Is America, like many countries around the world, experiencing democratic decline? Or have American institutions long fallen short of democratic ideals?

We think about America as an established democracy—perhaps even the oldest modern democracy in the world—but democracy is a long process. While a comparative lens can help us understand threats to American democracy by showing how democracy has succeeded or failed in other countries, scholars of race and ethnicity have long discussed the undemocratic elements of the American state. How has American democracy fallen short both historically and today, and how can we integrate the frameworks of race/ethnic politics and of comparative politics to better understand contemporary outcomes? 

Join the Fellows and Political Reform programs for an in-depth conversation about this overlooked but critically-important topic. 

Speakers: 

Didi Kuo, @didikuo1 
Class of 2018 Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America
Author, Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy 

Marcia Chatelain, @DrMChatelain
Class of 2017 Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America
Author, South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration 

Kimberley Johnson, @KimberleyNYC 
Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Former Professor and Director of the Urban Studies Program, Professor of Political Science, Barnard College

Moderator: 

Ted Johnson, @DrTedJ 
Class of 2017-2018 Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America
Senior Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice

Lunch will be provided.

https://www.newamerica.org/fellows/events/undemocratic-american-state-race-and-lessons-history/