Policy Brief
AI for Democracy Movements: Toward a New Agenda
A new report summarizes key insights from the Nonviolent Action Lab’s December 2025 convening on how artificial intelligence can empower pro-democracy movements.
Research & Resources
Through our books, case studies, journal articles, papers, and surveys, the Ash Center is home to some of the world’s most advanced research and publications on issues related to democratic governance and self-governance.
To explore all research authored by Ash Center faculty, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School website. You can view the Ash Center’s open access policy here.
Newest
Occasional Paper
Improving Election Administrator-News Media Relationships for Effective Election Coverage
This paper explores practical mechanisms for improving the relationship between election officials and news media to increase public confidence in the electoral process.
Policy Brief
AI for Democracy Movements: Toward a New Agenda
A new report summarizes key insights from the Nonviolent Action Lab’s December 2025 convening on how artificial intelligence can empower pro-democracy movements.
Article
New Forms of Targeted Transparency
A summary of the March 30, 2026 event that welcomed Gerrit von Zedlitz to present on new and less-studied forms of targeted transparency—how they work, when they emerge, and whether they actually make a difference.
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.
Open Access Resource
Crocodile tears: Can the ethical-moral intelligence of AI models be trusted?
Allen Lab authors Sarah Hubbard, David Kidd, and Andrei Stupu introduce an ethical-moral intelligence framework for evaluating AI models across dimensions of moral expertise, sensitivity, coherence, and transparency in their recently published paper, Crocodile Tears: Can the Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI Models Be Trusted? in Springer AI & Ethics.
Additional Resource
Storytelling Pathways to Civics Engagement
Watch Roadtrip Nation’s Living Civics documentary and hear from leading universal civic learning experts on the power of narrative for civic engagement.
Additional Resource
AI & Democracy: Perspectives from an Emerging Field
The Allen Lab is proud to have contributed to this timely landscape report from The David & Lucile Packard Foundation mapping the emerging field of AI and democracy.
Additional Resource
How Maduro’s Dictatorship Plans to Survive
Even with Nicolás Maduro gone, the fight for Venezuela’s future is far from over. Freddy Guevara warns that Maduro’s successors are more interested in regime survival than democratic reform.
Additional Resource
Allen Lab Fellow Spotlight: The Case for Building an AmeriCorps Alumni Leadership Network
In a new essay, The Case for Building an AmeriCorps Alumni Leadership Network, Allen Lab Policy Fellow Sonali Nijhawan argues that the 1.4 million Americans who have completed national service represent an underleveraged civic asset. Drawing on her experience as former Director of AmeriCorps, Nijhawan outlines a roadmap for transforming dispersed alumni into a connected leadership network capable of reinvigorating public service, rebuilding trust in government, and strengthening civic participation.