TUESDAY, Aug 11 at 3 PM
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.
| Date: | Tuesday, August 11, 2026 |
| Time: | 3:00 PM |
| Venue: | Glaser Center 547 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95401 |
| Cost: |
$20 for Members |
| Parking: |
Park on the street or |
| Health Note: | We suggest that everyone be vaccinated and wear a mask. |
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.
We are more than pleased to bring you this very important
World Affairs Council
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THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!


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