AHI Senior Fellow Ted Eismeier to Speak on “The Election of 2012: Perspectives and Predictions”

The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) is pleased to announce that AHI Senior Fellow Ted Eismeier will speak on “Beyond Polls and Punditry: The Meaning of Elections in American Representative Government,” Tuesday, October 30, from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at 21 W. Park Row, Clinton, New York. The event is open to the public and copies of the readings can be obtained by contacting Bob Paquette at bob@theahi.org.

Tired of polls, punditry, and partisan spin about the 2012 election? What did the framers see as the purpose of elections? Are elections great contests of ideas? Should they be? Professor Eismeier, a prize-winning teacher, taught in the government department at Hamilton College for more than thirty years, before retiring in 2012. He is the co-author of Business, Money, and the Rise of Corporate PACs in American Politics (1988). In the spirit of March madness, at the end of the evening participants will submit official AHI “sheets of integrity,” making predictions about the election and the winner will receive a gift from the AHI.

Suggested readings in preparation for the event: V. O. Key, “The Voice of the People: An Echo,” in The Responsible Government: Rationality in Presidential Voting (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press, 1966), pp. 1-8. 2, and Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Library of America, 2004), pp. 142-53.

“The Election of 2012: Perspectives and Predictions” is the fourth installment in a series of lectures designed by the AHI’s student-run Publius Society on significant presidential elections in American history. The Publius Society brings together a diverse group of students with a common interest in exploring outside the classroom important issues of the American constitutional order and how they bear on contemporary politics.