124 Mount Auburn, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge, MA
Demetrios Papademetriou, Migration Policy Institute
About the Seminar The international migration system now implicates practically every country. The only projection one can make about the next two decades is that there will be more, rather than less, such migration. What is less certain is where most of the additional growth will take place – with middle-income countries being good candidates for much of that growth. But if the future is a bit uncertain, today’s reality is not: Wealthy countries have absorbed most of the growth in international migration for the past three decades.
This lecture will explore whether this is likely to continue or we have reached an “inflection point” on the type, direction, and size of migration, at least as far as the wealthy countries are concerned. It will then focus on the fundamental ways that recent migration has challenged the way receiving societies have organized themselves to incorporate the newcomers and their offspring.... Read more about Immigrant Inclusion: Governance Dilemmas Then, Now, and in the Next Two Decades
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge, MA
Innovations at the Intersection of Health Care, Democracy, and Civic Engagement Rishi Manchanda, MD MPH, Founder & Chair, Rx Democracy
About the Seminar Health is essential to full participation in democracy and health care represents roughly one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Dr. Manchanda’s upcoming seminar is based on experience exploring and building the relationship between participatory democracy and health, including his work as the founder of a national nonpartisan network of health care providers called Rx Democracy, which advances civic engagement and registered over 26,000 voters in doctors’ offices and clinics in 2008. During the seminar, we will discuss challenges and innovations at the intersection of health care and democratic governance and consider next steps for research, practice, and policy.
Disease and disparities in health are the result of interactions between biological phenomena, poor living and working conditions, unhealthy behaviors, and limited access to quality health care, including routine primary care and prevention.... Read more about Rx Democracy
CGIS South-010 (Tsai Auditorium), Concourse Level, 1730 Cambridge St.
About the Seminar Moderated by Professor Alex Keyssar, panelists Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson, Archon Fung, and Theda Skocpol will discuss the forthcoming book Winner-Take-All Politics (release date: September 14) by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. The book argues that American politics has been a key factor, often overlooked in economic explanations, in explaining high levels of income inequality in the U.S. Learn more>>
Aggregation and Mitigation for Forest Conservation Bob Bendick, Director of U.S. Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy
Join us for this Webinar featuring Bob Bendick, Director of U.S. Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy, based in Arlington, Virginia, and Leigh Youngblood, Executive Director of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, based in Athol, Massachusetts.
Leigh, an expert on aggregation, and Bob, who has recently co-authored a landmark report on mitigation, will be discussing those two strategies as rapidly evolving methods for financing the conservation of land and biodiversity habitat.
Both strategies will also be considered in a presentation by a team from the Harvard Forest on the Wildlands and Woodlands Vision for New England on October 3 at the 2010 Land Trust Rally (Session B19 at 1:30 pm, Monday, 10/3/2010, in the Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, CT).... Read more about Conservation Finance Forum
124 Mount Auburn, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge, MA
Lucan Way, University of Toronto
About the Seminar Professor Lucan Way’s upcoming seminar is based on the findings of his recent book Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After The Cold War, co-authored with Steven Levitsky. Competitive authoritarianism-regimes that combine competitive elections with serious violations of democratic procedures-proliferated in the post-Cold War era. This book explains the rise and diverging fate of competitive authoritarian regimes since 1990. Based on a comparative study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and post-communist Eurasia, the book finds that extensive ties to the West facilitated democratization. By raising the external cost of abuse, linkage to the West brought democracy even where domestic conditions were unfavorable.... Read more about Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge, MA
Participation, Representation, & Political Experimentalism in Brazil Thamy Pogrebinschi, State University of Rio de Janeiro
About the Seminar The national public policy conferences are arguably the largest and most innovative participatory experience currently being held in Brazil. Summoned by the Executive Branch, and organized at the national level along with civil society, such policy conferences have proven themselves successful enough to affect the policies drafted by the administration, and to influence the legislation enacted by the Congress. While redesigning the policy-making process, and changing the pattern of the state and civil society relationships, national policy conferences are perhaps the best example of Brazil’s pragmatic democracy: a strong commitment to political experimentalism, in which the false contradictions between representation and participation, and State and civil society, are dialectically superseded through a process of institutional redesign that moves the country away from liberal democracy.... Read more about Moving Away from Liberal Democracy
Power of Social Innovation Webinar Series Every sector of society has a role to play in social change, but none might be as important as citizens themselves. How can we best organize ourselves to drive innovation and reform? This webinar, sponsored by the Center’s Government Innovators Network, will feature two experienced organizers who are deftly growing their impact through two seemingly dissimilar platforms: Sara Horowitz, Freelancers Union and Maya Enista, Mobilize.org.
About this Policy Impact Forum This important policy-impact forum will examine innovations in child well-being policies and programs. Special emphasis will be placed on increasing municipal responses to the needs of young children and their families. Panel discussions will include:
Neighborhood-based Strategies to Strengthen Families
Since the beginning of the Obama administration, our nation has experienced vigorous policy debates about the great challenges of health care and the economic crisis. At the same time, the way these debates have unfolded has brought forward another important issue: the health and future of our democracy itself.
Join us for a special half-day conference to discuss the key issues at stake in our democracy. Panelists will explore the priorities that should be front and center over the coming year; examine the possibilities of a unified agenda for democratic reform; and discuss ways of creating and strengthening a movement for a vibrant and inclusive democracy.... Read more about How Broken is Our Democracy
124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
A Crowd Sourced Approach to Discovering, Understanding, and Diffusing Democratic Innovation
Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School
Participedia is a wiki-based platform with an ambitious goal: strengthening democracy around the world. The website consists of a user-generated library of examples and methods of participatory governance, public deliberation, and collaborative public action. From citizen involvement in budgeting to oversight groups that ensure better health care and social service delivery, government initiatives that encourage democratic participation demonstrate powerful results.... Read more about Participedia
Demetrios Papademetriou, Migration Policy Institute
Innovations at the Intersection of Health Care, Democracy, and Civic Engagement
About the Seminar
Aggregation and Mitigation for Forest Conservation
Lucan Way, University of Toronto
About this Policy Impact Forum