Constitutional Lawyer Maxwell L. Stearns

Everybody’s Flawed, and Everybody Has Something to Contribute

Maxwell L. Stearns is the Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. His latest book, Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy, draws on a world tour of different democracies and outlines a plan to turn the U.S. government into a parliamentary system. Before the Zócalo and Los Angeles Times event “Would Parliamentary America Have More Fun?,” Stearns stopped by our green room to chat Law & Order, constitutional conventions, and how to make the …

One Nation … Under Parliament?

The Zócalo and Los Angeles Times Event ‘Would Parliamentary America Have More Fun?’ Considers a U.S. Governed by Multi-Party Coalitions

“Convince me,” Los Angeles Times columnist Erika D. Smith told Maxwell L. Stearns, the author of the forthcoming book Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken …

What Is 21st-Century Truth?

Propaganda Has Trapped Us in Plato’s Cave—the Shadows Aren’t Real but the Sun Is Blinding

Zócalo is celebrating its 20th birthday this year! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of …

Preaching Civility Won’t Save American Democracy

Only by Learning to Communicate as Citizens, Not Propagandists, Can We Avert Political Tragedy

It’s obvious that our political discourse is broken. People don’t just yell at one another on cable television, they also do it in restaurants, and on social media. Our communities …