Join the Ash Center for an online conversation with Donald Cohen, co-author of “The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We can Fight Back” (The New Press, 2021). Lizabeth Cohen, the Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies in the History Department at Harvard University, will serve as moderator.
Join the Ash Center for an online book talk with Michael Kazin, author of “What it Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party” (Macmillan, 2022). Randall Kennedy, the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School will serve as moderator.
Join the Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Law School Equal Democracy Project, and Harvard Law School Election Law Clinic on Tuesday, March 1st at 12:45 pm for a panel on the future of court reform in the United States.
The event will consist of a moderated discussion with our panelists, led by Guy-Uriel Charles, Harvard Law School professor and member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as an open Q&A with attendees.
JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School (Virtual and In-Person)
Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (HKS ‘81) received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 in recognition of the historic Colombian peace accord which ended the country’s 50-year civil war. In addition to his work for democracy in Colombia, President Santos has remained committed to passing sweeping environmental policies to fight climate change.
In a conversation moderated by Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor of Public Policy Yanilda María González, President Santos reflects on what it means to struggle through...
We are in the midst of one of the most rancorous redistricting sessions in our country’s history. Partisan officials – mostly but not only in conservative legislatures – are using the drawing of new congressional, state and local election districts to amass disproportionate power for themselves. How successfully can this be resisted? Meanwhile, the many independent/nonpartisan commissions established in states in recent years were meant to help avoid this problem. Are they working to do...
Confronting racism directly and building a fully inclusive democracy are completely intertwined. Two authors with strong history in the democracy movement have recently written forcefully and personally on the subject. Heather McGhee served as President of Demos before writing the New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us, and Theodore Johnson, after serving twenty years in the military, is the Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and the author of the just-published When the Stars Begin to Fall. Harvard Law...
Driven by hyperpolarization and partisan media, Americans are demonizing and othering their neighbors and peers with different views—breaking down community bonds along the way. To rebuild the civic fabric of our society and strengthen democracy, how can we bring people together and build community trust?
Community civic infrastructures: places where people feel safe to explore their differences, aided by facilitative leaders, with access to trusted local media and supported by the necessary resource, are essential to enabling citizens to discover common ground and solve problems... Read more about Getting Past Partisanship and Polarization: Community Civic Infrastructure
What will Boston's historic mayoral election mean for Boston's Black and Brown communities? While the election of the first woman mayor is a watershed moment for Boston, will the next mayor deliver the equity and justice that Black and Brown communities have waited decades for?
Join the Ash Center, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Center for Public Leadership, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston for the second of two sessions focusing on the urgent issues - from education and housing to economic development and communal...
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee issued a major report last month claiming to show “the American people just how close we came to a constitutional crisis” during the events before and after the January 6 “capitol insurrection.” This crisis was prevented only by “a number of upstanding Americans in the Department of Justice.” “Donald Trump was unable to bend the department to his will. But it was not due to a lack of effort,” the report goes on. But, the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee responded that Trump “did not weaponize DOJ for his personal or campaign purposes” in their...
What would it be like to really rethink our Constitution? In this webinar, we will learn 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 will learn 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...
About the...