[Occupy Thought] Related conference CFP

[D.E.]

Clark Butler, organizer of the conference, specifically asked me to
invite those of you involved in this project; #OWS-related work is
welcome. I'll post the full CFP in a comment below. Ignore the stated
deadline: 3pg proposals will be accepted until Jan. 15th.

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CRISIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

CALL FOR PAPERS

Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Campus, April 27-28,
2012

Organized by the Human Rights Institute of the IPFW Center for Applied
Ethics

Keynote Speaker: Thomas Altizer

-Does or does not gridlock in Washington mean that government,
preoccupied by reelection, lacks the courage to do what it can to
legislate and execute long-term solutions to such pressing problems?

-Is or is not Washington increasingly helpless to address problems
that do not stop at any nation’s borders but require multilateral or
credible global solutions through enforceable international law?

-Is there or is there not a relative, irreversible, and unprecedented
decline of American economic power and international influence in a
way that requires a difficult adjustment in the way Americans and
their elected officials perceive America’s future place in the world?

-Might or might not America still have its best years ahead of it in
part by restoring greater democracy and climbing down budget-wise from
all that is implied by its “imperial presidency” (Arthur Schlesinger,
1973)?

-Is or is not democracy intrinsically messy, so that it is functioning
normally in addressing now, as in the past, problems that have always
existed, so that there is no great need to worry about talk of a
“crisis”?

-Can or cannot participation in the democratic process realistically
be increased if a wide range of the public has little confidence that
participation and even voting makes little difference?

-Is or is not democracy in America a façade for capitalism plutocracy?

We invite scholars in political science, economics, political
philosophy, and public policy to address these and other issues from
an extensive range of perspectives.

The conference is scheduled to take place simultaneously with the
ongoing 2012 primary election season. This is not a forum for
politicians running for office or presently holding office. Scholars
and students of American democracy are invited to be presenters.
Analysis and evaluation of the American Occupy Movement are
encouraged.

Interested presenters are invited to submit paper proposals of at
least three full pages double-spaced by December 31. Queries welcome.
Decisions will be made January 1. Proposals should be submitted as
Word or PDF attachments to Clark Butler, Professor of Philosophy,
Purdue University (Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne Campus), General Editor,
Purdue University Press Human Rights Studies Series, at
but...@ipfw.edu . Presenters will be considered for inclusion in a
further volume in this series.