Commentary
The Global Impact of the United States Election
No matter where you are in the world, the effects of November 5, 2024, are enormous, and its global ramifications will be seen very soon, for better or for worse.
Democratic Reform
At the Ash Center, we’re working to generate new ideas to reform our democratic institutions for the 21st century.
Related Programs
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Reimagining Democracy Program
Many of our most basic democratic institutions, from the Electoral College to Congress itself, were born in the eighteenth century when American democracy and America looked markedly different than today. At the Ash Center, we’re working to modernize and reform these institutions for a healthy 21st-century democracy.
As political polarization continues to test the strength of even our most bedrock political institutions, the Ash Center brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from across the country to discuss how to protect and modernize our democracy.
Through working groups and convenings, case studies, and research projects, the Ash Center is working to identify reforms both large and small that will help strengthen the future of American democracy for generations to come.
The Latest News, Research, and Resources
Book
Empowering Affected Interests — Democratic Inclusion in a Globalized World
Empowering Affected Interests explores the radical implications of the All-Affected Principle in a globalized world, bringing together leading theorists to examine how democracy might be reimagined to address cross-border interdependence on issues like immigration, climate change, and labor markets.
Feature
‘Both parties now can claim the mantle of a multiracial electorate’
From global election trends to inflation anger, swing state performance, and failed voting reform initiatives, Harvard election law experts break down last week’s presidential election and what it might mean for the future of American democracy.
Commentary
Election 2024: Appreciating The Front-Line Workers of Democracy
As the dust settles from the U.S. presidential election, the American public can celebrate that the election process was largely nonviolent and smooth. However, it is important that the public not be lulled into thinking this signals the end of election administrators’ problems.
Additional Resource
Trump’s threat to American democracy
In her most recent contributing article to the U.S. Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign, Pippa Norris discusses events preceding the 2024 election, voter behavior, and what the results may mean for democratic institutions.
Commentary
The Electoral College and Our Broken Presidential Election System
Roughly 80 percent of the population who do not live in “swing states” lack a clear notion of what they “need to do” to actively support their candidates.
Q+A
Will Mobile Voting Defeat Gerrymandering and Increase Participation?
Additional Resource
Milestone or Misstep? Corruption, Development, and Democracy After Brazil’s Lava Jato Probe
This case explores Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the largest public corruption investigation in history, which led to indictments and convictions of some 359 business executives, government officials, and political leaders from the ruling elite in Brazil.
Feature
Beyond the Ballot: Ensuring a Transparent, Secure, and Fair Election in 2024
Election integrity is under the microscope as we near the 2024 Presidential Election, and many Americans are apprehensive about election security, the timeframe of learning the results, and how peaceful the transfer of power will be.
Feature
In Swing States, Rest Assured: Election Officials Are Prepared for Anything
In a climate of growing distrust surrounding elections, election administrators play a pivotal role in safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process.
Occasional Paper
The National Security Case for Public AI
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Fellow Alex Pascal and Vanderbilt Law Professor Ganesh Sitaraman make the case that public options for AI and public utility-style regulation of AI will enhance national security by ensuring innovation and competition, preventing abuses of power and conflicts of interest, and advancing public interest and national security goals.
Video
Election Officials in Swing States and the 2024 Election
The Ash Center hosted a discussion with the heads of elections from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina to hear about their actions to ensure the election process is smooth and can be trusted.
Feature
Women are still underrepresented in local government, despite a woman running for president
Commentary
A Sudden Change at the Top: Was the Democratic Party’s Transition Truly Democratic?
Never in American history has a party shifted course as quickly and effectively as the Democratic Party did this summer. The rapid transition from Biden to Harris has left many wondering: Was this process truly democratic?
Feature
In Denver, a Model for Jail-Based Voting
Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people in jail retain their right to vote while being held in pretrial detention, having not been convicted of a crime.