CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Kevin Phillips, a well-known political and economic analyst, media commentator and author, will be the special guest at the 2003 Cline Symposium March 17 and 18 (Monday and Tuesday) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The topic for this year's symposium is "Private Markets, Public Order and Human Welfare." All of the Cline Symposium events are free and open to the public.
Phillips' first appearance will be at the Cline Forum, which kicks off the symposium, at 3 p.m. March 17 in 314 Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana. The forum, in the format of a panel discussion, will focus on "Free Markets and Human Welfare in the Global Era: Competing Strategies for Providing Public Goods in the U.S." Other panelists - all faculty members at Illinois - and their departments are Jeffrey Brown, finance; Richard Kaplan, law; Dianne Pinderhughes, political science; and Elizabeth Powers, finance and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA). Jack Knott, IGPA, will moderate the panel.
At 7:30 p.m. that same evening, Phillips will give the symposium keynote lecture in 141 Wohlers Hall Auditorium, 1206 S. Sixth St., Champaign. His lecture is titled "Wealth and Democracy," after the title of his most recent book, which, according to Bill Moyers, focuses on "how big money and political power are the invisible hand in the hidden story of the American experience."
On Tuesday, distinguished alumni of the political science department will take part in discussions with students enrolled in the semester-long "Cline Seminar on Global Markets: Wealth and Human Welfare."
Phillips' first book, "The Emerging Republican Majority," presaged the realignments of political parties in the United States.
Phillips' long-term focus on economics and politics has produced two other books: "The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath," and "Boiling Point: Democrats, Republicans, and the Decline of Middle-Class Prosperity."
The Richard G. and Carole J. Cline Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the department of political science and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Previous keynote speakers were John B. Anderson, Thomas L. Friedman, Samuel Huntington, Robert Putman, Edward O. Wilson, James Q. Wilson and Theda Skocpol.