Harvey Mansfield, "America's Two Liberalism"

Join lunch and conversation with Harvey Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government at Harvard, and Professor Russell Muirhead. Monday Nov. 3, 11:30 am in the 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center. Co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.

Ben Friedman, "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth"

Thursday Oct 16 at 5 pm in Rocky 1. Co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.

Growth is usually thought of as an economic agenda. But Prof. Benjamin Friedman showed how it had far-reaching moral implications as well. The William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy revisits and updates his 2005 classic The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (Knopf) for the robotics, climate change, and AI generation.

James Read, Making the Best of our Flawed Constitution

The U.S. Constitution of 1787 was famously complicit with slavery.  Lincoln was aware of the Constitution’s flaws, but believed it created space for effective political action by a committed antislavery majority. James H. Read (Poli Sci, St Benedict and St. John’s) is the author of four books, including Sovereign of a Free People: Abraham Lincoln, Majority Rule, and Slavery (2023), on Lincoln’s preference for “time, discussion, and the ballot box,” rather than violence, to settle big disagreements. Friday Sept. 19 at 11:30 am in the Rocky 1930 Room. Sponsored by the Political Economy Project. Lunch served.

Steve Teles, "The Abundance Agenda: Is America a Blocked Society?"

Steve Teles (Johns Hopkins), “The Abundance Agenda,” Wednesday Oct. 8 at 5 pm in Rocky 1 (note the corrected time and place).

Has America become a blocked society? Has it become too hard for us to move around or up, build things, or innovate? What part of our national malaise, which helped spur the recent populism of left and right, is a result of laws, institutions, or interest groups that tether us to a frustrating status quo? Steve Teles of Johns Hopkins, a political scientist who has diagnosed the “kludge” that can hobble government action and one of our most provocative political scientists, will discuss.

Dan Goor, Are We Too Busy Hating Each Other to Laugh Together?

Dan Goor (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Killing It), October 22 at 5 pm in Rocky 3.

Does polarization make it impossible to laugh together? What can comedy be in the age of Trump. Does polarization make it impossible to laugh together? Can Hollywood entertain the whole country – or are we too divided for that?

Comedy Writer and producer Dan Goor joins Professor Russell Muirhead and Professor Charlie Wheelan.

Co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.