Tag Archives: Governance / Law

On May 9 of this year, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to resign his position. This is despite the fact this his brother, Gotabaya, is the President of the nation. He is part of a quasi-dynastic Rajapaksa family, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for 20 years. The nation is in economic turmoil and that day was one of the most violent of its history. Sri Lanka has less than $1 million in foreign reserves, dwindling medical supplies and almost no fuel. President Gotobaya Rajapaksa is attempting to hold onto power as the nation continues to deteriorate. And the protests continue.

We will explore the political and economic crisis that roils the island nation. What role do outside powers and lenders play at exacerbating Sri Lanka’s economic crisis? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Bhavani Fonseka is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at Law with the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank. She is the editor of Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: Moving Beyond Promises and the author of The Long Wait For Justice: On the chronic failures of criminal justice in Sri Lanka.
Ambika Satkunanathan is human rights lawyer and Fellow at the Open Society Foundation. She is the author of Authoritarian (in)efficiency and the undermining of democracy in Sri Lanka, Justice in Transition-Victims, Forgiveness and Truth-Seeking in Post-War Sri Lanka and Securitisation and militarisation in Sri Lanka: A continuum.
Ahilan Kadirgamar is Senior Lecturer at the University of Jaffna. He is the author of Rebuilding the Post-War North, and co-author of The Political Economy of the Crisis in Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka’s crisis: The disaster of economic dependency.

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Scholars’ Circle – Philippines Presidential Election – May 22, 2022

May 21, 2022 host

On May 9, the Philippines held their Presidential elections. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won the election, bringing back the infamous family toppled in 1986 in a popular revolution. What does this say about the memory and the political climate of the nation? How will Marcos govern the country? What policies do we expect of this new Marcos regime and how might they differ from the current policies of Rodrigo Duterte? We explore the historical significance of the return of Marcos to power in the nation. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jocelyn Martin is Assistant Professor of English at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. She is the author of “Martial Law as Philippine Trauma: Group Culture, the Sacred, and Impunity in Three Memoirs” and “From Dictator to Hero: Marcos, Heroes Cemeteries and Sites of Cultural Memory”.
Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem is Professor of Political Science at the University of Philippines Diliman. She is the author of Philippine Politics and the Marcos Technocrats: The emergence and evolution of a power elite and “The Politics of a Middle-Class-Led Movement in the Philippines”.
Nico Ravanilla is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California San Diego. He is the co-author of “Deadly Populism: How Local Political Outsiders Drive Duterte’s War on Drugs in the Philippines” (with Renard Sexton and Dotan Haim) and “The Philippine Elections: Has Politics Changed under Duterte?”.

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Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

March 26, 2022 host

In what ways is the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson historic? What impact will having a former criminal defense attorney on the Supreme Court have on future rulings or on dissents? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Danielle Holley-Walker is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. She is the author of “A New Era for Desegregation” and “After Unitary Status: Examining Voluntary Integration Strategies for Southern School Districts.”
Abbe Smith is Director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and Professor of Law at Georgetown University. She is the author of Guilty People and co-author of Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct In Minority Communities.
Olu Orange is the Director of the USC Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program and also the Director of the USC Dornsife Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative. A practicing attorney, he has won several important cases, including B.B. (Burley) v. County of Los Angeles — a knee-on-neck police death case which established that police officers who intentionally cause harm cannot offset their own liability with their victims’ negligence. The case has been referred to “George Floyd without video.” And in 2018, A.G. v. County of Los Angeles which established that non-biological children have standing in California to sue for the wrongful death of persons who raise them as parents.

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Scholars’ Circle – Military coup d’état – History and reasons for it’s emergence – February 20, 2022

February 19, 2022 host

Military coups have increased over the last year and a half. What is driving this challenge to democracy? How concerned should we be? Regional organizations and powerful states have sometimes played important roles in averting takeovers by military coups. How successful have they been? How can they improve? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Fabrice Lehoucq is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is the author of Breaking out of the Coup Trap: Political Competition and Military Coups in Latin America (with Aníbal Pérez-Liñán) and Political Institutions, Instability, and Democratic Performance in Latin America: A Research Agenda.
Joseph Wright is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University and the co-Director of its Global and International Studies (GLIS) program. He is the co-author of How Dictatorships Work (with Barbara Geddes and Erica Frantz) and the forthcoming Historical Dictionary of Modern Coups d’etat (with John Chin and David Carter).
Jonathan Powell is Associate Professor at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida. He is the co-author of Of Strong Men and Straw Men: Appraising Post-Coup Political Developments, Investing in Stability: Economic Interdependence, the Capitalist Peace, and Coups d’état and, with Clayton Thyne, Global Instances of Coups from 1950 to 2010: A New Dataset.
Clayton Thyne is Department Chair and a Professor in the Political Science department at the University of Kentucky. He is the co-author of Democratic Versus Authoritarian Coups: The Influence of External Actor on State’s Post Coup Political Trajectories and, with Jonathan Powell, Global Instances of Coups from 1950 to 2010: A New Dataset.

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Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

February 12, 2022 host

Over 600 million acres of land is collectively owned by the American people. What is the history of public lands and how is the contemporary discourses about public lands framed by this history? We interview the author of a new book on the history of public lands in the US. [ dur: 34mins. ]

John Leshy is emeritus professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, San Francisco. He is the author of OUR COMMON GROUND: A History of America’s Public Lands.

Public lands are one of the collectively owned riches of Americans. How does this history influence our contemporary debates on public land use? How has President Joe Biden advanced the cause of public lands and how is this different from other presidents? [ dur: 24mins. ]

Mark Squillace is Raphael J. Moses Professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado Law School. He is the co-author of Natural Resources Law and Policy, The Judicial Assault on the Clean Water Act, and Embracing a Civic Republican Tradition in Natural Resources Decision-Making.

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Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

February 5, 2022 host

Democracy is eroding in the United States? What are the causes and what should be done? Is the erosion of democracy because of political elites and specifically the reaction of the Republican Party to the 2020 election? Or does it run deeper? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper and the 2010 bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, all books co-authored with Paul Pierson.
Sigal Ben-Porath is a professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. She is the author of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice is Really About, Free Speech on Campus, Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, and Citizenship under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict .
Martin Gilens is Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Social Welfare at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is the author of Affluence & Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America and co-author, with Benjamin I. Page, of Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do about It.
Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. He is the Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He is the co-author of Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (with Christopher Achen) and Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age.

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Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

December 18, 2021 host

The US Supreme Court faces a legitimacy crisis. The US faces a democracy deficit because of the power of the Court. How should the US address both concerns? Several proposals for reform of the Court have advocated change. Would these help to rebuild the Court’s image and legitimacy? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Christopher W Schmidt is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent School of Law. He is the author of The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era and Civil Rights in America: A History .
Richard Pacelle Jr. is Professor and Department Head in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the co-author of Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court and the author of The Supreme Court in a Separation of Powers System: The Nation’s Balance Wheel.
Eric J. Segall is Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. He is the author of the books Originalism as Faith and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges.

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Scholars’ Circle – Critique on Governance in Post-Colonial Cameroon, a country with linguistic and sectarian divide and clashes – November 7, 2021

November 6, 2021 host

Cameroon has seen increased violence and an ongoing civil war based on its linguistic, sectarian divide. Can the nation survive? How much is this a democracy deficiency and how much is this failure of leadership? How can Cameroon overcome its governance challenges? [ dur: 36mins. ]

John Mukum Mbaku is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow at Weber State University. He is the author of Protecting Minority Rights in African Countries: A Constitutional Political Economy Approach and co-author of Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences, and Cleanups.
Moses K. Tesi is a Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of the Balancing Sovereignty and Development in International Affairs: Cameroon’s Post-Independence Relations with France, Africa, and the World and a contributor to The State, Politics, and the Struggle for Democracy in Cameroon.

As civil war in Cameroon continued with clashes between the Franchophone and Anglophone populations, protests against violations of federalism agreements were met with state led violence. What were the impacts? We’ll hear from one of the organizers. [ dur: 22mins. ]

Fontem A. Neba was Secretary General of the Teacher’s Trade Union of the University of Buea before his arrest on the 17th of January, 2017. He was Secretary General of the now banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Mr. Neba was Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Buea. Now he is in exile and serves as the Secretary General of the Southern Cameroon’s Alliance.

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Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in USA and reasons why it faces increased opposition – October 17, 2021

October 16, 2021 host

The death penalty in the United States has faced increased opposition based on ethical, political, and legal concerns. Several states have outlawed it, but the federal government has returned to its use with a feverish wave of state executions last year. We discuss the implications of the use of the death penalty in the US and examine additional forms of extreme sentencing, such as life without parole. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Frank R. Baumgartner is the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is the co-author of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence and Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty.
Lee Kovarsky is Bryant Smith Chair in Law and Co-Director of the Capital Punishment Center at The University of Texas in Austin School of Law. He is the author of The Trump Executions and the co-author of The Death Penalty: Concept and Insight.
Jenny-Brooke Condon is a Professor of Law in the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School. She directs the Equal Justice Clinic. She is the author of When Cruelty is the Point: Constitutional Restraints and Remedies for Family Separation and Denialism and the Death Penalty.

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Scholars’ Circle – Filibuster, it’s history and when is it used in US Congress ; How and Why Peaceful Nuclear technologies was leveraged by US foreign policy makers – August 1, 2021

July 31, 2021 host

The filibuster threatens to block a great deal of the Democratic Party’s legislative wish list. We examine its history, its function in democracy, and its future. [ dur: 29min. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy

Then, we explore a new book on the peaceful uses of nuclear power: The Wretched Atom by Jacob Hamblin.[ dur: 29mins. ]

Jacob Hamblin is Professor of History at Oregon State University. His books include Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, Oceanographers and the Cold War, Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism and his latest The Wretched Atom: America’s Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology.

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Tag Archives: Governance / Law

Scholars’ Circle – Sri Lankans Protest as they experience Economic Crisis – May 29, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Philippines Presidential Election – May 22, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Military coup d’état – History and reasons for it’s emergence – February 20, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – American Common Ground with Public Land Uses – History and Reform Opportunities – February 13, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Critique on Governance in Post-Colonial Cameroon, a country with linguistic and sectarian divide and clashes – November 7, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Capital Punishment in USA and reasons why it faces increased opposition – October 17, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Filibuster, it’s history and when is it used in US Congress ; How and Why Peaceful Nuclear technologies was leveraged by US foreign policy makers – August 1, 2021

By Maria Armoudian