America’s Dysfunctional Politics: Is the Constitution to Blame?

In a new book, Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Government (Oxford University Press, March 2012), author Sanford Levinson explores how the procedures and institutional structures laid out by the U.S. Constitution are contributing to dysfunction in modern American politics. Levinson argues that our state constitutions, and especially the U.S Constitution, will require fundamental change in order to effectively respond to contemporary political challenge and to strengthen American democracy.

On March 12, Brookings Senior Fellow William Galston will moderate a discussion of Framed. Donald Horowitz, James B. Duke professor of law and political science at Duke University, and Louis Michael Seidman, Carmack Waterhouse professor of constitutional law at Georgetown Law, will offer reactions. This event is part of the Governing Ideas series intended to broaden the discussion of governance issues through forums on timely and relevant books on history, culture, legal norms and practices, values and religion.

After the program, participants will take audience questions.