Our American Discourse, Ep. 3: Good Governance and the Democratic Process

The “causes of faction are…sown in the nature of man,” said James Madison. But could the founders have foreseen the level of political polarization we’re seeing today? They certainly tried. That’s why we have separation of powers, checks and balances, and the Bill of Rights. In many ways, these institutions are under attack. Power has been concentrated, and minority rights have been threatened. What shall become of our constitutional system?In this episode, we navigate this treacherous onslaught with Dean Jack Knott.[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/311236630" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]Dean Knott is the Dean of the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, where he also holds the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the former President of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration.Listen to this episode of Our American Discourse by clicking on the orange play arrow above, or subscribe at iTunes, Soundcloud, or Google Play.==========“Our American Discourse” is produced by Aubrey Hicks, Jonathan Schwartz, and myself, and mixed by Corey Hedden.