Instructions: 

1. Watch and listen to the 60-Second Civics video below. If you'd like, you can also read along using the script that appears below the quiz. Or you can turn on the video's subtitles and read while watching the video.
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Episode Description:
Today we start the first of our five-day series on democratic norms with Dr. Meena Bose, the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies and Executive Dean for Public Policy and Public Service Programs at Hofstra University. In our first episode, Dr. Bose discusses representative government, which is a fundamental feature of American democracy. Listen to learn more!

60-Second Civics, Episode 4562: March 7, 2022

Representative Democracy: Democratic Norms, Part 1

Welcome to 60-Second Civics, the daily podcast of the Center for Civic Education. I’m Mark Gage.

This week we introduce our series on democratic norms. 

We are joined by special guest Meena Bose, the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies and Executive Dean for Public Policy and Public Service Programs at Hofstra University.

Professor Bose, how is representative government a democratic norm?

Representative government is a fundamental feature of American democracy. 

When the framers drafted the Constitution, they designed a government that would be selected by the people to make decisions in the public interest. 

The framers believed that the public, which was a very restricted group of people at that time, but the view was that the public could make decisions on who should serve an office, but would not have the time interest or necessarily the knowledge to make decisions on what would be in the public good. 

Today, we have a much broader view of what the American public is a representation of elected officials represent many more constituents than they did at the start of the American republic and the vote is much more open to all Americans. 

But we still expect that elected officials will have the responsibility of governing

Thank you so much for your time Dr. Bose.

That’s all for today’s episode. 

60-Second Civics, where civic education only takes a minute.