Online Book Talk: Empowering Affected Interests — Democratic Inclusion in a Globalized World
Online Event
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Democratic Reform
At the Ash Center, we’re working to generate new ideas to reform our democratic institutions for the 21st century.
Related Programs
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Reimagining Democracy Program
Many of our most basic democratic institutions, from the Electoral College to Congress itself, were born in the eighteenth century when American democracy and America looked markedly different than today. At the Ash Center, we’re working to modernize and reform these institutions for a healthy 21st-century democracy.
As political polarization continues to test the strength of even our most bedrock political institutions, the Ash Center brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from across the country to discuss how to protect and modernize our democracy.
Through working groups and convenings, case studies, and research projects, the Ash Center is working to identify reforms both large and small that will help strengthen the future of American democracy for generations to come.
Upcoming Events
The Latest News, Research, and Resources
Commentary
Does Ranked Choice Voting Create Barriers for Minority Voters?
Ranked choice voting (RCV) aims to expand voter choice and improve representation, but Nolan McCarty’s research warns it could have unintended negative effects on minority communities’ representation and influence.
Commentary
Why federal courts are unlikely to save democracy from Trump’s and Musk’s attacks
Maya Sen argues that federal courts are unlikely to protect democracy from threats posed by Trump and Musk, as the judiciary’s power to check executive overreach is limited and increasingly challenged.
Commentary
Efficiency − or empire? How Elon Musk’s hostile takeover could end government as we know it
Media Release
Stephen Richer Joins Ash Center of Democratic Governance and Innovation
Q+A
In what ways does Inauguration Day 2025 symbolize the resilience or fragility of American democracy?
On January 20, 2025, as Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the nation reached a critical turning point.
Occasional Paper
Problem-Solving at the Community Scale: A Deweyan Approach to the Democratic Practices of Minoritized Groups within the United States, South Africa, and Australia
Commentary
The Global Impact of the United States Election
No matter where you are in the world, the effects of November 5, 2024, are enormous, and its global ramifications will be seen very soon, for better or for worse.
Book
Empowering Affected Interests — Democratic Inclusion in a Globalized World
Empowering Affected Interests explores the radical implications of the All-Affected Principle in a globalized world, bringing together leading theorists to examine how democracy might be reimagined to address cross-border interdependence on issues like immigration, climate change, and labor markets.
Feature
‘Both parties now can claim the mantle of a multiracial electorate’
From global election trends to inflation anger, swing state performance, and failed voting reform initiatives, Harvard election law experts break down last week’s presidential election and what it might mean for the future of American democracy.
Commentary
Election 2024: Appreciating The Front-Line Workers of Democracy
As the dust settles from the U.S. presidential election, the American public can celebrate that the election process was largely nonviolent and smooth. However, it is important that the public not be lulled into thinking this signals the end of election administrators’ problems.
Additional Resource
Trump’s threat to American democracy
In her most recent contributing article to the U.S. Election Analysis 2024: Media, Voters and the Campaign, Pippa Norris discusses events preceding the 2024 election, voter behavior, and what the results may mean for democratic institutions.
Commentary
The Electoral College and Our Broken Presidential Election System
Roughly 80 percent of the population who do not live in “swing states” lack a clear notion of what they “need to do” to actively support their candidates.
Q+A
Will Mobile Voting Defeat Gerrymandering and Increase Participation?
Additional Resource
Milestone or Misstep? Corruption, Development, and Democracy After Brazil’s Lava Jato Probe
This case explores Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the largest public corruption investigation in history, which led to indictments and convictions of some 359 business executives, government officials, and political leaders from the ruling elite in Brazil.
Feature
Beyond the Ballot: Ensuring a Transparent, Secure, and Fair Election in 2024
Election integrity is under the microscope as we near the 2024 Presidential Election, and many Americans are apprehensive about election security, the timeframe of learning the results, and how peaceful the transfer of power will be.