Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 31, 2006|Volume 34, Number 24

Impact of political leadership
to be examined in conference

The former president of Brazil will be among the featured speakers at a conference titled "Statesmen and Demagogues: Democratic Leadership in Political Thought," to be held Friday-Saturday, March 31-April 1.

The conference will bring together distinguished scholars from political science and the humanities to consider the ways in which political leadership can both facilitate and imperil democratic government.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St. It is sponsored by the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, the Department of Political Science and the Beinecke Library.

The conference organizers write: "While there has been a resurgence of interest recently in leadership or 'entrepreneurship,' social scientists have shied away from using the old-fashioned language of statesmanship. As a consequence, few recent inquiries into the subject take advantage of the long tradition of philosophical reflection on the problem of leadership in popular government. The conference will explore what can be learned from that tradition which might help reorient our understanding of the challenges faced by democracies today."

Friday's program will begin at 8:45 a.m. with a panel on "Statesmanship and Demagoguery in Emerging Democracies." Speakers will include Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former President of Brazil, and Timothy Colton of Harvard University. The next panel, at 11 a.m., returns to the roots of conceptions of statesmanship and demagoguery by examining "Democratic Leadership in Ancient Athens." It will feature papers by Melissa Lane of the University of Cambridge and Arlene Saxonhouse of the University of Michigan.

The conference continues that afternoon at 2 p.m. with the panel "Constitutional Leadership in the United States," featuring Ralph Ketcham of Syracuse University and Jeffrey Tulis of the University of Texas at Austin. At 4 p.m. on Friday, Pierre Hassner of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales will present the keynote address, "The Revenge of the Passions."

Saturday's program will begin at 9 a.m. with a panel on "Revolutionary Leadership in France," featuring Aurelian Craiutu of Indiana University at Bloomington and Melvin Richter of the City University of New York. The panel, "Lessons from the 20th Century," at 11 a.m., features Jeffrey Herf of the University of Maryland and Carnes Lord of the Naval War College. The conference will conclude with a roundtable at 2 p.m. that will reflect on the themes of the conference. It will be led by conference chairs Steven Smith and Bryan Garsten of Yale's Department of Political Science, and will feature James W. Ceaser of the University of Virginia and Yale faculty members Ian Shapiro and Stephen Skowronek.

A full schedule and additional information is available at www.yale.edu/polisci/info/conferences/Statesmen_and_Demagogues/Statesmen.htm. For questions, contact Andrew Volmert at andrew.volmert@yale.edu.

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