Center for the Study of Democracy

The 7th Annual Patuxent Defense Forum was held at St. Mary's College of Maryland on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012. The title of thisyear's forum, a cooperative effort of the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Patuxent Partnership sponsored by SAIC, was "The Future of Conflict: The Ethics of Robotic Defense and Unmanned Warfare". The program from this year's forum can be found here. The presentations from this year's panelists can be found under "Event Highlight".

All Events Free and Open to the Public

The Center for the Study of Democracy focuses on different dimensions of liberty and democracy in national and international contexts. The Center regularly investigates and discusses Maryland democratic history and contemporary Maryland politics; international dimensions of democratic development and U.S engagement in world affairs. Students, faculty, and community members are encouraged to join our programs and participate in understanding our history and in discussing democracy in our world today.

The Center promotes a wide range of student activities that include curricula and coursework, special educational events and community activities. The Center currently provides support for the democracy studies minor at St. Mary's College and funds summer internship offerings in state, federal and local government service. The Center also promotes citizen engagement in the political process by supporting student organizations that advocate for student participation in elections and government.

The Center supports student organizations interested in the many languages of democracy by funding activities of interest to them-whether they are speakers, exhibits, literary or artistic performances. We ask students to join the discussions we host on campus and to recommend new speakers and dialogues on contemporary problems we face.

The Center strives to give SMCM students the intellectual and experiential foundations for all aspects of responsible citizenship and to empower them with the knowledge that they can make a positive difference. Through its programs and activities, the Center promotes a diverse set of democratic practices, including the importance of engaging in civil discourse, illustrating a wide range of free speech activities to enable respect of diverse opinions, service to the community and civic engagement activities for students.

The Center has also helped foster discussion and debate about what democracy means in the 21^st century, while promoting scholarly discussions about Maryland's democratic promise and failures. The Center's programs benefit SMCM's nearly 2,000 undergraduates, the larger college and local communities, and Marylanders as a whole. International students from diverse parts of the world have been awarded scholarships from the Center while other foreign visitors have been hosted to investigate and explore American democracy.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) We the People initiative awarded the Center a $500,000 challenge grant in September 2004. In 2008, the Center certified $1.5 in private and non-federal funds to receive the full $500,000 federal matching grant. The Center expects to reach a $2 million endowment in late 2009.