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Launched in fall 2010, the American Democracy Forum promotes the study of the principles of the American founding and the continued place of those principles in the practice of democracy in the United States.  The Forum rests on an understanding of American Democracy as involving an ongoing conversation about the principles central to the American founding:  popular sovereignty, representative democracy, equality, liberty and limited government.  It views those principles as unfolding in and tested by the dynamic context of political, economic, and social life in America.  The Forum aims to foster a conversation informed both by a rich understanding of the theoretical resources of American political thought and by the best analyses of the contemporary functioning of the American political system.

Download an ADF Brochure

2011-2012 Theme:  Liberty

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."

-- Thomas Jefferson

2010-2011 Theme:  Popular Sovereignty

"In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Goals of the American Democracy Forum:

• INCREASE opportunities for undergraduates to study the founding principles and ongoing practice of American democracy.
• PROVIDE opportunities for junior high and high school teachers to acess the latest research on the principles and practice of  American democracy.
• SUPPORT graduate students and early career scholars whose work focuses on the principles and practice of American democracy.
• BUILD a conversation about the principles and practice of American democracy among leading scholars from a variety of disciplines at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and beyond.