124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
The Dynamics of Policy Failure
Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
About the Seminar In this seminar, Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia examines three interlocking processes that fuel ’the dynamics of security/integration policy failure.’ The first relates to the spiral effect of border escalation. Designed to prevent illegal immigration and terrorist threats, she argues that border controls in fact generate new immigration flows and increase insecurity. Second, the increasing volume of counter-terrorism activity has led to the proliferation of similarly flawed policy institutions in the United States and Europe: Hampered by a vague definition of terrorism, they have expanded and tackle security issues unrelated to terrorism. Third, the impact of the securitization of immigration may actually increase alienation and therefore facilitate terrorist recruitment. The net effect is the creation of a self-fulfilling prophesy of a permissive environment of violence.... Read more about Immigration, Security, and Democracy
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Why It Is OK That No One Elected Oxfam
Jennifer Rubenstein, University of Virginia
About the Seminar Advocacy campaigns by international anti-poverty non-governmental organizations are an increasingly prominent feature of global politics. Professor Rubenstein focuses on two possibilities for how these campaigns be conceptualized and normatively evaluated: 1) INGOs should be viewed as non-elected “representatives” and evaluated based on how representative they are; 2) INGOs should be viewed as “agents of justice” and evaluated based on how well they promote some conception of global justice.... Read more about The Ethics of INGO Advocacy
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
The Political Economy of Expatriate Dual Citizenship
David Leblang, University of Virginia
About the Seminar Professor David Leblang will discuss the causes and consequences of dual citizenship rights as they apply to expatriates. Arguing that migrant networks provide sending/home countries with access to global capital pools, he will demonstrate that the provision of dual citizenship helps home countries harness the financial and human capital of their diasporas. His seminar will assess the implications by examining the linkage between migration, dual citizenship and flows of foreign economic aid, portfolio investment, and remittances. He will also provide some evidence that dual citizenship increases the likelihood that migrants will express an intention to return to their home country and will discuss the rise in national policies providing for dual citizenship rights.... Read more about Harnessing the Diaspora
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution & Freeman Spogli Institute
About the Seminar Why is there not a single democracy in the Arab world today, when every other region has a significant number of democracies? This seminar examines possible cultural, historical, economic, political, institutional, and geostrategic explanations for the democracy deficit in the Arab world. Rejecting some of these possible explanations and affirming others, it also considers what factors might foster transitions to constitutional democracy in the Arab world.... Read more about Why Is There No Arab Democracy?
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
Vijayendra Rao, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank
About the Seminar In this seminar, Vijayendra (Biju) Rao will examine transcripts of village meetings (gram sabhas) in South India, to demonstrate how boundaries of caste and status are breached within them, and definitions of poverty and beneficiary selection understood and interrogated. The session will outline how discursive skills and civic agency are acquired and deployed by the poor in a quest for dignity.... Read more about Dignity Through Discourse
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Heather Gerken, Yale Law School
About the Seminar At this seminar, Professor Heather Gerken will call for an institutional turn in elections scholarship. While scholars of elections have long been preoccupied with the problem of political self-interest, they have focused too narrowly in identifying the problem and failed to think broadly enough about potential solutions. Professor Gerken will describe what this shift in emphasis would involve, charting new paths for future research. Specifically, she will discuss a set of institutional interventions and new political structures that would align leadership incentives properly with the public interest while promoting democratic participation and engagement with the central questions of election reform. While the projects and methodologies she describes will be eclectic, her arguments will be united by a single theme: we need to harness politics to fix politics.... Read more about Harnessing Politics to Fix Politics
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
James Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Sciences, Yale University
About the Seminar Why would people choose to remain stateless? For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia – a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries – have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them – slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. The story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination challenges our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even basic ideas about what constitutes civilization, and confronts us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.” This new perspective requires a fundamental reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states and is applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.... Read more about The Art of Not Being Governed
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment
About the Seminar Among the many foreign policy challenges President Obama inherited from his predecessor, restoring the credibility of U.S. democracy promotion is one of the most complex. What have the new president and his foreign policy team done so far on this front? What opportunities exist for U.S. democracy promotion in a world where democratic retreat is as common as democratic advance? Can a new line on democracy be reconciled with the broader Obama policy of diplomatic reengagement, which entails reaching out to undemocratic regimes, like those in Russia and Iran?... Read more about Democracy Promotion Under Obama: The Complexities of Reengagement
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA
Daniel Tichenor, University of Oregon
About the Seminar Daniel Tichenor is a professor of political science at the University of Oregon. At the inaugural seminar of the Ash Center Democracy Seminar Series, he will speak about the inter-action between the American labor movement and immigration from the 19th century to the present. This represents his current research. He holds that unions, contrary to popular perception, have at different times in American history been very divided internally over immigration policy and the question of whether immigrants are an opportunity or a threat.... Read more about Immigration, Economic Security, & the American Labor Movement: Enduring Conflicts in Recombination
This is a report on the first biannual Global Network Conference of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Held at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government on April 12-14, the conference, titled "Making Democratic Government Work: Connecting Principle and Practice," brought together 180 leaders, scholars, and practitioners to discuss, debate, and share examples regarding the best ways to harness government innovation and promote and sustain democratic governance. The format of the conference endeavored to take full advantage of the wisdom and...
