2011

  • 2011 Apr 28

    Asia Vision 21 (2011)

    Thu Apr 28 (All day) to Sat Apr 30 (All day)

    Location: 

    Cambridge, MA

    pagodasThe annual Asia Vision 21 conference and research forum brings together government officials, business leaders, and scholars from Asia and America to examine long-term issues and concerns facing Asia and to strengthen ties between the two regions. Started in 1999 by the Asia Center of Harvard University, it is now supported in part by the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia.

  • 2011 Apr 27

    Waves of Democracy Compared: Europe in 1989 and the Arab World in 2011

    4:10pm to 5:30pm

    Location: 

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

    Jacques RupnikJacques Rupnik, Sciences Po (Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris)
    Co-sponsored by the Harvard History and Policy Seminar, HKS

    About the Seminar
    Is it 1989 all over again? There are obvious parallels in the breathtaking speed with which dictatorships can collapse in a chain reaction of non-violent popular mobilizations as well as in the unpredictability of the outcome of the Arab revolutions of 2011. Neither had been predicted or anticipated by analysts and social scientists which is both an invitation to modesty and a call to address some of the rapidly emerging issues of democratic transition. And this is where differences as well as lessons learned matter. Middle Europe is not the Middle East: there are historical, cultural, and sociological differences as well as different legacies of dissent and opposition to the Old Regime which matter for the shaping of new political elites and their commitment to democratic values. No less importantly, in both cases the withdrawal of superpower backing (“It’s 1989, but the West is Soviet Russia”) helped regime change but also opened a period of regional instability with very different geopolitical implications. Beyond comparisons there are lessons learned from different experiences of democratic transitions in Eastern Europe (the constitutional moment, nationalist secessions, and the need for an external European anchor for democratization) which can be of relevance to the forthcoming transitions on the Southern shore of the Mediterranean.... Read more about Waves of Democracy Compared: Europe in 1989 and the Arab World in 2011

  • 2011 Apr 26

    Responsive Democracy: Increasing State Accountability in East Asia

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

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

    Jeeyang Rhee BaumJeeyang Rhee Baum, Research Fellow, Ash Center
    A light lunch will be served.
    RSVP: jesse_ledin@hks.harvard.edu

    About the Seminar
    Under what conditions is a newly democratic government likely to increase transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to its citizens? What incentives might there be for bureaucrats, including those appointed by a previously authoritarian government, to carry out the wishes of an emerging democratic regime? At this seminar, Jeeyang Rhee Baum will discuss findings from her new book Responsive Democracy, which addresses an important problem in democratic transition and consolidation: the ability of the chief executive to control the state bureaucracy.

    Using three well-chosen case studies – the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan – Jeeyang Rhee Baum will explore the causes and consequences of codifying rules and procedures in a newly democratic government.... Read more about Responsive Democracy: Increasing State Accountability in East Asia

  • 2011 Apr 21

    ’Seeing like a Citizen’: Power, Participation, and Strategies for Citizen Engagement

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

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

    John GaventaJohn Gaventa, Professor, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

    Visiting Fellow, Ash Center
    A light lunch will be served.
    RSVP: jesse_ledin@hks.harvard.edu

    About the Seminar
    Over the last decade citizen participation has often been seen as a panacea both for deepening democracy as well as for achieving international development goals. But under what circumstances does participation change or challenge power relations? In a rapidly changing world, how do we understand and analyze power in order to build more effective strategies for citizen engagement?

    In this seminar, John Gaventa, the author of the award-winning book Power and Powerlessness (1980), will share his more recent approaches to understanding power, and discuss their implications for civic engagement (www.powercube.net). To illustrate his arguments, Gaventa will draw upon recent work of the Development Research Center on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, a 10-year research program on how citizens mobilize to claim their rights, which has produced over 150 case studies of citizen engagement in 20 countries, largely in the global south (www.drc-citizenship.org).... Read more about ’Seeing like a Citizen’: Power, Participation, and Strategies for Citizen Engagement

  • 2011 Apr 20

    Democracy and the Thousand Little Horrors that are Tolerated in its Maintenance

    4:10pm to 5:30pm

    Location: 

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

    Christian DavenportChristian Davenport, University of Notre Dame

    About the Seminar
    Most researchers have identified that political democracies are generally less repressive in their treatment of those under their rule relative to autocracies. This finding is robust across time, space, measurement, and methodological technique. What this work has missed, however, is how various forms of discrimination are perpetuated within democracies but in a different manner-they take place on a local level and are prevented from creating a “master” cleavage. When activities begin to aggregate these are framed in the only legitimate way that democracies can repress with the support of the citizenry: for example, in defense of the polity from politically threatening behavior. What this work also misses is the externalization (or exporting) of coercion from democracies to other locales in an effort to avoid domestic scrutiny. This seminar will lay out this argument and provide evidence from the United States, India, and Northern Ireland.... Read more about Democracy and the Thousand Little Horrors that are Tolerated in its Maintenance

  • 2011 Apr 19

    Japan’s Economy and the World: Post-Quake Reconstruction Prospects and Challenges

    4:10pm to 5:30pm

    Location: 

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

    Rising sun

    Hiroshi Nakaso, Assistant Governor, Bank of Japan

    About the Seminar
    Amidst Japan’s tragic situation in the aftermath of the huge earthquakes and tsunamis of March 11th, policymakers and scholars are working on resuscitation strategies for the Japanese economy. Hiroshi Nakaso, assistant governor of the Bank of Japan, will address a Harvard audience concerning challenges and prospects of post-quake Japan’s economy after attending the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Mr. Nakaso works extensively, along with his colleagues both at home and abroad, serving as chairman of G20 Study Group on Commodities and member of G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting.... Read more about Japan’s Economy and the World: Post-Quake Reconstruction Prospects and Challenges

  • 2011 Apr 19

    Social Innovation as Economic Development

    2:00pm to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Online Webinar

    Incubate and Grow Social Enterprises in Your Community

    About the Webinar
    The Power of Social Innovation Series returns this spring with practitioner-led webinars on timely topics from education reform to economic development. Each webinar features innovators sharing their experiences and insights with fellow practitioners, students and scholars from across the country.

    This event is sponsored by the Government Innovators Network and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and features government leaders and experts from innovative...

    Read more about Social Innovation as Economic Development
  • 2011 Apr 18

    Seoul 9-to-5: Creative Governance

    4:15pm to 5:45pm

    Location: 

    Tsai Auditorium (S010), CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA

    Se-Hoon OhSe-Hoon Oh, Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan Government, Republic of Korea

    *Reception to follow at the Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy St., Cambridge*

    About Se-Hoon Oh
    Since 2006, Se-Hoon Oh has been serving as the Mayor of Seoul. Se-Hoon Oh started his professional career in the Bar of Korea in the year 1984. In the year 1991, he started practicing privately in the Seoul Bar Association. From September 1997 to February 2000, he remained professor in College of Law of Sookmyung Women’s University. Se-Hoon Oh was also a visiting scholar to the Law School of the Yale University. He also served as Free Legal Advisor to the Taehwa Christian Community Center from March 1999 to February 2000. The present mayor of Seoul was also employed as a lawyer with Chang and Lee and Jiseong, a law firm and judicial aggregate.

  • 2011 Apr 18

    Public Talk with Armida Alisyahbana, Indonesia Minister of Planning

    10:00am to 11:30am

    Location: 

    Fainsod Room, Littauer 324, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA

    Armida Alisyahbana, Indonesia Minister of Planning

    About the Seminar
    Professor Armida Salsiah Alisyahbana, S.E., M.A., Ph.D is the Indonesian State Minister for National Development Planning/Head of BAPPENAS in the Second United Indonesia Cabinet. She is a professor in the Faculty of Economics, Padjadjaran University and served as vice dean for Academic Affairs.... Read more about Public Talk with Armida Alisyahbana, Indonesia Minister of Planning

  • 2011 Apr 13

    Participatory Budgeting: Democratic Deliberation and Decision Making at the Local Level

    4:10pm to 5:30pm

    Location: 

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

    Joe MooreJoe Moore, City of Chicago

    About the Seminar
    Around the United States, city leaders are increasingly asking their residents for suggestions about budget spending. In Chicago’s 49th Ward, a city council member is going one step further. Through a novel experiment in democracy known as participatory budgeting (PB), Alderman Joe Moore is not just asking their opinions – he is giving his constituents the power to make real decisions about how to spend their tax dollars.

    PB is an innovative model of democratic deliberation and decision-making in which ordinary citizens decide how to allocate part of a municipal budget.... Read more about Participatory Budgeting: Democratic Deliberation and Decision Making at the Local Level

Pages