I won’t repeat all of the previous ELB post announcing this webinar on alternative electoral reforms to improve American democracy, especially in light of increasing partisan polarization. I will simply note that the French legislative elections, the first round of which is this coming Sunday, is a stark reminder of the stakes involved in the choice of an electoral system. The U.S. is hardly alone in facing the dangers of hyper-polarization. France, like the U.S., has tried since the late eighteenth century to make democracy work. Both countries have had their share of difficulties in this regard: France with its Reign of Terror when its revolution spun out of control, the U.S. with its Civil War and failed Reconstruction. The question for both countries now is whether they can draw upon their common heritage of political science about the design of republican government, a heritage stemming from the Enlightenment, to develop and implement to procedures for self-government in order to avoid its demise.

The webinar is on Wednesday at 3pm ET. Here, again, is the registration link.