The League of Women Voters-Downeast in cooperation with WERU FM produces a monthly radio program on topics in participatory democracy. It's called the Democracy Forum.
Broadcasts may be heard from 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on the third Friday of the month at WERU Community Radio, 89.9 FM Blue Hill. Listen on the web at WERU.org. The show can also be heard in the Portland area at 11:30 a.m., the first Sunday of the following month, at WMPG Community Radio, 90.9 FM Portland, streaming at WMPG.org.
In September, 2018, the Democracy Forum won top honors from the Maine Association of Broadcasting for public affairs radio.
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Here is information about our latest or upcoming broadcast.
September 16 — Checks and Balances: What Are They? Are They Working?
This new episode will be pre-recorded on September 12; no listener calls will be taken. Comments and questions may be emailed to news@weru.org with Democracy Forum on the subject line.
"In framing a government, ... the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself." — James Madison
We'll have a conversation on how the three branches of government check each other: executive, judicial, legislative. Why did it matter to the Framers, and why does it matter to us? Of what importance is mutual and self-regard among the branches: each branch protecting its own institution and backing up the other branches? Is the public one of the checks -- with political consequences creating a limit on extremism? Does it seem to be working right now? Why or why not?
In case you missed it live, you can listen to this show from the archive at weru.org.
Special Guests:
- Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values
- Andrew Rudalevige, Chair of the Department of Government and Legal Studies, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College
To learn more, follow these links to related content:
- Post-ROE, the Supreme Court is on a collision course with Democracy | Vanity Fair August 25, 2022
- Opinion | The Supreme Court Has Too Much Power and Liberals Are to Blame - POLITICO, July 27, 2022
- Most in new poll say US government needs major reforms, complete overhaul | The Hill, July 13, 2022
- The Supreme Court’s Role in the Degradation of U.S. Democracy | CLC, July 13, 2022
- Opinion | How the Founders Intended to Check the Supreme Court’s Power - POLITICO, July 3, 2022
- How Viktor Orbán Wins | Journal of Democracy, July 2022
- Abuses of executive privilege reveal our system of checks and balances is on life support | The Hill October 24, 2021
- Executive privilege is killing checks and balances | MichaelLeppert.com October 15, 2021
- Checks and balances on war powers — Defense Priorities, April 2, 2021
- By Executive Order | Princeton University Press, April 2021
- Checks and Balances in a Trump-Era Supreme Court | Brennan Center for Justice, July 10, 2020
- Congress Has Lost Its Power Over Trump | The Atlantic, February 4, 2020
- The Unconstrained Presidency: Checks and Balances Eroded Long Before Trump | Council on Foreign Relations, August 14, 2018
- Congress’s Power over Courts: Jurisdiction Stripping and the Rule of Klein | CSR, August 9, 2018