Russell Muirhead, Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College, will discuss his recent book, Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos. This is a hybrid event.  Join us in person in the Mayer Room or online via Zoom. No registration required in person; register for Zoom here.

"In this unsettling book, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum trace how ungoverning—the deliberate effort to dismantle the capacity of government to do its work—has become a malignant part of politics. Democracy depends on a government that can govern, and that requires what’s called administration. The administrative state is made up of the vast array of departments and agencies that conduct the essential business of government, from national defense and disaster response to implementing and enforcing public policies of every kind. Ungoverning chronicles the reactionary movement that demands dismantling the administrative state. The demand is not for goals that can be met with policies or programs. When this demand is frustrated, as it must be, the result is an invitation to violence."

Russell Muirhead is Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Project at Dartmouth College. Muirhead is a frequent seminar moderator for the Aspen Institute. His research focuses on American politics, democracy, political parties in the United States, and the rise of conspiracy theories in United States politics. In 2019, he co-authored A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Muirhead was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in November 2020 and assumed office in December. He is a member of the House Election Law Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hanover Conservancy.