2009

  • 2009 Oct 14

    Harnessing Politics to Fix Politics

    (All day)

    Location: 

    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

  • 2009 Oct 08

    Creating a Culture that Promotes Innovation and Implementing Innovative Ideas

    5:30pm to 6:30pm

    Location: 

    124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge, MA

    Jonathan Walters, Governing

    About the Seminar
    Please join us as Governing magazines Jonathan Walters delivers remarks on creating a culture of innovation in government organizations. Drawing from the study of innovative government programs for over 20 years, this seminar will look at key drivers of innovation and characteristics of innovative public sector organizations. A light dinner will be served.... Read more about Creating a Culture that Promotes Innovation and Implementing Innovative Ideas

  • 2009 Oct 05

    The Art of Not Being Governed

    (All day)

    Location: 

    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

  • 2009 Sep 30

    Democracy Promotion Under Obama: The Complexities of Reengagement

    (All day)

    Location: 

    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

  • 2009 Sep 23

    Immigration, Economic Security, & the American Labor Movement: Enduring Conflicts in Recombination

    (All day)

    Location: 

    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

  • 2009 Sep 18

    Australian Public Service Reform Directions

    12:00pm to 1:00pm

    Location: 

    Fainsod Room, Littauer Building, 3rd Floor

    Lynelle Briggs, Former Australian Public Service Commissioner

    About the Seminar
    On Friday, September 18th from 12-1 p.m. ET at the Fainsod Room, Littauer Building, 3rd Floor, the Ash Institute will host the event “Australian Public Service Reform Directions: An Address by Lynelle Briggs.” Ms. Briggs is the Chief Executive Officer of Medicare Australia and the former Australian Public Service Commissioner. Lunch will be served.

    She will address the main themes of public sector reform that are emerging in Australia, which are similar to many issues emerging in the American context.... Read more about Australian Public Service Reform Directions

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