Tocqueville Forum

First Student Conference on "The American Polity" Held at Georgetown

This past weekend the first student-run "Conference on the American Polity" was held on the campus of Georgetown University.  The conference was a joint project of Georgetown's Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy and the James Madison Program of Princeton University.  Students from both universities presented papers on American and Western thought and had opportunities for informal exchange and the building of a relationship between the two programs.

On Friday, April 4 a kick-off dinner was held in the Philodemic Society room at which conference participants, Tocqueville Forum and Madison program student fellows and other invited guests had the opportunity to meet.  The highlight of the evening was an appearance by William Kristol, editor of "The Weekly Standard," commentator on Fox News and most recently columnist for "The New York Times."  He discussed topics and answered student questions ranging from his background in political philosophy, the future of conservativism in America, and analysis of the current election. 

On Saturday, April 5 two panels were convened before a full and attentive audience.  The first panel featured student presentations on "Edmund Burke and the Bedrock of American Conservatism" by Jeffrey Long '11; "Turner's Thesis and America's Cultural Identity in a Global Age" by Eric Wind '09; and "John Rawls and Allan Bloom" by Tweedy Flanigan, '09.  The panel was moderated and commented upon by Tocqueville Forum Director, Professor Patrick Deneen.  The second panel featured student presentations by Michael Brown '08 on "Tocqueville's Democracy in America: Reflections on the Future of the European Union" and T. Wyatt Yankus '09 (Princeton) on "Separate and Disimilar Bodies: The Senate, the House, and the 17th Amendment."  The panel was moderated and commented upon by Government Department graduate student Lorraine Krall.  A well-attended luncheon concluded the conference. 

The conference was conceived and organized by Tocqueville Forum student fellow Randall Drew.  It is hoped that the conference will become an annual event, bringing together students from programs like the Tocqueville Forum and the Madison program at the nation's best universities in an effort to promote exchange and friendships across campuses, and to encourage the deepening of student understanding of, and appreciation for, the American constitutional order and the Western tradition.