by jpitney | Aug 10, 2024 | Constitution, Deliberation, Democracy
Nathan Gardels at Noema: It is a mark of just how deep the crisis of governance across Western democracies has become that conflict irresolvable through political competition is giving way to the reconsideration of founding constitutions and the institutions they...
by jpitney | Jun 18, 2024 | Congress, Debate, Deliberation, House of Representatives
At The Washington Examiner, Ben Jacobs reports on covering the House floor for a week: It’s possible I picked a slow week. Perhaps if I sat through another week, I would witness important and substantive things happening. I doubt it, though. Instead, it often felt...
by jpitney | Jun 15, 2024 | Deliberation, Social Media
At Noema, Nathan Gardels speaks with Jonathan Haidt: The displacement of a public square by the viral spectacle of social media hits at the heart of the sober deliberative quality that protects democracy from the pure wash of public passions: There’s no more public...
by jpitney | Apr 5, 2024 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives, Social Media
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: Theme-team messaging is reflected not only in floor speeches but in the type of legislation brought to the floor, often in “sense of the House” resolutions that go nowhere in the Senate. There is little evidence that House televised...
by jpitney | Mar 26, 2024 | Business, Civic Education, Civility, Deliberation, Public Opinion
From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation: A comprehensive new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation reveals an alarming truth just three years shy of America’s 250th anniversary—the nation’s civic knowledge is badly lagging. The national survey, which...
by jpitney | Feb 28, 2024 | Congress, Deliberation, House of Representatives, Madison
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: In grappling for an appropriate analogy for this new procedural game in town, I finally settled on circle dodgeball, labeled here as “procedural dodgeball.” A large circle is drawn and, in the middle a smaller circle with five or so...
