Undergraduate Essay Competition

The Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy is pleased to announce its seventh annual undergraduate essay competition.  Each year, students are invited to submit essays on a timely question related to foundational freedoms and responsibilities in liberal democracies.

For 2024, we invite responses to the question:

Should citizens be required to pass the US citizenship test before they can vote?

Representative government requires an informed and active citizenry to operate effectively. Recent polls show, however, that a significant number of Americans cannot even name all three branches of the federal government. This dearth of civics knowledge is troubling, to say the least. Policymakers currently are offering multiple ways to improve civics awareness. Some of those efforts target greater civic training in K12 schools; others target civics training in universities. As policymakers generate ways to expand people’s civic awareness, should they also require that voters pass the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization test before they vote? If so, why? How often must they pass the test? If not, why not?

All UW-Madison undergraduate students are eligible to participate.  Essays are approximately 1,000 words in length.  Scholarship recipients are invited to the Disinvited Dinner, hosted by the Center.

Deadline: April 7, 2024

Submit Essay Here

Previous Competitions

2023 Topic

“Is it time to abolish lifetime tenure for US Supreme Court justices? If so, what should replace lifetime tenure? If not, why not?”

Winners: Bryce Mitchell, Matt Wadhwa, Kylie Ruprecht

2022 Topic

“Should the federal government be allowed to mandate vaccines?”

Winners: Renxi Li, Aaron Dorf, Zachary Orlowsky, Taryn Hanson

2020 Topic

“Should patriotism be taught at UW Madison?”

Winners: Jacob Bernstein, Nils Peterson, Lucas Olsen, Cleo Rank, Tony Mattioli

2018 Topic

“Should the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—which states that ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside’—be repealed or modified to restrict more precisely the definition of who may claim citizenship?”

Winners: Dana Coggio, Ben Johnson, August Schultz

2016 Topic

“Are the goals of fostering freedom of speech on campus and of fostering a welcoming environment for all students incompatible?”

Winners:  Joshua GutzmannRebekah CullumZawadi Carroll

2021 Topic

“Should the United States make military or national service compulsory?”

Winners: Maxwell Ruzika, Dana Craig, Jonah Edelman, Ellen Stojak, Nicholas Carl

2019 Topic

“Should social media platforms be permitted to censor controversial speech?”

Winners: Anitha Quintin, Lucas Olsen, Matthew Kass

2017 Topic

“Should the U.S. Electoral College be abolished, reformed, or left to the states to determine?”

Winners: Ean Quick, Garrett McLaughlin, Joshua Gutzmann