Conference on The Legacy of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Cover of The Center Magazine March/April 1985 Issue. Detail of painting by Douglas Meyer. Used with permission. On April 3-4, 1998, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the Library at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will host a conference assessing "The Legacy of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions" which will be held in memory of Harry Ashmore and Walter Capps. Our conference is planned to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the launching of the Basic Issues Program of the Fund for the Republic. In 1957, when the Basic Issues Program was established, its goal was to clarify the issues involved in maintaining a free and just society and to advance the understanding of those issues by promoting discussion of them by the American people. Six institutions were chosen for study: the corporation, the trade union, the common defense, the political process, religious institutions, and the mass media. The Basic Issues Program evolved into the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Robert Hutchins, President of the Center, filled the Center's programs, fellowships, and convocations with the most sophisticated and thoughtful figures in public life at the time. Fellows and guests would participate in interdisciplinary dialogues and meet daily to discuss a paper or an oral presentation. Participants included William F. Buckley, Senator Alan Cranston, Upton Sinclair, Milton Friedman, Mortimer Adler, Cesar Chavez, Aldous Huxley, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. The Center hosted hundreds of people of national and international stature as participants in its dialogues. Political leaders, academic leaders, scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, journalists, theologians, labor leaders and community leaders brought their expertise to interdisciplinary discussions on questions of critical concern to the common good of a democratic society. The work of the Center from the 1950s and through the beginning of the 1980s provides insight into efforts by the most capable and distinguished minds of the times to approach, confront and attempt to resolve the vital issues facing American society. The conference will bring together a group of individuals to revisit two of the topics that were among the basic issues addressed by the Center: the mass media and the political process. Three major speakers and two panels will explore these issues over the course of one day. The focus will be on the changing role of the mass media in the political process and the emergence of new pressure groups in the political process as we approach the millenium. Roger Rosenblatt has already been secured as the keynote speaker and will conclude the convocation with an address on the topic: "The Challenge of Liberalism." The conference is designed to be of interest not only to the academic community, but to the public at large as were the Center dialogues. Conference Program CSDI Exhibit UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Home Page Text author: Leonard Wallock. Page maintained by: CEMA. Last modified: 11/20/06 05:06:12 Direct questions or comments about this page to the author or to the Web Administrator. This is an official University of California, Santa Barbara Library web page.