The Center for
the Study of Democratic
Institutions Audio Archive
Social and Economic Issues
Program 6: Capitalism and Democracy
Economist Stanley K. Sheinbaum argues that capitalism is not inherently democratic because economic decisions are not made democratically, and conversely...
Program 21: Freedom from Myths
Stanley K. Sheinbaum and William V. Shannon of the New York Post discuss the myths and clichés surrounding deficit spending...
Program 29: The Politics of Ecology
Aldous Huxley predicts that the most pressing problems facing democracy in the following ten years will be the population explosion...
Program 45: Technology and Democracy
Gerard Piel, publisher of Scientific American, posits that a blind adherence to the historical economy of scarcity prevents modern society...
Program 49: Concentrations of Private Power
Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, speaks on the growth of private governments as both industry and labor...
Program 50: The Bill of Rights and the Economic Republic
Adolf A. Berle, Jr., noted attorney, economic philosopher, and former Assistant Secretary of State, discusses corporate power and the American...
Program 53: The Role of Government in the Economy
Economist Gunnar Myrdal, of the University of Stockholm, foresees increasing participation of the American government in the economy, especially where...
Program 67: Black and White in America
Sociologist Philip Rieff argues that almost all sociological analysis of African Americans is a construction of white liberals who fail...
Program 69: A Walk on the West Side
The Center's Joseph P. Lyford reports on his study of the plight of the African American community in New York...
Noted author Upton Sinclair upholds his reputation as one of the first great muckrakers with two anecdotes from his life...
Program 76: The Nurture of Human Life
Actor Herschel Bernardi reads a popular speech that Robert M. Hutchins delivered in 1960 to mark the centennial of social...
Program 82: Affirmative Discrimination - I: Schools and Housing
Edwin E. Dunaway, a former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice, leads a Center discussion on the question of whether African Americans...
Program 83: Affirmative Discrimination - II: Jobs
Former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Edwin E. Dunaway returns to lead a second Center discussion, focusing on the issue of...
Program 97: First Things First - I
Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers and vice-president of the AFL-CIO, explores the moral and social...
Program 98: First Things First - II
Upton Sinclair offers his comments on Walter Reuther's talk, followed by a Q&A session between Mr. Reuther and the...
Program 99: The Culture Gap in Capitalism
Economist Robert Heilbroner suggests that capitalism has produced a class society in America and weakened our moral drive for an...
Program 100: New Utopias: Looking Backward or Brave New World?
The Center's Michael Harrington and W. H. Ferry are joined by Frank Keegan, of Georgetown University, for a discussion about...
Program 102: Peace Through Strife
Arthur I. Waskow, of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., discusses his belief that intensified competition between the...
Program 103: The Anti-Poverty War
The Center's Michael Harrington talks about the interrelationship between poverty and other social ills which impact the poor simultaneously. Feb...
Program 105: And What About Noodle?
The Center's John Wilkinson posits that, in a society where quantity matters more than quality and automation is rapidly making...
Program 114: Science: For Truth or Good? - I
The Center's Scott Buchanan interviews Helmut Krauch of the Heidelberg Institute, who is the head of a group of German...
Program 119: The Kibbutz Revisited
The Center's Scott Buchanan speaks with Viscount Edwin Samuel, of Hebrew University, about the relevance of the kibbutz experience in...
A portrait is presented of the Catholic activist Dorothy Day, noted anarchist and editor of The Catholic Worker, through excerpts...
Program 255: La Mula No Nació Arisca...
Excerpts from a Center conference that make the case that the deprivation and exploitation suffered by the Mexican-American community...
Program 257: The Cactus Curtain
Labor organizer Ernesto Galarza, author of Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story, outlines a program to correct the deep...
Program 262: Experiment in Self-Help
Robert Bailey and Lou Smith, organizers of Operation Bootstrap, a successful volunteer self-help movement in the black area of...
Program 286: How the United States Can Get Out of Vietnam
Former CBS News correspondent David Schoenbrun argues that rising dissent at home and abroad over U.S. policy in Vietnam requires...
Program 428: History and the Hippies
Historian Arnold J. Toynbee speaks with Scott Buchanan, Raghavan Iyer, and John R. Seeley about the unlearned lessons of history...
Program 457: Creative Non-Violence
Agricultural workers' union organizer Cesar Chavez speaks informally with the Center staff about his views on matters ranging from the...
Program 459: “The Rich Pay a Fine, the Poor Go to Jail”: A Sociology of the Law
A discussion of possible remedies for the problem of disparities in the legal system in its dealings with lawbreakers of...
Program 462: You Must Go Home Again
Norris Hart, a young black teacher who moved from a small town in Texas to Los Angeles and then decided...
Program 463: Rural Development: Rich Land for Poor
Slater King, a black activist and real estate broker, presents his idea to create a land trust, privately organized as...
Program 487: The Captive Child
Peter Marin, director of the experimental Pacific High School in Palo Alto, CA, argues that, in order to meet their...
Program 494: Dissent in Action
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark talks with the Center's Donald McDonald about the necessity for advancing social justice as...
Program 501: The Ethics of Medicine
In this discussion from a Center conference, the panelists debate the question of whether a new ethics is needed to...
Program 532: Capitalism: Socialism for the Rich?
Economist Walter Adams, of Michigan State University, argues that the military-industrial complex is only an illustrative footnote to the...
Program 639: National Security and Internal Reform
Richard J. Barnet, of the Institute for Policy Studies, claims that our national security would be better ensured through a...
Program 707: National Security and the Domestic Economy.
In this panel discussion, participants offer a harsh indictment of the federal preoccupation with military priorities, which, over the course...
Program 708: The Economic Crisis in Our Global Community
Robert O. Anderson, chairman of the Atlantic Richfield Company, warns that a redistribution of the earth's resources is inevitable, in...
Program 747: Ethnic Diversity, Individual Rights, and Family Policy
In planning for a proposed national family policy, Irving M. Levine and Joseph Giordano, both of the American Jewish Committee...
Program Topics
CSDI Audio Archive Information
The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) was founded by Robert Maynard Hutchins and was based in Santa Barbara, California, from 1959 to 1987. During that time it brought together many of the most capable and distinguished minds of the times to discuss vital issues facing American society of the day. Thanks to donors Neal Linson, Ceil Pulitzer, and Stanley Sheinbaum, a project has begun to digitize and make accessible on the web some of the most important conference proceedings, talks, and dialogues recorded by CSDI.
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