June 2022

James S. Fishkin holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication at Stanford University where he is Professor of Communication, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy. Fishkin is best known for developing the practice of “Deliberative Polling,” which is a type of public consultation that employs random samples of the citizenry to explore how opinions would change if they were more informed. His work on deliberative democracy has stimulated more than 100 deliberative polls in 28 countries around the world. In 2019, he initiated “America in One Room”, a gathering of 500 American voters selected to form an accurate, representative sample of the entire American electorate in all its political, cultural, and demographic diversity.

Christine Landfried is a Professor emerita of Political Science at the University of Hamburg. Visiting professorships have led her to Sciences Po in Paris, the University of California at Berkeley and the Yale Law School. From 2014 to 2016 she held the Max Weber Chair at New York University. Her research focuses on the political role of constitutional courts, European integration and the role of art in democratic societies. In her studies of the EU she analyzes the conditions under which cultural, economic and political difference can be a potential for democratic governance. She is sharing the results of her research by writing for newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as well as for the Verfassungsblog. Christine Landfried is a 2022 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Joe Mathews is California and innovation editor at Zocalo Public Square. He was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Baltimore Sun. He is co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It and author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy. He is co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy. Joe also serves as a professor of practice at Arizona State University’s School of Public Affairs, as fellow at ASU’s Center for Social Cohesion, and as co-president, with Bruno Kaufmann, of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy – which brings together academics, journalists, activists and other experts on initiative, referenda, and new forms of deliberative and participatory democracy.