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Perhaps no extant product of the U.S. Constitution has received more bipartisan animus than the Electoral College. Since 1800 there have been more than 700 proposals introduced in Congress to amend or eliminate the way in which America chooses its presidents. Yet the Electoral College lives on. Why do we have this system? Why does it inspire such cross-party antipathy? Can it be changed -- should it be changed? -- and if so how? Electoral College expert Dr. Edward B. Foley joins the Institute to discuss.  You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Some 40 million people in the American West rely on water from the Colorado River. But the river’s flow has diminished, and those decreases will likely continue. What does this mean for the American West in general and California and Arizona in particular? Will booming metro areas—Maricopa County, for example—have to halt their growth? Will vast expanses of agriculture disappear? Or is there reason to be optimistic about the West’s water future? Grady Gammage Jr. and Sarah Porter of Arizona State University's Kyl Center for Water Policy discuss the issue.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Episode three of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You." Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years, but different parts of the country are experiencing inflation differently. How do the ways in which we measure price increases, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), contribute to regional variances in inflation? What role do rising housing costs play? And do certain types of inflation cause more pain than others? University of Arizona economist George W. Hammond joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, for a discussion. Hammond directs the Economic and Business Research Center in the Eller College of Management. A specialist in econometric forecasting for more than two decades, he has designed, built, and used economic models to produce more than 100 forecasts for state and local economies and completed more than 50 regional economic studies on topics including economic and workforce development, energy forecasting, and the impact of higher education on human capital accumulation.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Episode two of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You."Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years, and the Federal Reserve has committed to fighting it. What tools can and does the Fed use to battle inflation, and what are its other economic duties beyond keeping prices stable? Who at the Federal Reserve makes decisions, and how do they make them? Brookings Institution economist Louise Sheiner joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, for a discussion. Sheiner is the Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and policy director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. She previously served as a senior economist in the Fiscal Analysis Section for the Research and Statistics Division with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

Episode one of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You." Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years. Why have prices gone up and when might they come down? What role do monetary policy, the Federal Reserve, and legislators play? And what is the fiscal theory of inflation? Hoover Institution economist John H. Cochrane joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, for a discussion. The Economist magazine wrote that Cochrane's new book, The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level, "builds a theory of inflation as ambitious as that proposed by John Maynard Keynes’s The General Theory or Milton Friedman’s and Anna Schwartz’s A Monetary History." Cochrane is the Rose-Marie and Jack Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube

In September 1981, Senator Dennis DeConcini, a Democrat from Arizona, supported President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to take a seat seat on the United States Supreme Court.Hear an eyewitness to history from that unprecedented time, Senator Dennis DeConcini himself, in a moderated conversation with his longtime friend Fred Duval, former U.S. deputy chief of protocol, and deputy assistant secretary of state in the 1990s. The Honorable Barry Goldwater, Jr. , former member of the U.S. House of Representatives provides the introduction."Senator Dennis DeConcini: Eyewitness To History" was produced by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy in association with T Door Productions.You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: TwitterFacebookInstagramYouTube