America's Conflicting Constitutional Visions: The Quest for Common Ground
America’s severe political polarization is fueled in part by clashes over two rival visions of the American Constitution, one traditionalist, one progressive. Both visions, however, are embedded in the text of the Constitution as amended, and the Reconstruction era amendments—the 13th, 14th, and 15th—share features of each. Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Political Science, argues that if Americans wish to find more common ground, they can find a basis for doing so in the sense of national purpose those amendments embody.
Bio: Rogers M. Smith has been Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Penn since 2001, after 21 years teaching at Yale. His many publications include Civic Ideals, a 1998 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Smith has been Penn’s Associate Dean for Social Sciences and President of the American Political Science Association. He was founding director of the Penn DCC Program, the forerunner of the Andrea Mitchell Center, and co-founder of the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia. He received five teaching prizes from Penn and Yale. Smith is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the American Philosophical Society.
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