Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
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?
Newest
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.
Commentary
“In public life, if you don’t claim authorship of your own story, others will claim it for you.”
Commentary
This post uses the Crowd Counting Consortium’s data on U.S. protest activity since 2017 to estimate and compare the average size of the crowds at political rallies featuring Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and, since late July 2024, Kamala Harris.
Q+A
HKS research fellow Freddy Guevara MC/MPA 2024 remains optimistic about a democratic transition and that the July election was the beginning of the end for the Maduro regime.
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.
Feature
Podcast
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with journalists Talia Jane, Raven, and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel to discuss the impact of independent journalism on protest activity and social movements.
In his latest article for The Conversation, Archon Fung presents two key questions at the heart of these debates: Should campuses allow civil disobedience, suppress dissent, or seek peaceful solutions? And when, if ever, should police force be used against protests?
Podcast
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with Joseph Brown, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston, to discuss a mass mobilization in Atlanta to stop a new a police training center amid environmental and community rights concerns.
