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With Election Day just around the corner – and millions of ballots already cast in early voting – the next installment of the will tackle polarization and how tension between the political parties and the social groups they represent is redefining American democracy.

The webinar, “,” will be held Oct. 30 from 2-3:15 p.m. The virtual event is open to the public; .

“Heightened polarization can erode democratic norms and alter the functioning of democratic institutions, so we want to understand how and why the parties have grown so far apart,” said , the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government in the �鶹��Ƶ and �鶹��Ƶ (A&S) and Binenkorb Director of the , and one of the series’ organizers.

The session’s panelists include:

• Julia Azari, associate professor of political science at Marquette University and author of “Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate” (2014);
• Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, associate professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and author of “State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States – and the Nation” (2019); and
• Leah Wright Rigueur, the Harry S. Truman Associate Professor of American History at Brandeis University and author of “The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power” (2014).

, the Tisch University Professor of Government (A&S), will serve as moderator.

The Democracy 20/20 series – which concludes in early December with a post-election assessment – is sponsored by the , the and the .

Sheri Englund is associate director of communication for Global Cornell.

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