On February 27-28, 2009, the Tobin Project convened an interdisciplinary conference to chart new intellectual paths in the field of elections scholarship and identify productive ways in which scholars’ research agendas connect to policymakers’ reform agendas. Discussions were structured around a set of fundamental questions: What role should the courts play in regulating or promoting democracy? How do electoral structures shape public policy results? How does electoral reform actually take root? Participants included leading scholars in political science, law, history and key policymakers and judges.
The conference aimed to stimulate new research on issues at the intersection of law, politics, and democracy, in order to provide scholars and policymakers with new ways to think about not only what our democratic institutions ought to look like, but how approaches to political and legal processes can best achieve reform.
This project is part of a larger research effort centered upon understanding American Identity & Values. One of several questions that frames this debate includes: Does the practice of American democracy — its civic institutions and electoral processes — meet our aspirations for it?
Archived discussion papers on Institutions of Democracy
Participating Scholars
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