There is a dilemma of contemporary American political reform. On one hand, widespread concern about American democracy prompts calls for changing American political institutions. On the other hand, a great deal of recent scholarship paints a very negative picture of the effectiveness of much of that reform agenda over the last century. So, is there a path forward, particularly in light of the recent election?
In the Progressive Era reform advocates battled the “Tiger” of Tammany Hall in New York and the “Octopus” of the Southern Pacific railroad in California, developing two different models of reform, resulting in contrasting political institutions in these large and Democratic-leaning states today. But the agenda was only partially implemented in each state, and some combination of those ideas might help address the challenges of our own time. This talk uses recent survey data from 2021, 2022, and 2024 to walk through the prospects for this reform agenda—what looks more or less promising, and more or less well-adapted to the political behavior we observe in the Trump Era of American politics.
Andrew Sinclair ‘08 is an Assistant Professor at Claremont McKenna College. He completed his PhD at Caltech before teaching at NYU and returning to CMC. He has conducted extensive research on primary election reforms and serves as the polling director at CMC’s Rose Institute.
Professor Sinclair's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at CMC.
