Nicholas Stephanopoulos in Washington, DC: "Election Law in a Hyperpartisan Era"
Hotel Monaco
700 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
United States
The most important political trend of the past generation has been the polarization of American legislators and voters. Both in Congress and in state legislatures, representatives are more ideologically divided than at any point since the Gilded Age. Voters too are more partisan than in earlier periods—more committed to party, less likely to split tickets, and more hostile to the other side. In this lecture, Nicholas Stephanopoulos will explore the implications of these developments for American election law, which was shaped in the less polarized 1960s and 1970s. If this body of doctrine is to function properly in today’s hyperpartisan America, it must be dramatically revised.