NEWS INDEX Archives 2004 October

Chicago Tribune, New York Times columnists to discuss challenges to democracy

Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@uiuc.edu

10/18/04

Click photo to enlarge Photo by Kwame Ross Peter F. Nardulli, left, organized the “Democracy in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects and Problems” conference, which kicked off the establishment of the Center for the Study of Democratic Governance, endowed by Richard and Carole Cline.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Clarence Page and David Brooks, editorial columnists for the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times, respectively, will offer their opposing perspectives on current challenges to American democracy during free public talks at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and frequent essayist and panelist on “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” will speak from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 26 (Tuesday) in the auditorium of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Champaign. Later that day, Brooks, a best-selling author and regular political commentator on National Public Radio and “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” will speak from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Colwell Playhouse at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.

The Page and Brooks lectures are part of the inauguration of a newly endowed Center for the Study of Democratic Governance at Illinois. Their talks will be preceded by a free public conference, “Democracy in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects and Problems,” which will be held Oct. 24-26 (Sunday through Tuesday) at various locations on the U. of I. campus.

The conference celebrates the centennial of the department of political science. Drawing expert and key scholars from across the country, and organized by Peter F. Nardulli, head of political science, the conference leads directly into the inauguration of the center, which will begin with the Page and Brooks presentations.

Their lectures will be followed by the ninth annual Cline Symposium, which also focuses on challenges to American democracy.

Involving 70 undergraduates and a dozen alumni, the symposium will feature Daniel Rostenkowski, former U.S. congressman from Chicago, and James Nowlan, senior fellow at the U. of I. Institute of Government and Public Affairs, director of the Cline Civic Program at Illinois, president of the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois and former member of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Speakers, topics, times and locations for the conference and the Page and Brooks lectures, which although free and open to the public, will have limited seating, can be found online.

Conference panel topics include: democratization on the frontiers of the third wave; international actors, globalization and democratic governance; mass-elite linkages in the 21st century; and national identities and the future of democracy.

The Cline Center was created this year by Nardulli and by Richard G. Cline, founder and chairman of Hawthorne Investors, a private investment and management advisory company.

The center’s objectives are twofold: “to generate a stream of ideas, research, and information that will address ethical, structural, and procedural issues that affect the vitality of democracy; and to inspire new generations of students who will re-invigorate civic life in the United States and make important contributions to the refinement and expansion of democracy,” Nardulli said.

The center will engage in research, teaching and public outreach within four subprograms: Democratic Citizenship and Civic Engagement, Democratic Institutions and Processes, Global Democratization, and Democratic Governance and Societal Welfare, he said.

“As conceived, it will be the most comprehensive center for the study and promotion of democratic values and institutions in the United States,” Nardulli said.

The Cline Symposium, made possible by an endowment from Cline and his wife, Carole J. Cline, was established as an annual event in 1995. It combines a semester-long seminar involving some of the brightest undergraduates in political science, a keynote lecture by a distinguished guest and a set of events organized around a theme.

Richard Cline graduated with highest honors from Illinois in 1957, majoring in political science and minoring in history and philosophy. He served as chairman and CEO of Jewel Companies Inc., a Chicago-based diversified retailer, and later of Nicor Inc., a natural gas distribution and container shipping company.

Cline also served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and was its chairman.

At Illinois, Cline has been an executive in residence and guest lecturer on business ethics in the College of Business. In addition, he was the chairman of the U. of I. Foundation and co-chairman of its Campaign Illinois, which, by 2002, had raised $1.5 billion in private funds for the university.