Contentious School Board Meetings: Implications for News Coverage and Board Turnover
In-Person Event
S250 in CGIS South
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT
At the Ash Center, we’re working to generate new ideas to reform our democratic institutions for the 21st century.
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.
In-Person Event
S250 in CGIS South
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EDT
Online Event
Virtual Event
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Online Event
Virtual Event
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Occasional Paper
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Fellow Alex Pascal and Vanderbilt Law Professor Ganesh Sitaraman make the case that public options for AI and public utility-style regulation of AI will enhance national security by ensuring innovation and competition, preventing abuses of power and conflicts of interest, and advancing public interest and national security goals.
Video
The Ash Center hosted a discussion with the heads of elections from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina to hear about their actions to ensure the election process is smooth and can be trusted.
Feature
Commentary
Never in American history has a party shifted course as quickly and effectively as the Democratic Party did this summer. The rapid transition from Biden to Harris has left many wondering: Was this process truly democratic?
Feature
Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of people in jail retain their right to vote while being held in pretrial detention, having not been convicted of a crime.
Feature
In the wake of this most recent incident, the Ash Center convened a panel of experts to discuss Americans’ attitudes toward political violence and explore strategies for counteracting and de-escalating future violent acts to prevent them from becoming an accepted social norm.
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Case Study
In this latest report on providing access to registration and voting for the hundreds of thousands of Americans being held in jails without having been convicted, Tova Wang looks at how Denver – and the State of Colorado – have become a model for the nation.
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Portland, Oregon passed one of the most progressive voting reforms in the country. Max Kiefel, Nick Chedli Carter, and Archon Fung explore the motivating factors behind this big change.
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Developing and enforcing conflict of interest policies is no simple task for anti-corruption advocates and ethics officials alike. Archon Fung and Dennis Thompson help to better understand the problem and examine when risk is underestimated and when it is overestimated.
Additional Resource
As part of the Ash Center’s ongoing work examining the legal, political, and policy implications of advancing jail-based voting, Aaron Rosewood and Tova Wang examine the statutory basis for jail voting in each state.
Occasional Paper
In this new Occasional Paper from the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Hannah Kunzman and Danielle Allen offer a case study on contestation over K–12 civics curriculum in Texas.
Feature
As some of the oldest civic organizations in Boston, neighborhood associations are integral to the city’s local politics. Millward examines who participates, and how to make these groups more inclusive.
Feature
The Ash Center’s Tova Wang and NFL executive Scott Pioli make the case for using sports stadiums as polling places this fall.
Case Study
In this case study of democratic innovation at the local level, the authors answer the questions: Why, in 2022, was voting representation and democratic reform firmly on Portland’s agenda? Did this shift contribute to Portlanders passing Measure 26-228?