Rethinking the US Constitution through a Participatory Process
What would it be like to really rethink our Constitution? In this webinar, we learned about participatory constitution building, a way of writing a new constitution with full public participation. Participatory constitution building is common around the world, but how it is designed and the process by which it is undertaken is critical to making it a success anywhere. We learned with experts on participatory constitution building globally, in Chile at this moment, and among tribal governments. What are the practices we might think about as we reconsider the strengths and weaknesses of our own constitution in this country?
Speakers included:
Erin Houlihan, Program Officer, International IDEA
Pamela Figueroa Rubio, Académica, Facultad de Humanidades – Universidad De Santiago
Joseph Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, HKS; Co-Director, The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Co-moderated by Archon Fung, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Pedro Arcain Riccetto, Democracy Visiting Fellow, Ash Center
Terms of Engagement—How Does Our Civil Rights History Shape the Future of American Democracy?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer invite democracy and civil rights advocate Cornell William Brooks to assess the evolution of America’s historical narrative and what implications history has on our contemporary political context.
White House reporter Annie Linskey offers a closer look at how the Trump White House makes decisions and what recent actions reveal about its strategy.
Terms of Engagement—How Does Our Civil Rights History Shape the Future of American Democracy?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer invite democracy and civil rights advocate Cornell William Brooks to assess the evolution of America’s historical narrative and what implications history has on our contemporary political context.
Allen Lab Fellow Spotlight: Why a People-Centered Approach to American Democracy Matters Now
Allen Lab Policy Fellow Christine Slaughter makes the case that democracy must be understood through people’s lived experiences and agency, not just institutions.
Supply Skeptics or Abundance Acolytes? Mayoral Views on the Housing Crisis
Economists and policy analysts broadly agree that more housing needs to be built in order to reduce costs in America’s most expensive cities. Using a novel survey of mayors of mid-sized and large cities to explore mayors’ views on the roots of America’s housing crisis and what solutions they believe will most effectively address their constituents’ housing challenges, the authors summarize mayors’ attitudes and perceptions on key issues related to expanding the housing supply, reporting how well these views correlate with mayors’ assessments of their own cities’ supply needs.