Program focuses on good polity

The fall of the Soviet Union has left many unanswered questions for today's nations during the post–Cold War era. Last weekend students, professors and Eastern European government officials tried to answer some of these questions in a symposium on post-Cold War politics. Assistant Political Science Professor Graham Walker organized the symposium, called "The Good Polity Today: constituting politics, law and markets after the Cold War," which was made possible by a grant from the James C. Gentle Foundation. The focus of the symposium was on the restructuring of Eastern European countries in the aftermath of fundamental governmental changes, Walker said. "We hope to get a better understanding of what's involved in setting up new constitutional systems," said Walker prior to the symposium. "We will also discuss ways of communicating our findings to academic and political leaders now implementing constitutional changes in their home countries." And Political Science graduate student Joseph Carrig added that, "Overall the intent was to bring theory and practice together, but in each of these realms you have different view points -- legal, political, constitutional." "All these supposedly coming together to create some new ideas for constituting a political system," he said. The public symposium began on Thursday with registration and a welcoming dinner at the Faculty Club for the participants. On Friday and Saturday speakers presented papers on specific topics, such as judicial review, citizenship, property rights, constitutions and the separation of church and state. Members of panels questioned and discussed issues brought up by the speakers. In addition, during breaks, participants in the symposium had the chance to communicate personally with each other. "The symposium opened up lines of communication," said Political Science graduate student Akiba Covitz. "If they ever have to make a major decision, they could simply get an opinion. They know they can call up an academic at Penn or a law professor in Texas." The symposium brought together a distinguished group of speakers ranging from University of Texas Law Professor Sanford Levinson to Ulrich K. Preuss from the Center for European Law and Policy at the University of Bremen in Germany. University of Maryland Political Science Professor Stephen L. Elkin gave the keynote address which encouraged the restructuring Eastern European countries to think constitutionally and to be wary when using "economic, legal, moral and policy theory as guides." Covitz said Eastern European countries need to make government structuring decisions based on that country's environment and past events. "[The countries should] make their own decisions on the ground in a particular cultural, historical and ethnic context," he said. One Hungarian official said the symposium examined how to make prudent decisions when reshaping a country, especially Eastern Europe. "I think it is a very interesting conference, especially for Eastern Europeans," said Peter Paczolay, the chief counselor of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Hungary. "The symposium discusses how to shape a good polity. East European countries are looking to find philosophical foundations of a good society and the pragmatic solutions."