The National Roosevelt Institution

Mission of the Roosevelt Institution

The Roosevelt Institution is a multi-campus student organization engaged in policy research. It seeks to introduce ideas to the public discourse. Ideas may come from class content, undergraduate or graduate theses, extracurricular or volunteer activities, or Roosevelt-sponsored discussions and conferences. Student members draw on tremendous academic resources including libraries, scholars, and fellow students. The Roosevelt Institution seeks, incubates, develops, and improves ideas, and connects them to the public discourse through publications, conferences, and media. The Roosevelt Institution is essentially focused on transforming education into public service. Students spend years learning, thinking, and writing about important topics of the day. In the past, the student years were considered preparation for entering society: we believe these years can be utilized to directly serve society.

The Mission of the Roosevelt Institution is to introduce new ideas to the policy process. The policy process has become focused on the struggle for partisan and ideological advantage, while not adequately addressing new political challenges.

Young people may be the best source for new ideas. We have no stake in current partisan political battles, and have the greatest stake in long-term solutions to problems including climate change, international conflict, the erosion of the social contract under globalization, increasing economic inequality, and the decay of the political process.

We seek to politically engage our generation - one that views government as a tool of those promoting special interests or ideologies at the expense of good policy and not as a useful means for solving problems. By challenging our generation to define policy solutions, we foster belief in the ability of democratic government and society to confront serious social and economic issues. Change for the better is possible only with the support of an educated public that believes in its own government.

The Vision

In recent years, the policy process has become increasingly political. Candidates spend more time raising money and less time making policy. Appointments that were once apolitical have become political. Messaging has become centralized, and compromise has eroded away to ideological extremes.

An influential vision and professional apparatus has developed outside the formal policy process. As politicians focus on the day-to-day partisan battles, the job of developing long-term national policy has been outsourced to (mostly nonprofit) think-tanks, columnists, and academics. This "third-sector" policy-making apparatus evolved at a time when liberals dominated the D.C. political process. The new think-tank movement was often dominated by conservative policy-makers-in-exile forced to develop long-term visions while shut out of the short-term decision-making process. Think tanks were created espousing radical individualism and combating progressive social reform.

This change in direction could not have happened at a less appropriate time. As technology transforms the workplace and opens the opportunities and challenges of global competition, as the international arena faces new threats, yet offers new chances to build cooperation and share prosperity and peace. As we address issues in energy, climate change, bioethics, and scientific research previous generations might have thought fanciful, a government willing to think pragmatically and build institutions and systems to address current and future issues is required. We cannot afford the establishment of an intellectual landscape dominated by self interest: coordinated efforts are essential.

Leadership involves the ability to bring people together and develop common hope and purpose. To provide the foundation for political progress, America must develop a cadre of leaders able to develop new solutions for the challenges facing society outside the day-to-day political process.

The Roosevelt Institution believes this group exists: its base is America's fifteen million college students, a progressive think-tank in formation, simply waiting to be identified, recognized, and organized.

As students, our job is to learn about the world, acquire factual education and establish intellectual capital. Our education must not be only about absorbing facts, but about identifying problems and developing solutions. We are an ideal source of new, progressive ideas - ideologically unburdened, and understanding the changing nature of society. We have a bigger stake than anybody else and can influence the world we want to inherit. Other think-tanks have Nobel laureates and former Secretaries of State. Among our ranks we have future Nobel laureates and Secretaries of State in training.People will listen to our ideas.

We offer our generation's perspective on the future of social security, the job market, education, and job training. We offer our academic strength in areas affecting future growth, for example, biotechnology and internet research. We offer personal insights - our perspectives on progressive religious views, social policy such as feminism or racism are as valid as those from any other source. We can provide analysis of local issues that might otherwise be absent. And on nationally debated issues, we have research and fact-checking skills equivalent to those of the research assistants and interns who prepare briefings on the Hill.

Policy-makers, experts, and politicians have, without exception, been excited about the creation of the Roosevelt Institution and are eager to connect with us. They are fervently want to have young people involved, are excited about our ideas and enthusiastic about passing on their expertise and passion to a new generation. Our first goal is provide a conduit for students' ideas to the policy process, in and of itself, a worthwhile component of the project.

Our generation has been de-politicized. While we volunteer more than any previous generation, we have not typically been involved in the policy process. We may tutor children in failing schools, not lobby state officials who can get those schools back on track. We may clean beaches, but fail to demand that politicians tighten pollution standards. We may organize blood drives, but not propose new healthcare legislation.

Our second goal is to politicize our generation. Promoting policy will make us better public citizens, more prepared to interact with the policy process overall. The Roosevelt Institution will create networks, both within our generation and between our generation and current policy-makers, and will develop media, research, legislative, and communications skills that will serve our members in the future.

The only remaining task is to connect this intellectual capital to the policy-making process. Student bodies have everything it takes to function as a think-tank, but are disorganized. The Roosevelt Institution provides three levels of organizational infrastructure to assist college students to be successful participants in the policy process.

On each university campus, from ten to one hundred students interested in a specific issue form a "center" to gather student expertise, recruits faculty and other expert advisors, build student networks, track influential resources in that issue area, guide the selection of pertinent research topics, and provide an initial filter in the process. The center finds an appropriate audience for students' work which range from a campus publication, specialized journal, the office of a state policy-maker, or a Congressional committee.

In addition to the policy centers, each university chapter has an administrative component that coordinates events, provides design and writing support for members' documents, coordinates communications, keeps archives, and provides professional development and training for its members.

The national organization maintains a national database of contacts, publishes a national journal called the Roosevelt Review, coordinates an events network for the traveling speaker series, organizes national conferences, coordinates communications and policy across different universities, maintains the website, coordinates legal advice for the organization, does development work to fund organizational activities, and keeps the organizational model up-to-date through innovative programs at various university campuses.

Statement of Principles

This generation, like each one that preceded it, faces unique challenges and opportunities.

Global competition holds the promise of innovation and connectivity, but raises the prospect of increasing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. Rapidly increasingly global production and consumption make possible a higher standard of living, but deplete our natural resources at an unprecedented rate and endanger our environment. Information technology is changing the way we understand human civilization, but makes the gap between the information haves and have-nots even greater. The centers of state power and sources of state conflict are shifting. Vast human migration creates the possibility for both enmity and cooperation between different cultures.

These challenges are not confined to one nation, nor are the solutions. We must act to address them in their totality.

As America entered the 20th century, the first progressives stepped forward to help the country respond to profound economic, social, and political changes. They knew that in a democratic country good government would be required to improve American society. Now we, the progressives of today, seek to help America and the world move into the 21st century. Like those before us, we believe that ignorance is not an option and apathy is not an answer, that the institutions of yesterday will not alone solve the problems of tomorrow, that in order to adequately respond to change, organizations, governments, and societies must fully harness the energy and ideas that each of their members have to offer.

In order to guide our work, we lay out these principles for a just and progressive democratic society:

A progressive society empowers people to lead fulfilling lives. We believe that a democratic society offers the greatest chance for the most people to do so.

By democracy, we mean more than casting a vote in periodic elections. Rather, we define democracy as constant engagement in active, participatory, and deliberative self-governance not only in public, but in private and civic institutions as well, where power is diffuse and belongs to the people, citizenship is extolled as a virtue, and individuals and communities control their own lives. Through cooperation among individuals, communities, and private and public institutions, we can shape a world that we can be proud to pass on to our children and our children's children. Only by acting together can different sectors of society - public, private, and civil - realize a progressive society.

A democratic society is both made possible by and gives rise to the basic conditions for fulfilling lives. We believe these conditions at the same time both enable human flourishing and are fundamentally worthwhile in and of themselves. We believe that all people equally deserve the conditions which allow them to pursue a good life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Though we remain far from achieving this goal, we affirm the need for concerted action to bring us ever closer.

We believe the following to be among these conditions and values...

To meaningfully participate in democratic society, citizens must be free from violence, fear, strife, or want. All people must be able to earn a decent wage, working decent hours in decent conditions. They must have safe food and water, a clean environment, physical mobility, a good home, and the means to plan for and support their families. They must retain control over their own bodies. And they must have not just access to health care, but good health.

To participate in democratic processes, citizens must be able to understand and evaluate the world in which they live. All people need and deserve the best education possible, one that gives them the means to participate in the social, political, and economic life of their communities. In order for people to apply this education, information from all sectors of society must be easily accessible. We believe firmly in the power of information technology to strengthen our democracy and therefore believe that all people must have access to it.

In a democratic society, people realize their own power through inclusive communities founded on mutual respect, responsibility, and compassion. Within those communities, people must be able to organize to pursue shared goals and aspirations. These communities must also safeguard the interests of future generations. As such, they have an obligation to build a sustainable society that preserves shared resources and respects the natural environment in which they all reside.

Democracy thrives on the presence of many voices of people from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. Thus free and democratic societies require open physical and ideological spaces safe for political action, where people can express their ideas, their views, and themselves. Democratic societies must vigorously defend their public spaces from the inevitable threat of encroachment, especially preserving the natural spaces and wildernesses that serve as refuge from social coercion and conformity. Moreover, for people to shape the arc of their life, these public spaces, especially those involved in the economic organization of society, must be open enough to allow for social mobility. Decisions in a democracy must be made through dissent, debate, and deliberation. In government, this requires robust and contested elections that ensure a voice for all.

In an age of increasing availability of personal information, the potential for encroachment on the necessary spaces and channels for individual agency becomes especially acute. To be able to live a life without fear, individuals must be able to create physical and ideological refuges outside the purview of public society.

A society is only free when people can shape their own lives. Without any of the previous conditions, agency can only be imaginary. With them, people have the real possibility of shaping their lives in such a way as to make them fulfilling. Freedom to live and to act, then, can never be compromised.

Democracy is about our shared aspirations. There is a mutual responsibility between people and society, in which society makes possible these conditions, and individuals use them responsibly to ensure that they last. We know that the best society does not exist, but we believe that our own can always be better. We affirm the need for concerted action on the part of all members of society to move closer to such a world.

Franklin, Teddy and Eleanor

The Roosevelt Institution adopts as our sole ideology the belief that societies face collective challenges and that we can and should work together to confront them. This spirit of hope and pragmatism is the essence, we believe, of America's great bipartisan progressive tradition and is the core of our generation's political philosophy. Our inspiration comes from three great American progressive leaders.

The New Deal

Franklin Delano Roosevelt hit the White House running. When accepting the Democratic nomination, he pledged to bring the nation a New Deal, and every ounce of his energy went towards that goal. His combined confidence and optimism helped bring about a national recovery from economic crisis and world war. FDR's Presidency marks a fundamental turning point in the nation's political, economic, social, and cultural life.

The Spirit behind the Policy

Descriptions of FDR's approach to policy glow with terms like "invigorate," "reinterpret," and "revive." The Roosevelt Institution strives to emulate FDR's inspiringly progressive line of attack.

In his Inaugural Address, FDR asserted, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." FDR's bold statements, matched by his prompt, vigorous actions, brought hope to a hopeless America. Biographer William Leuchtenburg noted that within days of the inauguration, "the spirit of the country seemed markedly changed, a feeling of hope had been reborn." By fearlessly asserting student policy perspectives into the public discourse, the Roosevelt Institution hopes to inspire policy changes of such hope-inspiring magnitude.

The Persistence

FDR never lost faith that the right solution to a vexing problem would turn up. According to his wife, Eleanor, "He recognized the difficulties and often said that, while he did not know the answer, he was completely confident that there was an answer and that one had to try until one either found it for himself or got it from someone else." The Roosevelt Institution affirms that positive policy solutions exist for society's problems, and that the innovative disposition of students nationwide can help to fill in policy gaps.

The Story

At 42, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest President in the Nation's history. He brought excitement and vigor to the Presidency, eagerly leading Congress and the American public alike toward progressive reforms. As a "steward of the people," Teddy resolved to take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution. His stewardship crossed beyond our national borders; his initiative in opening the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague and collaboration peace treaties earned him the recognition of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Ideals

Teddy's leadership was distinguished by his fierce commitment to ideals. To his son Kermit, he wrote, "If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base, and sordid creature, no matter how successful." Later, when addressing a student audience at his alma mater, the Groton School, he pronounced, "Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground." With his eyes on the stars and a "perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds," Teddy provides today's student thinkers with a purpose: the implementation of ideals through policy. In the same way that Teddy motivated the students of his day, his devotion to idealism continues to motivate today.

Teddy spoke of a country that served all of its people: "The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us," he said. "This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in." The "good place" that Teddy envisioned was thriving not only of people, but also of place - preservation of people and conservation of land.

The Pursuit

Teddy provides us with a motive to enact our ideas into policy. A believer in the "life of strenuous endeavor," he insisted, "...the man who really counts in the world is the doer." And according to Teddy, "the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer." At the Roosevelt Institution, students dare to dream that by doing policy work we can change the world. Teddy tells us, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing." By penetrating public discourse, Roosevelt Fellows refuse to do nothing. By engaging with each other and with the policy-making community, we aspire to do the right thing.

The Story

Eleanor Roosevelt strode through her life's challenges and tears, emerging from trial as a leader of humanity. Rather than being dissuaded by FDR's contraction of polio, Eleanor convinced her husband to struggle to restore his health and persevere with his political career. Eleanor stepped forth to represent her husband in the policy world and worked for the reform that they both wanted to see happen. She traveled to places where FDR could not and projected their voice both to policy-makers and the American people.

Bringing the People to Policy

During the Great Depression, as the American public looked to the President for solutions, Eleanor traveled cross-country, visiting schools, hospitals, and prisons. She served as witness to those in need of help, and brought their needs to the policy agenda by reporting them to the President. Eleanor championed women's and minority rights before doing so was the norm.

An eternal champion of the underdog, Eleanor continued to work for global progress even after her husband's death in 1945. President Truman appointed her as first special delegate to the United Nations, a post at which she served devotedly for six years until the age of 67. At the UN, Eleanor advocated for freedom and justice for all peoples of the world. She directed the authorship of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the constitution of humankind. Her energetic and outspoken representation of the needs of people suffering in the world earned her the honor of the first United Nations Human Rights Prize.

During this time, Eleanor also hosted radio and television programs with which she used her status to raise money and awareness for those in need. She broadcasted her causes through the authorship of three books, a magazine column, and a daily newspaper column.

Eleanor is a model for the Roosevelt Institution because of her willingness to put the people into policy. Like Eleanor, the Roosevelt Institution strives to actively recognize domestic and global needs and to broadcast those needs both to people and to policy-makers. People must remain both the motivators and benefactors of progressive policy. Eleanor said, "You get more joy out of the giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give." Students, in general, put a good deal of thought into their studies; students at the Roosevelt Institution put a good deal of thought into making their studies contribute to a better world. To the policy world, we give our time, intelligence and passion. In turn, to the public, the policy world must give progress.

Advisory Board

Our advisory board consists of prominent individuals who have offered us their help in a variety of ways, from providing organizational consulting to helping us refine our ideas to introducing us to policy-makers who can help put those ideas into practice. Advisory board members include:

Daniel L. Appleman, JD, PhD, is a partner at the prestigious law firm Heller, Ehrman, White, & McAuliffe. As legal counsel for the Roosevelt Institution, Mr. Appelman is assisting with our incorporation as a nonprofit, with the acquisition of tax-exempt status, with intellectual property issues, and with general legal affairs.

Mr. Appelman's practice focusses on complex technology-related transactions and intellectual property law, and he has over twenty years experience with both early stage and established companies and nonprofits. He chairs the California State Bar's Cyberspace Law Committee and is an Advisory Member of the Entrepreneurs Forum of the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

John Q. Barrett is a Professor of Law at St. John's University in New York City and the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York. Professor Barrett recently discovered, edited and introduced That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, paperback 2004), the late Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson's previously unknown and now-acclaimed memoir of FDR and the New Deal. Professor Barrett, who teaches constitutional law, criminal procedure and legal history, writes and speaks regularly about FDR, the Supreme Court, Justice Jackson and Nuremberg in venues throughout the country . Professor Barrett is writing a biography of Justice Jackson that will include the first inside account of his year (1945-1946) away from the Supreme Court as the chief American prosecutor of the principal surviving Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

Barrett is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School. He has served as a law clerk to Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; as Associate Counsel in the Office of Iran/Contra Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh; and as Counselor to the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jonathan Bendor is a political economist at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research interests include the evolution of cooperation, models of adaptive behavior and bounded rationality, organizational decision making under uncertainty, and the political control of bureaucracy. In 1996, Bendor revitalized the debate over whether to make large, radical changes in programs and organizations or to take small, incremental steps, referred to as "muddling through." He did so with a formal model that gives structure and analytical depth to incrementalism, an informal theory first espoused in the early 1960s.

Rich Benjamin is Senior Fellow at Demos, a think-tank based in New York City. His work at Demos focuses on social alienation, civic engagement and popular culture. He has a background in media, politics and academia. From 2001-2, he was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School. Benjamin has also served as senior editor of The Race Relations Reporter and a campaign staffer for President Clinton's 1996 re-election effort. Rich has lectured on youth, media and American politics in the US and Europe. His commentary has been featured in newspapers nationwide, NPR, Fox Radio, the blogosphere, and many scholarly venues. This scholarship earned professional support from Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Benjamin's public service includes serving as senior advisor to Why Tuesday?, a bi-partisan grassroots campaign to increase civic engagement, chaired by Jack Kemp, Bill Bradley and Andrew Young. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Realizing the Dream. Benjamin holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, a professional certificate from the New York Film Academy, and a PhD from Stanford.

During the first Clinton administration, Professor Blacker served as special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the NSC, he oversaw the implementation of U.S. policy toward Russia and the New Independent States, while also serving as principal staff assistant to the president and the National Security Advisor on matters relating to the former Soviet Union.

From 1998 to 2003, he served as co-director of the Aspen Institute's U.S.-Russia Dialogue, which twice each year brings together prominent U.S. and Russian specialists on foreign and defense policy for discussion and review of critical issues in U.S.-Russian relations. He was a study group member of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (The Hart-Rudman Commission) throughout the Commission's tenure.

Coit Blacker is the director of the Stanford Institute for International Studies. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Washington, DC.

Robert L. Borosage is the president of the Institute for America's Future and co-director of its sister organization, the Campaign for America's Future. The organizations were launched by 100 prominent Americans to challenge the rightward drift in US politics, and to develop the policies, message and issue campaigns to help forge an enduring majority for progressive change in America.

Mr. Borosage writes widely on political, economic and national security issues for a range of publications, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a Contributing Editor at The Nation magazine, and a regular contributor to The American Prospect magazine. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including Fox Morning News, RadioNation, National Public Radio, C-Span and Pacifica Radio. He teaches on presidential power and national security as an adjunct professor at American University's Washington School of Law.

John H. Bunzel, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, specializes in current political and educational problems and frequently writes and lectures on issues of public policy. He is a former commissioner of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He is an expert in the field of civil rights, race relations, higher education, U.S. politics, and elections. His current research centers on race and race relations in U.S. society, with a focus on affirmative action, multiculturalism, and diversity in higher education as well as U.S. politics and elections.

From 1970 to 1978, when he joined the Hoover Institution, he was president of San Jose State University. He has taught at San Francisco State College (1953-56, 1965-70), Michigan State University (1956-57), and Stanford University (1956-63). The American Voter, his 1964 weekly television program on KPIX (CBS affiliate) in San Francisco, won a national award.

Richard Celeste is the president of Colorado College. He served as director of the Peace Corps, Governor of Ohio, and U.S. Ambassador to India under President Clinton.

Elizabeth Coleman is the ninth president of Bennington College, a position she has held since 1987. Following her graduation with honors from the University of Chicago, where she was a Ford Foundation Scholar, she completed her master's degree in English and American Literature at Cornell University, where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She received her Ph.D. with distinction at Columbia, where she was a Woodbridge and President's Fellow. She has worked in education since that time, first as a professor of literature at SUNY Stony Brook and then at the New School for Social Research, where she founded and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Coleman's vision of a liberal arts education has been recognized nationally by her place on the Select Committee of the Association of American Colleges and the board of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; she also has served as chair of the Vermont Rhodes Scholarship Trust. She has been a consultant to the Annenberg Corporation on a public broadcasting project and a visiting fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California; she currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Council for a Community of Democracies and on the Executive Committee of The Annapolis Group, an organization of leading independent liberal arts colleges.

Jim Dean is the chair of Democracy for America (DFA), a political action committee founded by his brother, Governor Howard Dean. DFA's mission is to strengthen citizen participation in the political process, including the recruitment, support, and election of fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates to all levels of government.

Jim has worked with Democracy for America since it was founded in March of 2003. He had previously worked on Howard Dean's Presidential Campaign since its beginning in 2002, and was responsible for a variety of campaign functions, including fundraising, surrogate work, political organizing in his home state of Connecticut, and supporting several additional DFA state organizations.

Prior to the Presidential Campaign, Jim worked in the Marketing Research business for about fifteen years, holding senior positions in business development, marketing, and sales at Yankelovich Partners Inc. and Greenfield Online Inc.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro was first elected to Congress from Connecticut's Third District in 1990, and is currently serving her eighth term. Congresswoman DeLauro sits on the House Appropriations Committee, and serves as ranking member of the Agriculture Subcommittee and as a member of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Subcommittee. She also serves on the House Budget Committee. In 1999, she was elected Assistant to the Democratic Leader by her colleagues, making her the second highest ranking Democratic woman in the House of Representatives. She was re-elected to this position in 2000. In 2002, she was appointed co-chair of the House Democratic Steering Committee, a position she was re-elected to in 2004.

During her tenure in Congress, DeLauro has taken a special interest in health care issues, leading the fight for affordable, quality health care. She has worked aggressively with a bipartisan group of legislators to lower the rising costs of prescription drugs. In February 2005, DeLauro was honored to be appointed ranking member of the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee. DeLauro has made reform of the FDA a top priority to strengthen oversight of food and drugs.

Prior to her election to the House of Representatives, Rosa DeLauro served as Executive Director of EMILY'S List, a national organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in elected office. She served as Executive Director of Countdown '87, the national campaign that successfully stopped U.S. military aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. From 1981-1987, DeLauro served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd.

DeLauro is a graduate of Marymount College, where she received her B.A. with honors. She earned her Masters in International Politics from Columbia University, and studied at the London School of Economics.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also professor of political science and sociology (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and coordinator of the Democracy Program of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford's Institute for International Studies. From January through March 2004, he served as a senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, advising on issues related to the political transition in Iraq. His book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, will be published by Henry Holt in June 2005.

Diamond has been co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, published by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), since the Journal was launched in 1990. He also serves (since 1993) as co-director of the NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies, which sponsors scholarly research and publications and coordinates an international network of democracy research institutes. In that capacity, he helps to provide oversight of the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program, which offers fellowships, based at NED (and funded by the U.S. Congress), for democracy scholars and practitioners from around the world.

Diamond has lectured in over twenty countries on problems of democratic development. He was a visiting scholar at the Academia Sinica (Taiwan, 1997-98) and a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer at Bayero University, Kano (Nigeria, 1982-83).

Larry Diamond received all of his degrees from Stanford University, including a B.A. in 1974, an M.A. in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1980. He taught Sociology at Vanderbilt University from 1980-85 before joining the Hoover Institution.

Stephen Elliott is the author of the novels Jones Inn, A Life Without Consequences, What It Means To Love You, and Happy Baby. If you live in Norway the answer is yes, the Norweigan rights to Happy Baby have been purchased, so keep your eyes peeled. Same for Italy. He is also the author of Looking Forward To It Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The American Political Process and the editor of the Politically Inspired anthologies, of which there are currently two.

James Fearon is the Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, a professor of political science and CISAC affiliated faculty member at Stanford University. His research has focused on democracy and international disputes, explanations for wars between nations, and, most recently, the causes of civil and especially ethnic violence. He is presently working on a book manuscript on civil war since 1945. Representative publications include "Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes" (American Political Science Review, September 1994), "Rationalist Explanations for War" (International Organization, summer 1995), and "Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity" (with David Laitin, International Organization, fall 2000).

Kate A. Forest, MD, MPH, is Director of Operations and co-founder of the Commonweal Institute, and a public health physician by training. For over 20 years, she served as a consultant to the pharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostics industries, with heavy emphasis on marketing strategy, market research, and product safety; she also served as a consultant to both nonprofit and governmental organizations regarding health issues.

Dr. Forrest's professional experience also includes training, clinical medicine, and psychosocial research. Her previous positions include: Principal Research Scientist, American Institutes for Research, Palo Alto; Associate Medical Director, Syntex, Inc.; Medical Director of a Planned Parenthood affiliate based in San Jose, California; and Assistant Professor of Public Health and Medical Computer Science, Yale University. She founded and was the first Director of the Office for Women in Medicine at Yale University. She holds B.A., M.D., and M.P.H. degrees from Harvard University, and is Board certified in Preventive Medicine.

Richard E. French, Jr. is the President of WRNN-TV, a news and talk television station covering 5,300,000 homes in the New York region, including Albany, the Hudson Valley, Westchester/Rockland, New York City, Connecticut and New Jersey.

He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mercy College and also Chairs its Finance Committee. In addition, he serves as: Chair, Budget Committee and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) in Hyde Park, NY; a member of the Board of Trustees, Historic Hudson Valley, Tarrytown, NY; and as a member of the Board of the Westchester County Association. He resides with his wife, Cristina, in Harrison, New York. Their three children, Richard III (General Manager, WRNN-TV), Christian (VP, New Business Ventures) and Mark (VP, NBC) are all involved in the communications business.

Al From is founder and chief executive officer of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a dynamic idea action center of the "Third Way" governing philosophy that is reshaping progressive politics in the United States and around the globe. He is also chairman of the Third Way Foundation and publisher of the DLC's flagship bi-monthly magazine, Blueprint: Ideas for a New Century.

As a founder of the DLC - birthplace of the New Democrat movementand the Third Way in America - and its companion think-tank, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), From leads a national movement that since the mid-1980s has provided both the action agenda and the ideas for New Democrats to successfully challenge the conventional political wisdom in America and, in the process, redefine the center of the Democratic Party.

Professor Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He has also taught at New York University, the University of California at Berkelely, and San Jose State University. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Ecole Des Hautes Etudes En Sciences Sociales (Paris), University of Iowa, University of Oslo (Norway), and Wesleyan. He is the author of several books, and is a contributing writer to Mother Jones.

Jay Jackman, JD, MD is a psychiatrist who consults with businesses and health agencies to facilitate changes in management styles and organizational change, and also works as an expert witness in the criminal court system, particularly in murder and death penalty cases. Dr. Jackman completed his psychiatric residency at Stanford Medical Center and his internship at San Francisco County General Hospital. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his B.A. from Columbia University. In 1999 he received a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Terry Karl is a professor of political science at Stanford University. Her research interests include comparative democratization in developing countries, democracy and inequality, Latin American politics, and US policies towards the developing world.

Zoe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as the only freshman Democrat from west of the Rocky Mountains. She serves on the Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on House Administration.

Zoe Lofgren has been a key voice for high-tech, for immigrants, and for women. She is chair of the California Democratic Delegation.

Charles R. "Chuck" Middleton has served as the fifth President of Roosevelt University since July, 2002.

He has worked closely with the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees to develop and implement a comprehensive Strategic Plan for the University. Focusing on student success and high quality academic programs, the plan sets forth Roosevelt's major goals and objectives for the future.

As President of Roosevelt University, Dr. Middleton heads the most diverse private university in the Midwest. Roosevelt's 7,400 students take courses in the liberal arts and sciences, business administration, education and performing arts at comprehensive campuses in downtown Chicago and northwest suburban Schaumburg. The University also owns the Auditorium Theatre, an historic Chicago landmark, which it operates through a separate contract. Building on Roosevelt's historic commitment to social justice, President Middleton has emphasized service learning across the curriculum. He also has instituted a number of programs for students, including a new flat-rate tuition structure that reduces tuition for many undergraduate students, an innovative registration process that is responsive to student needs, and a new orientation program for freshmen. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Dr. Middleton has been a university professor or administrator for 36 years. Prior to joining Roosevelt, he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bowling Green State University, and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University System of Maryland.

His academic expertise is in modern British history from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century, and he has an interest in the history of sport in America. He has written more than 60 scholarly papers; and he is also the author of the book The Administration of British Foreign Policy, 1782-1846.

Dr. Middleton earned a B.A. degree with honors in history from Florida State University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Duke University.

In his free time, he enjoys fishing, attending Cubs and White Sox baseball games, and cooking for friends.

Dr. Middleton is active in educational and community organizations. He is a Fellow of the Institute for International Education (Midwest), and a member of the American Council on Education, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Illinois Federation of Independent Colleges and Universities, American Historical Association, and North American Conference on British Studies. He also serves on the boards of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York, Center on Halsted, Chicago Loop Alliance, Chicago Central Area Committee, Near South Planning Board, The Point Foundation, and the Chicago Historical Society Community Advisory Council for "Out at CHS." He is a member of Rotary One, Economic Club and Executives Club.

Dee Dee Myers is a political analyst and commentator. Currently, she is a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair Magazine; a popular lecturer on politics, the media and women's issues; and a frequent guest on numerous broadcast and cable television programs.

Myers served as White House Press Secretary during President Clinton's first term. She was the first woman and youngest person ever to hold that job. Asked how she dealt with an often combative press corps, Myers once said: "Never take it personally--and never lose your sense of humor."

In addition to Vanity Fair, she has written for publications including Time Magazine, The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She also worked as a consultant on the popular NBC series "The West Wing," where she helped shape the show for six years.

Before joining the Clinton for President campaign in the fall of 1991, Myers worked on a number of local, state and national campaigns. A 1983 graduate of the Santa Clara University, she currently lives in Washington with her husband, Todd Purdum, a correspondent for The New York Times, and their children, Kate and Stephen.

Mark Newberg currently serves as an Advisor to New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas. He is working with the Office of the Federal Coordinator's intergovernmental task force to resolve issues in the ongoing recovery. He is also working with the Clinton Climate Initiative to promote sustainable economic development and carbon emissions reduction. Mark has previously served as Deputy Director of Operations for the Democratic GAIN Training Program at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and has experience in communication strategy, policy, and speechwriting. He is a founding member of the Roosevelt Institution's Tulane Chapter, and presented his paper "Courting Disaster: Law and Jurisdiction in Crisis Management" at the Roosevelt Institution's SCEPR conference.

Mark holds a JD from Tulane Law School, and was a visiting student at Harvard Law School following Hurricane Katrina. He also holds a BA in Political Science from Tulane University.

Nick Penniman is the editor of TomPaine.com and program director of the Campaign for America's Future. He was formerly an associate editor of The American Prospect magazine and director of Moving Ideas, a network of 150 leading liberal organizations. Before that, he directed the Alliance for Democracy and was editor of a weekly newspaper in Boston, Mass.

Kitty Percy has served as Mayor of Eugene, Oregon since January of 2005. She also currently sits on the Advisory Board for the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, DC, as well as the Oregon Coalition for Homeless and Runaway Youth. Receiving her B.S. from Western Michigan University, she served in the Peace Corp in Ethiopia, later completing her Graduate Studies in Political Science from California State University, Hayward. After a thirty year career in early childhood education and five years in the Oregon State legislature, from 2000 to 2004 she served as Public Affairs Director for Planned Parenthood Health Services of Southwestern Oregon. She is a recipient of the International Women's Day Human Rights Recognition Award as well as the Award for Dedication and Service for Work with Women's Issues. Her interests include sustainable economic development, social service infrastructure, and education.

Dr. William J. Perry was the 19th Secretary of Defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997; he previously served as Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering from 1977 to 1981. Perry is a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for International Studies and is a professor at the Stanford School of Engineering.

Dr. Perry is on the board of directors of several emerging high-tech companies and is chairman of Global Technology Partners. His previous business experience includes serving as a laboratory director for General Telephone and Electronics for 10 years before founding ESL Inc., of which he was the president for 14 years. Dr. Perry was also executive vice-president of Hambrecht & Quist Inc. from 1981 to 1985 and founder and chairman of Technology Strategies & Alliances from 1985 to 1993. Dr. Perry is a graduate of Stanford.

From 1946 to 1947, Perry was an enlisted man in the Army Corps of Engineers, and served in the Army of Occupation in Japan. He joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1948 and was a second lieutenant in the Army Reserves from 1950 to 1955. He has received a number of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1997), the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1980 and 1981), and Outstanding Civilian Service Medals from the Army (1962 and 1997), the Air Force (1997), the Navy (1997), the Defense Intelligence Agency (1977 and 1997), NASA (1981) and the Coast Guard (1997). He received the American Electronic Association's Medal of Achievement (1980), the Eisenhower Award (1996), the Marshall Award (1997), the Forrestal Medal (1994), and the Henry Stimson Medal (1994). The National Academy of Engineering selected him for the Arthur Bueche Medal in 1996. He has received awards from the enlisted personnel of the Army, Navy, and the Air Force. He has received decorations from the governments of Germany, England, France, Korea, Albania, Poland, Ukraine, Bahrain, Slovenia and Hungary.

John Podesta is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress. Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy, and served in the President's Cabinet and as a Principal on the National Security Council. A frequent guest of Sunday morning news programs, Podesta is known for his straight talk, acerbic wit, and fierce defense of the Clinton Administration - which he also served from 1997 to 1998 as both an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy.

Podesta is currently a Visiting Professor of Law on the faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, a position he also held from January 1995 to 1997. He has taught courses on technology policy, congressional investigations, legislation, copyright and public interest law. Podesta is considered one of Washington's leading experts in technology policy, and has written a book, several articles and lectured extensively in these areas.

John Prendergast served as Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council from 1996-1999 and was Special Advisor to the State Department from 1999-2001.

He has published numerous op-eds and commentary pieces for major newspapers, including most recently in The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. He currently serves as Special Adviser to the President of the International Crisis Group.

Neil Thomas Proto is a partner in the Washington, D.C. firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis. He also is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, where he has taught on environmental values and energy choices and urban sprawl and the environment.He also was a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University. As a law student, he chaired Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP), which resulted in the first United States Supreme Court decision to consider the National Environmental Policy Act (1973). His memoir, To A High Court, The Tumult and Choices That Led To United States of America v. SCRAP, is due for publication in late 2005.

As an appellate attorney with the United States Department of Justice and in private practice, Mr. Proto has been involved in numerous legal, cultural and political challenges. In 1993, he drafted a unique statutory scheme, at the behest of the State of Hawaii, that resulted in the conveyance of Kaho'olawe Island from the United States to Hawaii for the special use of Native Hawaiians.He also represented, pro bono, Protect Historic America ( authors and historians), in its effort to stop Disney from locating in the Virginia Piedmont. Earlier in his career he served as General Counsel to the President's Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee established after the accident at Three Mile Island and chaired by then Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt.

Mr. Proto sat on the Board of Directors of the Shubert and Long Wharf Theatres in New Haven, Connecticut and recently served as Chair of the City of New Haven's Committee for the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Execution of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco (2002).. He Chairs the American Friends of Wilton Park, a British-American educational organization with origins in World War II. He is a recipient of the Department of Justice Special Commendation Award for Outstanding Service and the Environment and Natural Resources Division Award for Meritorious Service. Mr. Proto also received the Distinguished Alumnus Awards from Southern Connecticut State University in 1981.

Miles S. Rapoport is President of Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action. Based in New York City, Demos is a public policy research and advocacy organization, committed to creating a vibrant and inclusive democracy and achieving more broadly shared prosperity.

Prior to joining Demos, Rapoport served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1995-1999, and was a strong advocate for full democratic participation. From 1985-1994, he served in the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he chaired the Government Administration and Elections Committee, and led efforts for election reform and for an equitable and responsible tax structure for the state.

In addition to his government tenure, Rapoport's public advocacy efforts have included serving as the founder and Executive Director of DemocracyWorks in Hartford from 1999-2001, the founder and Director of Northeast Action from 1985-1991, and the Executive Director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group from 1979-1984.

Robert B. Reich is University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and at Brandeis's Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written ten books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers The Future of Success and Locked in the Cabinet; and his most recent book, Reason. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reich is co-founder and national editor of The American Prospect magazine. His commentaries can be heard weekly on public radio's "Marketplace."

In 2003, Reich was awarded the prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize, by the former Czech president, for his pioneering work in economic and social thought. In 2002, Reich ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Massachusetts.

As the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich presided over the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act; led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world; headed the administration's successful effort to raise the minimum wage; secured worker's pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor earned more than 30 awards for innovation and government reinvention. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration.

Before taking office, Reich was a member of the faculty of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School. Since 1981, he has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Clare Dalton. They have two children, Adam and Sam.

Peter A. Reiling is Executive Vice President, Leadership and Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute, a post he assumed in April 2004. Prior to this, Peter served for eight years as President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international nonprofit organization helping entrepreneurs to build profitable businesses in low-income rural communities in Africa, Latin America and Central Europe. Reiling is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bretton Woods Committee, and serves on the advisory boards of the REDCO Alliance, AGORA Partnerships and the Roosevelt Institution. An Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow (Class of 1998), he launched the Africa Leadership Initiative, a joint venture of TechnoServe, the Aspen Institute, and an array of African business leaders, in 2000. He launched a similar venture in Central America in 2004. Peter holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a BS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Ed Renehan Jr. is the author of books that include Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons (Basic Books/Perseus, 2005), The Kennedys at War, 1937-1945 (Doubleday, 2002), The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War (Oxford University Press, 1998; paperback, OUP, 1999), The Secret Six (Crown, 1995; paperback, University of South Carolina Press, 1997) and John Burroughs: An American Naturalist (Black Dome Press, 1992; paperback, BDP, 1998). The Kennedys at War, The Lion's Pride and Dark Genius are all available in audio editions from Recorded Books, Inc. The Kennedys at War has been optioned by noted Hollywood film-producer Robert Greenwald.

Renehan has also written for The Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, and other national publications. He has long been affiliated with the Theodore Roosevelt Association, as both a trustee and director.

Renehan is frequently asked to deliver readings and lectures. In the last few years he's spoken to the members of the Boston Athenaeum, the Philadelphia Athenaeum, the Union League Club of NY, the Union Club of Boston, the Harvard Club of NYC, the Harvard Club of Boston, the Prologue Society of Miami, Scenic Hudson and the Thoreau Society. Additionally, he's delivered talks at such establishments as Sagamore Hill, the Concord (MA) Museum, Theodore Roosevelt's "Pine Knot" near Charlottesville, VA, and the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. He's also been a frequent "talking head" on C-SPAN, The History Channel and PBS.

In another life, Renehan spent 14 years (1980 - 1994) as a publishing executive in Manhattan. There he helped pioneer early Electronic Publishing/New Media for Macmillan and other concerns, quite profitably riding the edge of the digital revolution. From '89 onward, Renehan (along with other exiles from what had suddenly, after an unfriendly takeover, become Maxwell-Macmillan) served as a founding executive with a division of K-III, now PriMedia. Subsequent to his retirement from NY in '94, Renehan has pursued his interest in writing histories and biographies while also remaining active as a consultant and packager of both traditional and e-content for a host of organizations including PriMedia, Haights Cross Communications, iBooks, and the publishing division of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Renehan resides in the coastal village of Wickford, Rhode Island, with his wife and two children.

Paul Rich is the senior professor in the Department of International Relations and History at The University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico. He is a Visiting Fellow at The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the President of The Policy Studies Organization, the scholarly organization for political and social policy scholarship to which more than 700 universities belong.

He is Past President of the International Society Phi Beta Delta, Chancellor of the General Grand Chapter of Phi Sigma Omega, and Chair of the Library Committee of the American Political Science Association.

Much of Dr. Rich's career has been involved with the establishment and nurturing of universities outside of the United States. He went to Saudi Arabia as Adviser in the Ministry of Higher Education and Professor in the University of Riyadh, now King Saud University. He then spent more than a decade in the Emirate of Qatar as head of supervisory training programs in the Ministry of Education and Culture and adviser to the then Crown Prince.

In 1987, Ms. Roosevelt began pursuing her lifelong interest in politics by working for the Democratic National Committee. In 1989, she managed U.S. Senator Paul Simon's Chicago office and his 1990 re-election campaign. In 1990, she also served as a consultant for the "Daley for Mayor" campaign. In 1991, she became the first Executive Director of the Museums in the Park, an organization representing the political interests of the nine museums located on Chicago Park District land. From 1996 through 1998, she served as the Director of the Mayor's Office of Program Development for the City of Chicago. In January, 1998, Ms. Roosevelt began as Executive Director of the Brain Research Foundation, which is an affiliate of the University of Chicago. When the Boeing Company relocated its world headquarters to Chicago, Ms. Roosevelt became the Director of Community and Education Relations for Boeing World Headquarters.

Ms. Roosevelt is a member of the Board of Trustees for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. She also serves as a board member of Spelman College, the Advisory Board of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, the Advisory Board for the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Old Town School of Folk Music, and is a member of the Chicago Sister Cities Casablanca Committee. She is Chairman of the Board of the Roosevelt Warm Springs Foundation, Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Center for New Deal Studies at Roosevelt University, and Co-Chair of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in New York City.

President and CEO of Tufts Health Plan, Waltham, MA. He is Co-Chairman of Tufts Health Care Institute and Past President of the American Health Lawyers Association. He is also chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and co-chair of the Rules and By-laws Committee of the Democratic National Committee. He was Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy of the Social Security Administration and a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston.

He is a frequent lecturer and author on legal and public policy topics and he is Clinical Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Tufts University School of Medicine.

He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2003, earned his J.D. in 1971 from Harvard Law School and his A.B. from Harvard College in 1968. He is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Richard Rorty is a professor in comparative literature at Stanford and is one of the most widely-read contemporary philosophers. His political and moral philosophies have been under almost constant attack both from some on the Right, who call them relativist and irresponsible, and some on the Left, who believe them to be insufficient frameworks for social justice.

In his major opus, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Rorty combines theoretical groundwork from Sellars, Thomas Kuhn, Ludwig Wittgenstein and others, to practice the doctrine of "dissolving" rather than solving philosophical problems. Rorty's other major work, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, was published in 1989. In it, Rorty abandons the attempt to explain his theories in analytic terms and creates an alternative conceptual schema to that of the "Platonists" he rejects. This schema is based on the belief that there is no "truth" higher than the human being's ability to recreate her/himself, a view that has been adapted from Nietzsche and which Rorty also identifies with the novels of Proust. This book also marks his first attempt to consciously articulate a political vision consonant with his philosophy, the vision of a diverse community bound together by opposition to suffering, and not by abstract ideas such as "justice," "common humanity," etc.

Over the past fifteen years Rorty has continued to publish voluminously, including three volumes of philosophical papers, Achieving Our Country, a political manifesto partly based on readings of Dewey and Walt Whitman, and Philosophy and Social Hope, a collection of essays for a general audience.

Susan Rose-Ackerman is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence (Law and Political Science) with joint appointments between Yale Law School and the Yale Departmant of Political Science. She has taught and written widely on corruption, law and development, administrative law, law and regulatory policy, the nonprofit sector, and federalism. Her recent books are "Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences and Reform," which has been translated into 13 languages, and "From Elections to Democracy: Building Accountable Government in Hungary and Poland." Professor Rose-Ackerman has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and at Collegium Budapest, where she co-directs a project on Honesty and Trust in Post-Socialist Societies. She has also been a visiting research scholar at the World Bank. She holds a Ph. D. in Economics from Yale University and has held Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships. She has a B.A. from Wellesley College.

Armin Rosencranz is a lawyer, political scientist and consulting professor of human biology. He teaches several environmental policy courses at Stanford, and has also taught courses on India and Pakistan. His courses are multi-disciplinary and have been listed or sponsored by ten different departments. His recent work has dealt with India's environment, climate change policy and the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. He has had three Fulbright awards, including two to India. He was the founder and president of Pacific Environment, an international environmental NGO.

Earlier in his life, Armin was president of the Stanford student body, and persuaded the university to remove Jane Stanford's prohibition of "partisan political activity" on campus. He also co-founded Stanford in Government, worked on a White House task force, and was an assistant to Sen. Robert Kennedy. He has served as an alumni-elected member of Stanford's board of trustees. In 2003, Armin received Stanford's Phi Beta Kappa award for distinguished teaching.

President and co-founder of the Commonweal Institute, Salle brings a business perspective to the promotion of moderate-progressive ideas. His professional experience includes high-level management and executive positions in engineering design and construction firms. The scope of some of his projects was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with hundreds of employees and multi-year durations. He also has experience with local, state and Federal government agencies. In the late 1990s, he was president of a union of engineers and architects affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Mr. Salle has done strategic planning for long-term organizational development and for involving the public in both private and public development projects. Additionally, he has been extensively involved in the marketing of professional services, both within companies and as a consultant to professional service firms.

Mr. Salle has also been an advocate for the public, dealing with issues such as development of school busing policies in hillside communities, creation of one of the first heritage tree ordinances in California, review and critique of proposed development projects and environmental impact reports, political strategy to oppose placement of high pressure gas transmission lines across farmland, and revision of residential zoning laws to limit development intensity.

Since 2002, Andrea Batista Schlesinger has led the effort to turn the Drum Major Institute, originally founded by an advisor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement, into a progressive policy institute with national impact.

Under Andrea's leadership as Executive Director, DMI has released several important policy papers to national audiences, including "Principles for an Immigration Policy to Strengthen and Expand the American Middle Class", "Middle Class 2004: How Congress Voted", and "People and Politics in America's Big Cities"; launched its nationally recognized Marketplace of Ideas series highlighting effective public policy; and, created a Fellows program to enable grassroots activists to translate their experiences into the conversation about public policy.

From appearing on the Lou Dobbs Show talking about Congress and the middle class, to speaking on radio stations across the country on topics including immigration and the President's State of the Union address and to repeated mentions in The Nation.com and regular features on Huffington Post, Andrea is a dynamic young voice speaking about the role of policy in people's lives. She has moderated panels featuring noted guests such as Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Andy Stern, president of SEIU, Congressman Jerry Nadler, Congresswoman Hilda Solis, Editor of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel and Rev. Forbes of Riverside Church. An expert on young people and Social Security reform, Andrea has also served on panels on the subject for The Century Foundation and the Institute for Women In Policy Research. Andrea has been profiled in the New York Times, New Yorker magazine, Latina Magazine and in 'Hear us Now,' an award-winning documentary about her tenure as the student member of the New York City Board of Education. She has been published in Alternet.org, New York Newsday, New York Sun, Crain's New York Business, TomPaine.com, City Limits magazine and The Mississippi Sun Herald. Andrea studied public policy at the University of Chicago. She has worked in various capacities to promote educational equity and youth empowerment. She directed a national campaign to engage college students in the discussion on the future of Social Security for the Pew Charitable Trusts, and served as Director of Public Relations of Teach For America before working as the education advisor to Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. She grew up and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Carol Shloss was educated at Swarthmore, Harvard and Brandeis University. She has taught at Wesleyan University, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State, West Chester. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockerfeller Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. In 1994 she won the Fellowship for Creative Non-Fiction Writing from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts.

Prior to coming to Stanford, she held research positions at the Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University, the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College at Harvard, the Center for Documentary Photography at Duke University, the Rockefeller Institute at Bellagio, Italy, the Alice Paul Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, the Center for the Cross Cultural Study of Women at Oxford University, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

She is the author of four books: Flannery O'Connor's Dark Comedies, In Visible Light: Photography and the American Writer, Gentlemen Photographers and Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake, which will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2003.She continues on the editorial boards of the Joyce Studies Annual and College Literature. She is currently at work on her next book about Ezra Pound and his daughter Mary de Rachewiltz: The Real Estate of the Pounds.

State Senator Joe Simitian was elected to the California State Senate in November 2004, to represent the 11th Senate District, which includes all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. He previously served in the California state assembly.

Senator Simitian is an attorney, businessman and city planner. He is a member of the California State Bar and the American Planning Association, and holds an AICP certification from the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Melissa Sterry is a Desert Storm veteran and an advocate for veterans issues. She spent 7 years with the American Red Cross Disaster Response specializing in Logistics, Training and Community Education. She has worked on a variety of political campaigns in fund raising, operations, and strategy. Building on her training from Bangor Theological Seminary, she currently teaches people how to be effective in the political process and is a political consultant for several campaigns covering military, veterans, homeland security and disaster response.

Steven Swig is president of the Presidio World College, a sustainable business school in San Francisco. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Santa Clara School of Law, Steven Swig was formerly with the Law Office of Joseph Alioto. He has also been Partner and Managing Director of Titchell, Maltzman & Mark; Executive Vice-President of Swig, Weiler & Dinner; and Counsel with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin. A long-time San Francisco resident, he has served on many boards including the University of Oregon, the ACLU, and the American Conservatory Theatre.

Katrina vanden Heuvel has served as Editor In Chief of The Nation since 1995. She is the co-editor of Taking Back America--And Taking Down The Radical Right and the collection A Just Response: The Nation on Terrorism, Democracy and September 11, 2001. She is a frequent commentator on American and international politics on MSNBC, CNN and PBS. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

She has received awards for public service from numerous groups, including The Liberty Hill Foundation, The Correctional Association and The Association for American-Russian Women. In 2003, she received the New York Civil Liberties Union's Callaway Prize for the Defense of the Right of Privacy. She is also the recipient of The American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee's 2003 "Voices of Peace" award. Vanden Heuvel is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, and she also serves on the board of The Institute for Women's Policy Research, The Institute for Policy Studies, The World Policy Institute, The Correctional Association of New York and The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

Mr. vanden Heuvel served as Deputy US Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1979 until 1981 and as US Representative to the European Office of the UN from 1977 to 1979. Former Senior Partner, now Of Counsel to the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, he is also Senior Advisor to Allen & Company, a New York investment banking firm. He is Chairman and CEO of Amromco Energy LLC. Ambassador vanden Heuvel has served as President of the International Rescue Committee; Chairman of the New York City Board of Corrections and as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United Nations Association. A graduate of the Cornell University Law School, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Law Review and later served as Executive Assistant to General William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, Special Counsel to Governor Averell Harriman and Assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chairman of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, and Chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors. He received an honorary doctoral degree from Hofstra University (1997), Roosevelt University (Chicago, 1999), and Hunter College (New York City, 2004). In May 2002, the Special Exhibits Gallery of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, was renamed in honor of Ambassador vanden Heuvel who also received the Four Freedoms medal on that occasion. In October 2003, he received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Medal.

Dr. Weissinger-Baylon is the director of the Center for Strategic Decision Research

Steve is the State Controller of California and serves as the Chief Financial Officer of the 5th largest economy in the world. As Controller, Steve has the power of the audit over every state agency and is an independent fiscal watchdog for the people of California. He is also a member of more than 50 boards and commissions including CalPERS, CalSTRS, the Franchise Tax Board, the Board of Equalization, the State Lands Commission and the major housing commissions of the state.

Steve has more than twenty years of experience in business, government and education. Throughout his career, Steve has developed expertise in fiscal management. In the private sector, Steve guided the online auction company eBay through a period of rapid growth, including serving as a senior vice-president of marketing, business development, mergers and acquisitions and international operations. Before becoming active in the Internet sector, Steve served on the faculty of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Steve has also worked on Capitol Hill and for the U.S. Department of Energy.

As an undergraduate student at Stanford University Steve ran for student senate and won. This served as his entree into the world of politics. He was also co-student body president at Stanford with Greg Larson, currently his chief of staff and most trusted political advisor. He has been an active member of the Democratic Party since college -- the 2004 Democratic National Convention was Steve's eighth straight convention as a delegate.

Steve later went on to receive his M.B.A. from Stanford and served for five years on the faculty at the university's Graduate School of Business, teaching public management. Steve speaks highly of Stanford because, "the university did a lot to help change my life." Steve has lived most of his life within ten miles of Hoover Tower on the Stanford campus. His parents moved there when he was just 2 years old.