Versus: A 21st Century Government: What Should It Be?

Friday, June 25
9:00–10:00 a.m.

Participants:

• John Samples, director, Center for Representative Government, Cato Institute; author, The Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History 
• Eugene Steuerle, Institute fellow, Urban Institute; coauthor, The Government We Deserve

Moderator:

Robert Reischauer, president, Urban Institute; former director, Congressional Budget Office

As long as societies have governments, citizens will face off -- sometimes peacefully, sometimes not -- about the proper size and role of its centers of power. In his new book, the Cato Institute’s John Samples examines the high and low points of the nearly three-decade domestic struggle, from the Reagan revolution to the Obama administration, to limit government, chronicling the battle’s history and likely future.

The Urban Institute’s Eugene Steuerle and colleagues wrote, a dozen years ago, about how “more Americans than ever do not feel that they own their own government. It is there. They identify with its symbols and believe passionately in its constitutional character. They constantly interact with it as taxpayers and program beneficiaries. But it is not theirs, and this feeling goes far beyond allegiance to political party or candidate.”

Come listen as two clear-eyed thinkers debate ways to restore citizen-owned government and visions for government’s place in addressing the nation’s 21st century needs.

At the Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C.