Our Broken Two Party System: Can American Politics be Fixed?

The American congress and presidency are the most powerful political offices in the world. However, most contemporary politicians have found themselves severely constrained in their ability to pursue their chosen agendas for domestic and foreign policy change.

This lecture will explain why, focusing on the nature of government bureaucracy, the range of American challenges and commitments, and the development of the modern media. Rather than dissecting particular policies, the focus will be on how the power of Congress and the President has changed over time and what that has meant for American society. The lecture will close with reflections for how we can improve leadership in future years.

Robert Watson / Lynn University
Robert Watson is the Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University. A frequent media commentator, he has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, “Time,” “USA Today,” “The New York Times,” and the BBC and others, and has appeared on C-SPAN’s “Book TV,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He has received multiple Professor of the Year awards at Lynn and other universities, and published 40 books on topics in history and politics. His book “America’s First Crisis” won the book of the year award in history at the Independent Publishers’ awards and his book “The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn” won the Commodore Barry Book Award.

$119

Hebrew Union College
1 West 4th Street
Conference Level A
New York, NY 10012











When: Fri., Jun. 8, 2018 at 10:00 am - 12:30 pm

The American congress and presidency are the most powerful political offices in the world. However, most contemporary politicians have found themselves severely constrained in their ability to pursue their chosen agendas for domestic and foreign policy change.

This lecture will explain why, focusing on the nature of government bureaucracy, the range of American challenges and commitments, and the development of the modern media. Rather than dissecting particular policies, the focus will be on how the power of Congress and the President has changed over time and what that has meant for American society. The lecture will close with reflections for how we can improve leadership in future years.

Robert Watson / Lynn University
Robert Watson is the Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University. A frequent media commentator, he has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, “Time,” “USA Today,” “The New York Times,” and the BBC and others, and has appeared on C-SPAN’s “Book TV,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He has received multiple Professor of the Year awards at Lynn and other universities, and published 40 books on topics in history and politics. His book “America’s First Crisis” won the book of the year award in history at the Independent Publishers’ awards and his book “The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn” won the Commodore Barry Book Award.

$119

Hebrew Union College
1 West 4th Street
Conference Level A
New York, NY 10012

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