In his new book Kabuki Democracy, Eric Alterman, CAP Senior Fellow, asks why President Barack Obama has been unable to deliver on some of the promises of his 2008 campaign. He argues that while Obama's compromises have disappointed many of his supporters, his failures are primarily due to a political system that stymies democracy when voters choose progressive change.

Blending incisive political analysis with a clear agenda for change, Kabuki Democracy cuts through the clichés of conservative propaganda and lazy mainstream media analysis to demonstrate that genuine transformation will come to America only when enough people care enough to challenge the system.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion with the book's author.

Copies of Kabuki Democracy will be available for purchase at the event.

EVENT FULL: This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 into law—the first major government performance reform in 17 years. The law requires all departments and agencies to set high-priority goals, develop a plan to accomplish each goal, and regularly adjust the plan as they go along so the goals are more likely to be met. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) was one of the key architects of the bill and will discuss the implementation phase of the legislation at this event.

CAP will also launch a major new report titled "The Secret to Programs that Work" at the event. With the input of more than 200 experts over six months, the Doing What Works team has developed tools and processes to ensure that essential questions of likely success are asked early in the program design process. The report will also present tools and a new process to evaluate the effectiveness of existing programs.

Please join the Doing What Works project as Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) discusses implementation of the new law and next steps in improving government performance. Following the interview, a panel of government performance experts will discuss and respond.

On December 16th, 2010, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethics released its first report entitled “New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies.”

President Obama requested that the commission study synthetic biology following a major breakthrough in the field announced in May 2010 by researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute. The Venter Institute copied and modified an entire genome of a small bacterial cell, inserted it into a living cell of another species, and by doing so created a new, synthetic organism.

Recent years have seen unprecedented federal resources directed through School Improvement Grants to fix the nation’s least-successful schools. But school districts mediate the intervention and the extent to which they apply coherent strategies to support struggling schools may moderate its success. Coherent, outcome-oriented work is not easy for most organizations and it is especially challenging for school districts accustomed to input-based, compliance-oriented management. Accountability for improving student achievement, however, has changed the incentives.

This panel will present evidence that shows how and why families are an essential support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT youth and their well-being. The federal policy and program implications of this work will also be discussed. For too long, programs and policies that support LGBT youth have not addressed or even considered the role that families can play in supporting these youth. New research shows family reactions to a gay or transgender teen have a compelling impact on their physical and mental health, including issues such as substance abuse, depression, suicide attempts, self-esteem, and risk for HIV. This panel will discuss how family-level interventions offer highly effective, inexpensive, and culturally appropriate ways to improve the lives and life chances of LGBT youth.

Higher education is in crisis across the nation. America's colleges and universities are strapped for resources, students and families are faced with eye-popping tuition increases, and we are falling behind other developed nations in postsecondary attainment.

Many experts and policymakers are asking if the business model of higher education is broken. We need a new way of thinking about how colleges can fulfill their role in society without breaking the bank. Clayton Christensen offers an explanation of the changes in higher education through the lens of disruptive innovation, showing how new technologies like online education are forcing colleges and policymakers to rethink the way they deliver education.

To advance this policy discussion, the Center for American Progress, in collaboration with Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn, has published a new paper, "Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability in Postsecondary Education." Join CAP, Dr. Christensen and a panel of experts to discuss "Disrupting College."

Following in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita before it, the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe beginning in April 2010 exposed the vulnerability of the Gulf Coast environment and economy to natural and man-made disasters—alongside the incredible resilience and determination of its residents as they fought to recover from yet another setback. The federal government took notice. President Barack Obama launched the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, including leaders like  task force executive director John Hankinson, White House Domestic Policy Council chair Melody Barnes and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Dr. Jane Lubchenco who will join us, along with a group of Gulf Coast business, conservation and nonprofit leaders, for a conversation about the opportunities and challenges towards restoring the coast, sparking innovation, creating jobs, and protecting communities.

Oxfam America and CAP will also release a report analyzing the vulnerability of the economy and ecology of the Gulf region as both a challenge and an opportunity. The report provides recommendations for a regional ecosystem restoration plan to help coastal communities recover their past strength, promote the growth of new industries, and build a foundation for a new economic future.

Two and a half years after the Russia-Georgia war, Georgia remains the locus of three unresolved, interrelated conflicts: two secessionist and one inter-state.

This event will mark the release of a Center for American Progress report titled "A More Proactive U.S. Approach to the Georgia Conflicts."

The report’s authors, Samuel Charap and Cory Welt, will present the main findings. Two leading experts on the region will then respond. Damon Wilson, executive vice president at the Atlantic Council, worked on Georgia in a variety of capacities during his distinguished government career, including as special assistant to the president, and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council from December 2007 to January 2009. Professor Alexander Cooley of Columbia University has published extensively on post-Soviet Eurasia and U.S. policy toward the region, including "After the August War: A New Strategy for U.S. Engagement with Georgia" (co-authored with Lincoln Mitchell) released by the Harriman Institute last year.

State governments have a significant stake in reducing hunger, food insecurity, and obesity. Together, these interrelated problems significantly reduce the productivity of a state's workforce and increase states' share of health-related costs. Moreover, states have a significant role to play in reducing hunger and obesity as administrators of a number of federally funded nutritional safety-net programs.

Yet, very few states have comprehensive strategies to effectively tackle this complex and interconnected web of interests. This particular event will focus on how states can use Food Action Plans to achieve the best possible outcomes for low-income families while also benefiting other consumers, boosting private industry, and spurring economic development.

Given the fiscal challenges currently facing states, heavy emphasis will be placed on the smart use of existing federal resources. Also, model food-planning efforts can inform approaches aimed at other antipoverty goals. This event will feature a new paper authored by Joel Berg and Joy Moses.

Over the past decade, states and international organizations have shifted a surprising range of foreign policy functions to private contractors. But who is accountable when the employees of foreign private firms do violence or create harm? Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs, a new book by Laura Dickinson, foundation professor of law and faculty director of the Center for Law and Global Affairs at Arizona State University, explores the threat that services that are now delivered by private contractors pose to core public values of human rights, democratic accountability, and transparency. She offers a series of concrete reforms that are necessary to expand traditional legal accountability, construct better mechanisms of public participation, and alter the organizational structure and institutional culture of contractor firms.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion with the book's author.

Copies of Outsourcing War and Peace will be available for purchase at the event.

While the importance of effective teachers to students’ learning has received a great deal of attention in recent years, the role principals play in ensuring that students have access to excellent teaching has received much less consideration. Principals play a critical role in developing a strong teaching workforce within a school by hiring teachers, assigning them to specific positions, evaluating them, and providing growth opportunities for them.

In addition, as states and districts reform teacher-related policies and programs, principals will be crucial actors in ensuring their success. For example, principals play a vital role in implementing more rigorous evaluation systems and providing teachers with feedback to improve their performance.

Join us for a conversation with experts in research, policy, and practice to discuss how principals fulfill their critical role as a manager of educator talent and the opportunities and constraints that they face in their work. We will launch the conversation with a paper by Morgaen Donaldson that provides findings from a study of 30 principals in two northeastern states about how they perceive their roles.

On February 16, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the first details of his 21st century conservation and recreation strategy, the America’s Great Outdoors initiative. This vision was shaped by hundreds of thousands of Americans who participated in an unprecedented national conversation about the best future for our water, wildlife, and historic cultural landmarks.

Throughout four centuries of American history, our relationship to the land has been central to the development of our national character, our economic well-being, and our governance. According to new statistics from the U.S. Census, we are at the highest proportion of developed land in U.S. history. The core strategy for the America's Great Outdoors initiative is to target resources to the needs identified by local communities. In addition, the plan will make it easier for Americans to get jobs working on conservation efforts by lowering obstacles to working with federal agencies. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and historian Doug Brinkley will discuss the initiative and what role it may play in the administration’s legacy.

EVENT FULL: This event is now full and we can no longer accept RSVPs. Please watch the live webcast here.

Latinos constitute the second-largest group in the United States today and it is expected that by the year 2050 they will make up one-third of the U.S. population. Spanish-dominant voters, traditionally swing voters, have played a pivotal role in increasing the political participation of Latinos and were a key segment to drive up turnout in the 2008 and 2010 elections.

Spanish-language media has an unprecedented reach and influence into this segment of the population and as such will keep this community informed as Congress considers legislation that deeply affects the Latino community. Whether it is job creation, education and health care reform, or immigration-related legislation, Spanish-language media holds a front seat to the political and policy debate and through them the Latino community will be privy to the optics, discourse, and substance of the issues.

Please join us to discuss the role of Spanish-language press in reaching out to the growing Latino community and the issues that are moving this community in 2011 and beyond.