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Ten Comparisons, Then And Now, Angus King
Ten Comparisons, Then And Now, Angus King
Maine Policy Review
This article is an edited version of a lecture given in a lecture series, “Politics Then and Now, in Maine and the Nation,” presented by the Muskie School and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine in the fall of 2013. Speakers were asked to address the issue of political polarization and dysfunction, comparing how politics was played in the past with the current situation, and discussing what Maine can offer based on experiences here. Angus King describes a number of factors contributing to the dysfunctional state of politics now, with one of the most fundamental being …
The Project Of Democracy, Alexander Keyssar
The Project Of Democracy, Alexander Keyssar
Maine Policy Review
This article is an address given at the May 2002 Maine Town Meeting sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. Alexander Keyssar chronicles the advances and contractions of democratic political rights in American history. While on balance, this is a story of progress, it is not, Keyssar argues, unilinear, nor one that is completed. Although arguably late for the world’s “greatest democracy,” by the 1970s the United States had achieved universal suffrage. Today, however, the tug between democratic and anti-democratic forces continues. The contest is no longer over voting rights but over the procedures and rules governing elections …
In Search Of A Strong Agenda: An Interview With Kenneth M. Curtis, Kenneth Curtis
In Search Of A Strong Agenda: An Interview With Kenneth M. Curtis, Kenneth Curtis
Maine Policy Review
In an interview this fall with Maine Policy Review, Kenneth Curtis, the former governor, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and former U.S. ambassador to Canada, shared his insights into the civic and political life of Maine and the nation. Not surprisingly, Curtis, currently president of Maine Maritime Academy, argues that many attitudes about the ineffectiveness and the unresponsiveness of government could be overcome by strong leadership from the executives of federal and state governments. He asserts that federal and state chief executives need to offer a vision of the future, put forth strong political agendas, and then …
Reflections On Citizenship: Thinking About Power As Interaction, Leslie I. Hill
Reflections On Citizenship: Thinking About Power As Interaction, Leslie I. Hill
Maine Policy Review
The steady decline of participation in many areas of public life suggests that we may be overlooking power as not only a source of the problem, but also as a critical part of the solution. Leslie Hill argues that to revive concepts of citizenship and democratic participation enshrined in the language of the nation's founding, we ought to rethink conventional ideas about power as control and domination and, in the alternative, view power as interaction. She also suggests that we need to adopt new approaches to civic education that include this concept of power as interactive politics. Underlying this argument, …