Lecture, Prof. John Aldrich, “Power, Policy, and Democratic Principles: Challenges Facing Congress”

Watson Institute and the Brown Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics is excited to welcome Professor John Aldrich for the John Hazen White, Sr., Lecture. Professor Aldrich specializes in American politics and behavior, formal theory, and methodology. “Power, Policy, and Democratic Principles: Challenges Facing Congress” Dissatisfaction with government – including Congress perhaps above all – runs uncommonly high, and the practice of governing in the Congress is increasingly distasteful to nearly every observer. How has Congress changed so much over the last few decades? Are its practices really worse than in earlier eras? Does it matter that Members seem to dislike one another, that it is difficult for the Republican Party to select a leader, that narrow majorities appear to make governing even harder? Are there any silver linings? JOHN H. ALDRICH. (Ph.D., Rochester), Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science, Duke University. He specializes in American and comparative politics and behavior, formal theory, and methodology. Books he has authored or co-authored include Why Parties, Why Parties Matter, Before the Convention, Interdisciplinary, Change and Continuity in the 2020 and 2022 Elections. He is past President of the Southern Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the American Political Science Association. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. https://sites.duke.edu/aldrich/