This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
In little more than two years at Lafayette, John Stephenson ’05 (Kintnersville, Pa.) has worked on three political campaigns, planned a number of major events, and recruited new members for the College Republicans.
Since the start of the summer, he has also been helping to update and revise a book for a professor. Approaching Democracy, a well-respected text for introductory government classes, was co-authored by Bruce Allen Murphy, Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights, and Larry Berman, director of the University of California’s Washington Center.
“My job is to look for new trends and ideas in politics,” says Stephenson, a government and law major who is working with Murphy through Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students assist faculty in research while earning a stipend. Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the 180 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
Stephenson’s work is based on the text’s thesis, which has at its core a statement made by former Czechoslovakian president Vaclav Havel in a speech to the U.S. Congress.
“As long as people are people, democracy, in the full sense of the word, will always be no more than an ideal,” Havel told Congress. “In this sense, you too are merely approaching democracy.But you have one great advantage: You have been approaching democracy uninterruptedly for more than 200 years, and your journey towards the horizon has never been disrupted by a totalitarian system.”
“According to the thesis, everything in the U.S. political system is either an approach to or recession from democracy,” Stephenson says. “In updating the text, we are looking to see whether the U.S. is approaching democracy or receding from it.”
Stephenson is examining more than a dozen specific issues, including new anti-terrorism, healthcare, and energy legislation; the California gubernatorial recall; the growing interest in Internet campaigning and elections; and homeland security politics. He has been gathering much of his information from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals.
“I’ve learned a lot about research methods and what it takes to do solid, high-quality research of this nature,” Stephenson says. “My research has shown me how important public policy is to everyone.”
Murphy, a nationally recognized judiciary-system scholar and author of several best-selling books on the Supreme Court, says he chose Stephenson because of his keen interest in and knowledge of political issues.
So far, Murphy says, Stephenson has submitted “top-shelf work” that will help in identifying new trends during the current phase of the research. Murphy says that while the text isn’t scheduled for publication until after the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, the bulk of the work must be finished by this spring.
“We’ll have the chance to insert Supreme Court decisions in June and the election results in November,” he says.
Stephenson says he learned a great deal from Murphy in an introductory course on United States politics, and is continuing to learn.
“He just knows so much about politics and government,” Stephenson says. “It’s really a pleasure to work with someone of that caliber I learned a lot about American politics that I had not thought about. Sitting down and studying these issues and ideas has corrected some things I thought I knew. For example, I didn’t fully understand the influence that special interests have in politics, whether they be on the left or the right.”
Stephenson adds that he’s maintained good relationships with many other faculty members as well.
“Lafayette has great faculty who have many different interests,” he says. “Because it’s a small school, you can have great interactions with professors.”
In addition to his EXCEL research, Stephenson serves as a volunteer for the Bush/Cheney 2004 U.S. Presidential campaign, studying Democratic candidate Howard Dean’s use of the Internet in his campaign. He has also served as area coordinator for the campaigns of U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Lehigh Valley, Pa.) and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher, and as a computer specialist for and adviser to Pennsylvania State Senate candidate Brian O’Neill.
Stephenson, who hopes to attend law school and is planning a career in public policy, will spend the spring semester in Washington, D.C., where he will also serve an internship.
“He has a very exciting future, whatever he does,” Murphy says.
A graduate of the George School in Newtown, Pa., Stephenson is a veteran member and former vice president of the Lafayette’s College Republicans, a campus tour guide, and former public relations and technology coordinator for Kirby Government & Law Society. He has also helped plan special events on campus, including a talk by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and a City of Easton mayoral debate, and hopes to begin a political web site for Lafayette students that offers links to and summaries of “the best and most important news.”
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Over the past five years, more than 130 Lafayette students have presented results from research conducted with faculty mentors, or under their guidance, at the conference.