THE ROUNDTABLES
BECOME A CITIZEN-WHIG
The Institute: A Work in Progress
“Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it.” (Alexis de Tocqueville)
The Modern Whig Institute takes a somewhat different approach from most other civic education institutes. One of the reasons is our unique, and distinctive, worldview: we are as thoroughly pragmatic as we are committed to the loftiest virtues. In practical terms, that means while we rely on the courage of our convictions, and are firm in our fundamental philosophy, we do not rigidly predetermine all policy outcomes in service to a narrow dogma.
Instead, we apply our time-honored values and principles to social and political challenges in a collaborative environment, with one eye on the constitutional boundaries and the other on the horizons of possibility. Our intention is to leverage both the formal knowledge of subject matter experts and the common sense of ordinary citizens to create innovative and workable solutions to our current challenges. Our method is to bring expertise and common sense together in the Great American Conversation: the constant dialog of creation and renewal our Founders always expected us, and wanted us, to have.
We do this in part through our Roundtables. Whether a citizen-member of the Institute chooses to participate depends solely on their focus and their personal preference. For some it may be enough to support the Institute in its core functions of research and publication through their financial contribution. Others may wish for more: a place where they can chat with the like-minded, learn from those with differing views, find new friends or simply voice their opinion. Still others may want to contribute their ideas on the nitty-gritty details of public policy; and some may want to do it all.
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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to promoting the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.
WHIG ROUNDTABLES
The Roundtables are one of the places where we bring the Great American Conversation to life. We house one as a private group (only Institute administrators and the Roundtable members themselves can see it) on the widely used social media site Facebook. We maintain a second, open Roundtable on LinkedIn which any user on that platform can ask to join.
Each of those Roundtables are devoted to general conversation. But Roundtables also come in two other flavors: Community and Leadership. Community Roundtables are place-specific: they can be focused on a locality, neighborhood, county or even state. That means if you’re, say, a resident of Anytown, USA you would be eligible to form or join the Anytown Community Roundtable and discuss any subjects of concern for that community on an ongoing basis.
Leadership Roundtables are subject-specific, or occasionally organized around action. So, for example, if a member has an idea to reform the ballot, they can form a Ballot Reform Roundtable as the Moderator and recruit other members to join them as Thought Leaders (members can also ask the Moderator to join at the discretion of the Roundtable).
Whether a Roundtable produces concrete work product like a white paper, just a list of suggestions in a Power Point, or simply serves as a means for members to hash out ideas is completely up to the Roundtable members themselves. The flexibility of our system allows them to be utilized in just about any fashion, and — as always — the Institute is ready to assist in any and every way.