On the morning of April 25th, Prof. Henry E. Brady, Dean of Goldman School of Public Policy, and Prof. Jeffrey L. Edleson, Dean of the School of Social Welfare, at the University of California, Berkeley, visited the School of Public Policy and Management. Prof. Peng Zongchao, Associate Dean, Prof. Meng Bo, Assistant Dean for International Cooperation, Prof. Yang Yongheng, Assistant Dean for Research, Prof. Wang Feng, Director of Brookings-Tsinghua Center, and Professor Qi Ye, Director of Climate Policy Research Center welcomed and met with the visitors. The two schools have maintained healthy academic exchanges and cooperation. In 2010, the "Berkeley-Tsinghua Week" seminar was successfully held in Berkeley, California.

 

In the afternoon, Dean Henry E. Brady gave an opening lecture on “Political Polarization: ObamaCare”. Approximately 40 Chinese and foreign students attended the lecture and engaged in a lively discussion with Dean Brady.

 

In the beginning, Dean Brady introduced the status quo of political polarization in the United States. He mainly used the economy and society at large as examples of the factors that are calculated the most into modern American politics. Brady further analyzed the tendency of the rise of political polarization in the United States through the case of the ObamaCare reform. Brady summarized two characteristics of ObamaCare: first, the purpose is to reduce the cost of insurance by implementing obligatory universal insurance; second, to increase health insurance coverage for low-income earning groups. Henry E. Brady pointed out that in the early 1970s; the political concerns of most people were concentrated on the national economy, such as with income. Now, 40 years later, people are beginning to pay more attention to social factors, such as morality, culture, and participation in policy-making.