In this edition of Inside RAI, we recap the first year of the Reimagining American Institutions webinar series, where two of the nine discussions were broadcast on C-SPAN. RAI is also proud to announce its inaugural cohort of National Civics Fellows. Trygve Throntveit, Sarah Jencks, Stephen Morris and Joseph Kahne will spend the next year working with the Hoover fellowship to develop policy recommendations to boost civic education and civics policy across America.
Governmental Institutions
Reimagining American Institutions Webinar Series Covers Wide Range of Pressing US Challenges
From managing a presidential transition to deconstructing a national election and assessing the reasons behind rural discontent, webinars hosted by Hoover’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) covered a wide range of topics in the national interest in 2024–25.
The Reimagining American Institutions webinar series featured nine broadcasts airing between October 2024 and May 2025.
The first two broadcasts featured discussions on what really goes into a change of US presidential administrations. First airing in October 2024 was a conversation about the nuts and bolts of getting a new administration set up, featuring RAI Director Brandice Canes-Wrone and Christopher P. Liddell, former deputy chief of staff in the Trump White House, who oversaw the transition to the Biden presidency.
In their discussion, Liddell pointed out that even before January 20, an incoming US president needs to a have a veritable army, some four thousand people, ready for appointment or ready be submitted for confirmation to various positions in order to have a chance to govern quickly.
“A large proportion of those need to be ready at 12:00 a.m. on January 20,” he said. “So, you need certainly more than one thousand, close to two thousand people on the field ready to have an effective government [on day one].”
Read more here.
Democratic Citizenship
RAI launches first-ever National Civics Fellowship Program at Hoover
The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) is proud to announce its inaugural cohort of national civics fellows, who will work to develop exemplary work in civic education and advance high-quality research to inform civic policy and practice across America.
The National Civics Fellowship, a year-long program, brings together exemplary leaders from K–12 education, postsecondary institutions, and civil society.
Organized into research and practice tracks, fellows will produce impactful policy recommendations, practitioner resources, and public scholarship aimed at equipping citizens for effective self-governance.
Fellows will showcase their work at in-person gatherings and contribute written pieces to reach educators, policymakers, and civic leaders across America. Each fellow will develop a capstone project during their year and spend at least one week in residence at Hoover during their fellowship.
The capstone project will involve an opportunity to present their work and solicit feedback from each other, along with Hoover fellows and Stanford faculty as well as external thought leaders in the civics ecosystem.
The initiative is led by Hoover Volker Senior Fellow Chester E. Finn, Jr., who chairs RAI’s Civics and American Citizenship Working Group.
Read more here.
For more insight from the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions visit www.hoover.org/research-teams/center-revitalizing-american-institutions
