Can American Democracy Recover? Tues, Aug 11 3p Glaser with Tom Ginsburg (08/11/2026)

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 22:00:00 GMT

TUESDAY, August 11 at 3PM
Glaser Center, Santa Rosa

Can American Democracy Recover? Lessons in Institutional Resilience

Featuring Tom Ginsburg,
Distinguished Professor of International Law,
University of Chicago

Tom Ginsburg's sponsor is Joe Leadem,
WACSC Program Committee

About the Program

Is voting still protected? Do our institutions matter anymore? Are we citizens living above a powder keg? According to many observers, our current crisis is huge: Can American democracy survive? Think if you’d been asked that 10 years ago – would you have declared it a purely alarmist question, perhaps unworthy of serious reply? No longer.

In Can American Democracy Recover? Lessons in Institutional Resilience, Tom Ginsburg will assess the state of American democracy and the experience of other countries that have suffered, as he puts it, “episodes of democratic degradation.” His thesis: that we Americans would do well to look abroad for guidance, and even courage. What other countries -- friends, foes or in between, have already faced this crisis? And what did they do? The stakes are high...VERY high.

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Date:	TUESDAY, August 11, 2026
Time:	3:00 PM
Venue:	Glaser Center 547 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Cost:	$20 for Members Bring up to 2 guests at the member price. $30 for Non-Members Wine & Cheese Reception Included After the Talk
Parking:	Park on the street or in the parking garage behind the Glaser Center
Health Note:	We suggest that everyone be vaccinated and wear a mask.

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About the Speaker

Tom Ginsburg holds BA, JD, and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a widely recognized expert in constitutional law and democracy. He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, funded by the National Science Foundation to gather and analyze the constitutions of all independent nation-states since 1789.

Previously, Dr. Ginsburg served as a legal adviser at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal at The Hague, and continues to work with numerous international development agencies and foreign governments on legal and constitutional reform.

Widely published, Tom Ginsburg’s latest book is Democracies and International Law (2021), winner of two best book prizes. His prior books include How to Save a Constitutional Democracy (2018), written with Aziz Z. Huq, which won the best book award from the International Society of Constitutional Law; and Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003), which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association.

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Can American Democracy Recover? Tues, Aug 11 3p Glaser with Tom Ginsburg (08/11/2026)