The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy held its first conference on contemporary democratic theory Friday afternoon in O'Brian Hall, in an effort to "explore the area by bringing democratic theorists and legal academics who study the electoral system that we have," according to UB Law Professor and panel organizer James Gardner.
The panel consisted of well-established scholars in a range of fields from universities across the country, which discussed the current structure of democracy from representation to legislative deliberation.
"The innovative feature of this conference is that it combines scholars from institutional law, and normative political theory," said Lynn Mather, director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy.
"I think this will create a stimulating dialogue that will lead to further scholarship and better understanding on how to build stronger democratic institutions," she added.
The participants included professors from New York University, University of Rochester, The Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Harvard University, as well as UB.
"The real benefit of the conference is that it is interdisciplinary," said Lisa Danish, a graduate student in political science. "It's rare to see people from both disciplines talking to one another - the benefits of that are amazing."
The first topic of the day was "Institutions of Ground-level Politics." Panelists discussed the feasibility of deliberative democracy and the process of Congressional deliberation that is a part of the American political process.
"Deliberation exists not only at the level of decision making, but deliberation may also go on in all sorts of intermediary organizations," said Samuel Issacharoff, the Harold R. Medina Professor in procedural jurisprudence.
Some of the problems come from a lack of political involvement from society as a whole, said Richard S. Katz, professor of political science at John Hopkins University.
"People (the public) are what is being deliberated about, but they aren't the deliberators," Katz said. "People may not have a well-defined conception on how these decisions are being made."
The second discussion was centered on the theme of "Institutions that Translate Politics into Governance: Representation, Parties, and Ballot Access," in which the panel discussed the issue of fair representation.
One major debate was over the Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1870 to help Congress enforce the 15th amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote, in the southern states. The panel debated on the limitations of the act's goals and whether it needed to be pursued in different ways in the year 2002.
"I don't see a way to a situation in which blacks can get to a point in which they have enough agenda control to take advantage of (Congress)," said John A. Ferjohn, political science professor from NYU Law School.
According to Ferjohn, the views of the black population of Congress are too liberal democratic for them to gain control of Congress.
Gardner said UB faculty members were invited to sit in the audience during the panel and participate in the conference.
"The UB Law School and the political science department are here and have already self-identified themselves," Gardner said. "The goal was to bring in people from the outside who are interested in the interdisciplinary question."
Qiang Fang, a graduate student from the history department, came to the conference because of the participants involved.
"Most of the participants are very famous professors," said Fang. "I came to listen and get some ideas on the subject."
Gardner said he hopes to use the conference to examine the current problems in the system as well as lay the groundwork for a larger law conference in a year or two.
"I'm hoping that we can explore the problems that persist, and other areas that would be useful to explore further," said Gardner.
