Additional Resources

Democracy On, Not Just Around, the Internet

Democracy On, Not Just Around, the Internet

Abstract:

Nathan Schneider, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Nathan Schneider at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

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Last updated on 01/30/2024

The Enrichment and Decay of Ionia

The Enrichment and Decay of Ionia

Abstract:

Eugene Fischer, February 2024

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Eugene Fischer at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

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Last updated on 01/30/2024

An Approach to Small-Scale Mixed-Methods Experimentation Transparency for Development, Phase 2

An Approach to Small-Scale Mixed-Methods Experimentation Transparency for Development, Phase 2

Abstract:

Stephen Kosack, Jessica Creighton, and Courtney Tolmie; April 2017 

Faced with a promising but complex intervention, how can further refinement be evaluated? The typical approach is experimentation. Rigorously evaluated experimentation, for several centuries the province mostly of medicine and related research, is today a reality in a variety of fields of social science and practice. Its primary form, the randomized controlled trial (RCT), stems from its medical roots. By design, RCTs are a highly specialized instrument of inquiry: they seek reliability by focusing on a simple, singular causal relationship. Their relevance typically depends on the relevance of this causal relationship and whether it can be accurately represented and measured in one treatment or in a handful of modifications (or “arms”). But the growth of experimentation has brought randomized controlled trials into evaluations of complex interventions in policy areas like health care, education, water, or sanitation, which often occur at the group or society level, at a large scale, and the implementation of which can take myriad forms. For precisely evaluating the benefits of complex programs, RCTs remain the gold standard, frequently used when, for example, a health or education program is under consideration for scaling, is already being done at large scale but is of uncertain benefit, or is almost perfected save for a very specific design question. But often large-scale randomized controlled trials of complex interventions are inappropriate. For an intervention whose benefit is already widely accepted, they may be too expensive; for one whose benefit is uncertain, they may be too large-scale. When, for whatever reason, evaluation of a complex intervention is important but small-scale experimentation is more appropriate than a full randomized controlled trial, how might further refinement of that intervention be most rigorously and reliably evaluated?

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Last updated on 11/09/2023

Transparency for Development: PreAnalysis Plan

Citation:

Bombyk, Matthew, Jessica Creighton, Akshay Dixit, Dan Levy, and Lindsey Roots. 2018. Transparency for Development: PreAnalysis Plan.
Transparency for Development: PreAnalysis Plan

Abstract:

Matthew Bombyk, Jessica Creighton, Akshay Dixit, Dan Levy, Lindsey Roots; April 2018 

The goal of the analysis described here is to identify the effects of the Transparency for Development program intervention on a range of maternal health and community participation outcomes as well as intermediate or process outcomes. The plan pre-specifies the analysis that will be conducted, before comparing outcomes between treatment and control groups. It outlines the intervention, evaluation design, data sources, hypotheses and outcomes of interest, and the impact estimation strategy. By committing to pre-specified analysis plans we hope to minimize issues of data mining and specification searching. The pre-analysis plan serves the dual purpose of ensuring the endline data collection tools are sufficient for the planned analysis. This plan was written and submitted after baseline data collection and the implementation of the intervention, but prior to the start of endline data collection.

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American Indian Self-Determination Through Self-Governance: The Only Policy That Has Ever Worked

Citation:

Kalt, Joseph P. 2022. “American Indian Self-Determination Through Self-Governance: The Only Policy That Has Ever Worked.” The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children.

Abstract:

In testimony before the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children on December 15, 2022, Joseph Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Emeritus testified about the importance that American Indian self-determination has played in helping spark a remarkable period of economic growth across a broad swath of Indian Country.

Kalt, who serves as the co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School delivered a detailed set of findings outlining how the expansion of the responsibilities and capacities of tribal governments have resulted in a remarkable period of economic growth over the past thirty years. “The onset of tribal self-determination through self-government in the late 1980s ushered in the only policy that has ever worked to improve economic and social conditions in Indian Country,” said Kalt in his remarks before the commission.

 

View full testimony here

Last updated on 12/15/2022

Testimony in Support of H 788, An Act Making Voting Obligatory and Increasing Turnout in Elections

Citation:

Rapoport, Miles. 2021. “Testimony in Support of H 788, An Act Making Voting Obligatory and Increasing Turnout in Elections.” Joint Committee on Election Laws, General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Abstract:

Testimony in Support of H 788, An Act Making Voting Obligatory and Increasing Turnout in Elections given to the Joint Committee on Election Laws by Miles Rapoport, Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, October 20, 2021.

View a Recording of the Testimony 

The testimony begins at the 17:43 minute mark. 

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Last updated on 10/24/2021

COVID-19 Crisis Leadership Essentials for Mayors: Insights and Guidance from 11 Sessions on Crisis Leadership

Abstract:

Elizabeth Patton, Gaylen Moore, and Jorrit de Jong; August 2020 

Throughout the spring of 2020, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, held eleven sessions on crisis leadership for city leaders responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over those harrowing weeks, as city leaders scrambled to protect their community members from the disease and provide services to the ill, the bereaved, and the vulnerable, these sessions offered a space for them to share their stories, concerns, hopes, and plans—and to get answers to their most pressing questions about the pandemic and how to mitigate not just the spread of the virus but also the economic and social fallout of measures taken to contain it.

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Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response Session III: Situational Briefing & Leadership Lessons from Africa and Latin America

Abstract:

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, August 2020 

Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa. Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, facilitated a discussion between Mayors Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Sierra Leone; Claudio Castro of Renca, Chile; and Bettina Romero of Salta, Argentina, on lessons learned while leading their cities through the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

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Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response Session II: Situational Briefing & Crisis Leadership Essentials

Abstract:

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, July 2020 

Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Director of the Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa. Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, the George F. Baker Jr. Professor of Public Management at the Kennedy School and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration and Cochair of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School, facilitated a discussion on crisis leadership. The session was moderated by Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

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Public Value Tool Kit

Citation:

Moore, Mark, Jorrit de Jong, Gaylen Moore, and George Veth. 2020. “Public Value Tool Kit”.

Abstract:

Mark Moore, Jorrit de Jong, Gaylen Moore, and George Veth; July 2020 

The Public Value Tool Kit is a set of materials designed to help educators and practitioners understand, utilize, and share the core concepts of the public value framework.

Public value is a central principle in public management. It is the net “good” that public leaders produce that each of us—and all of us together—enjoy. 

Based on Professor Mark Moore’s seminal Creating Public Value, this tool kit is the result of over four decades of dialogue with leaders and thinkers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. 

The basic ideas contained in here will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried to solve a public problem or untangle a bureaucratic knot. What the tool kit offers public leaders and change agents is a common vocabulary and a logical framework that can help those who do this work become more focused and effectively leverage what experience has already taught them. 

The Public Value Tool Kit is for anyone who sees the world with what Moore calls “a restless, value-seeking imagination”—the creative impulse and entrepreneurial spirit that inspires and propels change. This basic drive exists in all sectors, at all levels. This tool kit offers entry points and inspiration for each and every restless imagination.

Explore the Tool Kit

Last updated on 01/11/2021