Media Release
Danielle Allen’s Radical Duke Recasts the Origins of the Age of Revolution
A new book from Harvard scholar Danielle Allen revisits the forgotten British radical movement that helped shape modern democracy.
Feature
Can Higher Ed Renew Our Democracy?
In new paper, Danielle Allen explores how higher ed can play a role in promoting the health of our democracy.
“Civic education and engagement in our universities — educating toward self-government and engaged citizenship — could use a major reset,” notes Danielle Allen along with John Bridgeland and Cecilia Muñoz in a recently published article. Bridgeland and Muñoz, served as senior White House domestic policy advisors in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, respectively.
Across the nation, surveys show that trust in one another and key institutions, such as government, media, and the courts, has reached historic lows. At the same time, political polarization among Americans has escalated rapidly over the past 40 years, while participation in large-scale civic institutions and volunteering rates have declined. Higher education offers a path forward – it can prepare young people to participate in democratic processes and, ultimately, change the country’s direction.
Colleges and universities have a critical role to play in enabling students to have vigorous and contentious debates about a whole range of issues while engaging in civil discourse that respects students who may hold different views![Headshot of Danielle Allen]()
Danielle Allen
Professor of Public Policy, James Bryant Conant University Professor
While higher education cannot address every civic challenge, it plays a pivotal role in fostering civic education and engagement. “Civic learning in college can and should help democracy rebuild and renew our capacity to work together to form a “more perfect union,” a durable goal for our constitutional republic,” Allen, Bridgeland and Muñoz write in their article published in Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning.
With a majority of high school graduates transitioning directly to college, and millions more eventually enrolling, there is a pressing need to enhance civic participation and democratic learning in higher education, the authors argue. Several key strategies emerge, starting with implementing mandatory civic curricula with a focus on building foundational civic knowledge and the skills and dispositions needed to support constitutional democracy. Colleges and universities can also incentivize civic engagement through civic seals on diplomas in recognition of community service, experiential learning, and other civic contributions. Further, schools can advocate for policies that support a year of national service.
Institutions should encourage an environment of robust civil discourse. “Colleges and universities have a critical role to play in enabling students to have vigorous and contentious debates about a whole range of issues while engaging in civil discourse that respects students who may hold different views,” Allen and her co-authors urge.
Just as the world rallied behind sustainable development goals, the paper makes the case that colleges and universities can advance the goals of More Perfect, a national initiative to advance five democracy goals: universal civic learning, national service and volunteering, bridging divides, trusted elections and representative and responsible governance, and access to trusted news and information.
Ultimately, “the best ideas are likely to emerge from colleges and universities themselves in all of their wonderful diversity—public, private, independent, community, technical, historically black, Hispanic-serving, and tribal colleges and universities, and within the many associations and networks that represent them.” The authors propose holding an annual summit among college leaders to highlight innovations in higher education that foster democratic renewal and to facilitate knowledge-sharing and promote scalability at other institutions. “As our colleges and universities continue to play such central roles in educating and engaging generations of Americans, we can inspire students to understand our democracy and their vital role in it.”
Related Resources
Media Release
AI models appear to recognize moral complexity — then ignore it, new study by researchers affiliated with Harvard Kennedy School’s Allen Lab finds
New study published in AI and Ethics introduces a new ethical-moral intelligence framework for AI and finds that leading AI models mimic human moral concern while making decisions that reveal a hidden value hierarchy.
Q+A
Q & A: Crocodile tears, Can the ethical-moral intelligence of AI models be trusted?
As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in everyday decision-making, its role in shaping how people think about ethics and morality is drawing increasing scrutiny. In this conversation with researcher Sarah Hubbard, we discuss insights from her co-authored paper, “Crocodile Tears: Can the Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI Models Be Trusted?”—examining how AI systems respond to moral dilemmas, and what this reveals about the risks, limitations, and need for greater transparency and human oversight in AI-driven ethical guidance.
Policy Brief
DOCE Beats DOGE: The Case for Meaningful Government Transformation Through Citizen Empowerment
A new policy brief by Jon Alexander, Non-resident Democracy Fellow at the Ash Center, argues for the development of a Department of Citizen Empowerment (DOCE) at all levels of government around the world.
Commentary
Voter Experience Summit Recap
Allen Lab Fellow Hillary Lehr convened a Voter Experience Summit at Harvard’s Ash Center in March, bringing together 25 cross-sector experts to rigorously map the voter journey. This essay explores how that collaborative process could lay the groundwork for new interventions to understand and improve the experience of voting for all.
Additional Resource
VIDEOS: After Neoliberalism From Left to Right
After Neoliberalism: From Left to Right brought together hundreds of leading economists, political scientists, journalists, writers and thinkers from across the political spectrum to explore and debate emerging visions for the future of the political economy.
Panel videos below.