Show Notes
The pandemic has dramatically emphasized the authority that scientific expertise commands in our political culture. As the CDC has periodically updated its guidelines over the course of the year, states, localities, and businesses adapted their policies in light of the new findings. The mantra of covid-19 has been “follow the science,” as though some rational machine processes new data and computes updated guidelines behind the scenes. Often overlooked is the central role that human judgment plays in scientific discovery. Tony Mills, AEI resident scholar and expert in science policy, joins Adam to discuss the ways judgment and deliberation guide scientific discovery. They also consider how to weigh scientific knowledge with other forms of expertise relevant to public policy. Tony’s recent paper, “The Role of Judgment and Deliberation in Science-Based Policy,” explores the themes of this episode.
More from Unprecedential
After fifteen months and 46 episodes, Unprecedential is packing up and going to the beach. Today’s episode features Adam and Elayne reflecting on their favorite conversations thus far. They also draw out some general lessons about constitutional governance from the wide-ranging insights brought by guests. In the meantime, watch out for bonus episodes this summer and, later on, a revamped show with a new format. Stay tuned!
The Bill of Rights provides a great number of protections for accused and convicted criminals: it promises trial by jury; it prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment. And in this system, defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Yet few criminal indictments today are actually decided by a full trial; instead, prosecutors have many points of leverage, and defendants have strong incentives to plead guilty. Are these tools and incentives good for constitutional government? Judge Jed Rakoff, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, recently published a book arguing for major reforms: “Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free: And Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System.” On April 29, 2021, he participated in a public web event with Adam, to discuss the limits of forensic science, prosecutors’ advantages over defense during trials, and other ways the criminal justice system is falling short. The recording of their conversation is today's podcast episode.
From today’s vantage point, the Founding era often seems a time churning with decisive hopefulness. The 1789 Constitutional Convention certainly featured vehement debate, as Gary Schmitt and Joseph Bessette noted in our last episode. But optimism appeared to prevail: on the last day of the Convention, Benjamin Franklin concluded that a rising, rather than a setting, sun was the apt metaphor for the fledgling nation. Yet many of our most revered Founders –Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton – expressed deep concern for the new nation’s prospects for success. The framers’ worries, often overlooked in scholarship, is the subject of Syracuse University Political Science Professor Dennis Rasmussen’s new book, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders. Listen as Adam and Dennis discuss the Founders’ fears – and one framer whose measured confidence was notable exception.
When the Constitutional Convention began in 1787, delegates were tasked with creating a government that could simultaneously avoid monarchy’s overreaches and the Articles of Confederation’s ineffectiveness. In other words, the Convention needed to craft a republican executive. The Convention’s arguments over presidential selection, structure, and scope captured both the danger and fragility of executive power – twin concerns still evident in today’s debates about the presidency. Claremont McKenna College professor of Government Joseph Bessette and frequent guest and AEI scholar Gary Schmitt join Adam on Unprecedential to discuss their recent AEI report, “Crafting a Republican Executive: The Presidency and the Constitutional Convention.”
Since the 19th Amendment ratified women’s right to vote in 1920, the quest for women’s equality in America has taken many turns. But the philosophical lineage behind the legal and cultural debates about women’s rights remains visible in today’s disagreements. Intellectual descendants of John Stuart Mill argue that reproductive autonomy best achieves economic equality for women. Heirs of Mary Wollstonecraft’s thought, on the other hand, emphasize the need for laws that require employers to respect men’s and women’s family obligations. Erika Bachiochi, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, and author of the forthcoming book The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, joins Adam to trace and evaluate the evolving debate over the political, legal, and cultural meaning of women’s equality.