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Visiting Fulbright Scholar to Give Public Lecture

PLATTSBURGH, NY __ Dr. Henry Milner, a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, will present a public lecture, "Why Johnny Doesn't Vote: How Political Institutions in the United States and Canada Discourage Democratic Participation," on Tuesday, April 11, at 3 p.m. in the Hyman and Frances Krinovitz Recital Hall, Hawkins Hall. The lecture, sponsored by Canadian Studies and the Honors Program, is free and open to the public.

Visiting Fulbright Scholar Dr. Henry Milner Milner is a professor of political science at Vanier College and Umea University in Sweden and a research fellow at the Institute for Research in Public Policy (IRPP) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

In 2004-2005, he held the chair in Canadian studies at the Sorbonne. He has also worked at universities in Finland, Australia and New Zealand. He has authored several books, including Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work (2002), Social Democracy and Rational Choice (1994) and Sweden: Social Democracy in Practice (1989). He has edited Making Every Vote Count: Reappraising Canada's Electoral System (1999) and Steps toward Making Every Vote Count: Electoral System Reform in Canada and its Provinces (2004). He is also the co-publisher of Inroads , the Canadian journal of opinion and policy.

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In September 2004, the State University of New York (SUNY) and the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program announced the establishment of a visiting chair in Canadian Studies, which would be based at the Center for the Study of Canada at SUNY Plattsburgh.

Milner started his tenure as the first visiting Fulbright chair in November 2005, and will be on campus until May. He is taking this opportunity to continue his research on the decline of political participation among young people.

"I've done quite a bit of research on the voting trends of youths in Canada and Europe, and I want to bring the United States into this comparative analysis," said Milner. "The main opportunity is to advance my research and this is a nice place to do that. My goal is to write a paper on my findings and present it at a conference. I want to look at what we can learn from the experiences of Canada and the U.S. in terms of the voting decline among young people."

His comparison of political participation in Canada and the U.S. with those in Europe will explore the institutional framework for the electoral system and the complementary rules and regulations concerning media access, party financing, information dissemination and fixed election dates.

In addition to working on his research, Milner will also guest lecture in several courses in Canadian studies and honors seminars at SUNY Plattsburgh. Milner has also traveled to SUNY Buffalo and SUNY Albany to present guest lectures at those institutions.

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