The Wolfson Center for National Affairs at The New School presents the second in a four-part series of conversations with writers and thinkers who are extending the boundaries of discussion on some of the key public policy issues of today.
At this discussion Alan Wolfe, author of Does American Democracy Still Work? talks with Eric Alterman, political journalist and author of When Presidents Lie: The History of Official Deception and Its Consequence. They look at the issues of the practices of democratic government inhibiting the policies of a democratic state, and whether we are extending democracy without due regard for its intrinsic qualities.
Bio
Eric Alterman
Eric Alterman is Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, the "Liberal Media" columnist for The Nation, senior fellow and "Altercation" weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com), a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where he writes and edits the "Think Again" column, as well as the World Policy Institute at New School University in New York.
Alan Wolfe
Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
His most recent books include Does American Democracy Still Work? (Yale University Press, 2006), Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What it Needs to Do to Recover It (Princeton University Press, 2005), The Transformation of American Religion: How We actually Practice our Faith (Free Press, 2003), and An Intellectual in Public (University of Michigan Press, 2003).