DIRECTORS’ FORUM

Hoover Institution Directors' Forum is a web-based audio series featuring lively exchanges on public policy.

MOST RECENT INTERVIEWS

• Hanna Rosin
  June 01, 2006
  Reporter Hanna Rosin outlines the rising influence of evangelical Christians in American politics in this conversation with Hoover deputy director David Brady. After a lengthy period of disengagement, evangelicals (such as those graduating from the recently established Patrick Henry College) are looking to reshape the culture through political activism. At the same time, evangelicals increasingly find themselves part of the mainstream in Washington, D.C.. Rosin suggests that even the language of politics has changed, with spiritual references now the norm in speeches by the president and members of Congress.

• Robert Bates
  January 26, 2006
  Professor Robert Bates explores with Hoover senior fellow Peter Duignan the harsh reality of failed and failing states in Africa after independence. Bates outlines some of the key policy failures at work during the transition from colonial rule and explains how more recent democratization efforts have typically resulted in highly authoritarian and abusive regimes. Despite the risks associated with foreign aid, there is hope that the economic and political climate of Africa can improve with new funding strategies and free trade initiatives.

• Morris P. Fiorina
  December 02, 2005
  Hoover senior fellow Morris Fiorina examines the myth of a polarized America with Hoover deputy director David Brady. The general public is often portrayed as bitterly divided on social, political, and economic issues, but new research shows that most Americans stand in the middle of the political landscape, preferring centrist candidates and holding moderate positions on charged cultural issues. It is the political parties and the media that have ignored this fact and distorted public perceptions.

• Joan Biskupic
  October 25, 2005
  Author Joan Biskupic talks with Hoover's own David Brady about her new biography of soon-to-be-retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Ms. Biskupic contends that O'Connor's influential tenure on the nation's highest court had as much to do with her consensus style and advocacy as it did with being a moderate among strongly liberal and conservative peers.