Jack Nagel
Professor Emeritus of Political Science
Phone: 610-543-0567
nageljh@upenn.edu
School: Arts & Sciences
General Topic Areas: Elections, Voting Systems, Electoral Reforms
Sample Talk Topics or Titles:
- A Remedy for the Electoral College
Although the Electoral College creates serious problems—some well known and others less obvious–over 700 efforts to improve or abolish the College by Constitutional amendment have failed. In the 21st century, reformers invented a new way to circumvent the Electoral College. Their plan for a National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will go into effect if states controlling a majority of electors agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. States with 209 of the needed 270 votes have already joined the Compact. This talk explains how the plan would work, traces its progress, and considers its prospects for success. - Ranked Choice Voting
As of 2024, 49 U.S. cities and counties plus two states have adopted the balloting reform known as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). This talk explains how RCV works for single-winner and multi-winner elections, presents arguments for and against the method, and assesses prospects for further adoptions now that both proponents and opponents have developed strong, well-funded organizations. - A Plan to Reform the Pennsylvania General Assembly
Because Pennsylvania has one of the largest and most expensive state legislatures, there have been recurrent efforts to reduce the sizes of both the House and Senate. This talk proposes a more radical reform—shrink the legislature by combining both chambers into a single General Assembly, and elect its members using a mixed-member proportional system, which would neutralize partisan gerrymandering and eliminate impasses between the two chambers.
Bio: Jack Nagel is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. In his research and teaching, he investigated alternatives to the single-winner plurality elections that dominate in the U.S. Following a Fulbright lectureship in New Zealand and two later research trips there, he wrote numerous papers on that country’s adoption of, and experience with, a mixed-member proportional system. He also studied effects of plurality elections on three-party competition in Britain and analyzed reform attempts in Britain and Canada. His articles on electoral subjects appeared in political science journals and edited volumes published in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Britain, and Europe.
Jack has provided invited testimony on electoral reforms to legislatures or courts in Pennsylvania, Quebec, and Minnesota; and he has written op eds on electoral matters for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Harrisburg Patriot-News, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He advises the national reform group, FairVote, and assisted them in defending Ranked Choice Voting against legal challenges in Minnesota and Maine. In 2016-17, Jack served on a statewide committee re-assessing electoral reform issues for the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters; and he was a delegate representing the LWV Central Delaware County chapter at the 2017 LWVPA and 2018 LWVUS conventions.
Jack is a longtime supporter of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. He testified to the Pennsylvania legislature in 2007 as an advocate of the bill. He has given numerous talks on that subject and other electoral reforms to community and civic groups in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Colorado, and Florida.
Jack received his B.A. with highest honors from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. from Yale University. At Penn, his leadership roles included Chair of the Political Science Department and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. After retiring in 2012, he served as president of the Penn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty in 2014-15, and later chaired the committee that set up the PASEF Speakers Bureau.
Jack lives in Swarthmore with his wife, Barbara.
