The Difficulty of Reforming CEQA, with Michael Bennon

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05/19/22 • 33 min

In the first of a two-part series on policy and infrastructure, Michael Bennon joins Francis Fukuyama to discuss the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), its impacts, and how to overcome some of the challenges it creates. In a forthcoming report for California 100 — an ambitious statewide initiative to envision and shape the long-term success of the state — Fukuyama and Bennon use CEQA as a case study of California’s governance in an evolving media ecosystem.
Michael Bennon is a Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) for the Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative. Michael's research interests include infrastructure policy, project finance, public-private partnerships, and institutional design in the infrastructure sector. Michael also teaches Global Project Finance to graduate students at Stanford. Prior to Stanford, Michael served as a Captain in the US Army and US Army Corps of Engineers for five years, leading Engineer units, managing projects, and planning for infrastructure development in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Thailand.
ABOUT CALIFORNIA 100
California 100 is a transformative statewide initiative focused on inspiring a vision and strategy for California’s next century that is innovative, sustainable, and equitable. The initiative is incubated at the University of California and Stanford, and is guided by an expert and intergenerational Commission.

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Previous Episode

Liberalism and Its Discontents, with Francis Fukuyama

Liberalism is neither the progressive politics of the American left, nor the center-right orientation of European parties like the German Free Democrats, nor libertarianism built around hostility to the state. In this special episode, Francis Fukuyama explains his use of the term and discusses his latest book, Liberalism and Its Discontents.
The book focuses on doctrine that first emerged in the middle of the 17th century that prized individuals over collectivities, accorded equal dignity to all human beings, was allied to modern natural science, and protected a sphere of individual autonomy through a rule of law and constitutional checks and balances. Liberalism is a close ally of democracy but not the same thing as it, and today is under severe threat from critics on both the right and the left.
Click here to purchase Liberalism and Its Discontents.

Next Episode

Examining China's Belt and Road Initiative, with Michael Bennon

In the second installment of our series on policy and infrastructure, Michael Bennon returns to chat with Francis Fukuyama about China's Belt and Road Initiative and projects that have gone south.
Michael Bennon is a Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) for the Global Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative. Michael's research interests include infrastructure policy, project finance, public-private partnerships, and institutional design in the infrastructure sector. Michael also teaches Global Project Finance to graduate students at Stanford. Prior to Stanford, Michael served as a Captain in the US Army and US Army Corps of Engineers for five years, leading Engineer units, managing projects, and planning for infrastructure development in the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Thailand.