Jennifer Lind, "Autocracy 2.0: China's Smart Despotism

In conversation with Andy Browne (Semafor), January 14 at 8 pm in Carson L02

Has China invented a new kind of tyranny? Jennifer Lind (Government) thinks so. In her provocative new book Autocracy 2.0, Lind argues that the Communist Party of China has threaded the needle between tight political and social control with inclusive-enough economic policy to become a truly modern superpower that not only challenges the Western-led international order, but offers a model for autocracies elsewhere to follow. Is she right? Come join the discussion! Co-sponsored by the Dickey Center.

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.