News and Analysis

Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.

two side-by-side screenshots of emergency alerts

Commentary

Information Inequality Can Be a Matter of Life or Death

In this paper, Mary W. Graham, co-director of the Center’s Transparency Policy Project, explores the unintended information inequities that weaken the nation’s vital health and safety alerts. By examining three policies — wildfire alerts, drinking water reports, and auto safety recalls — she suggests common sources of inequality problems and steps policy makers are taking to remedy them.

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What does it mean to have a strong multiracial democracy?

Feature

What does it mean to have a strong multiracial democracy?

The Ash Center’s Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Archon Fung discuss how without a more robust commitment to upholding and protecting multiracial democracy, the United States won’t be able to solve its democratic backsliding.

Democracy on the (down) ballot

Feature

Democracy on the (down) ballot

Ash panel unpacks election reforms at stake during the midterms

 

New research on the impacts of restrictions on the applicability of federal Indian policy to the Wabanaki Nations in Maine
Photo of Acadia National Park in Maine

Media Release

New research on the impacts of restrictions on the applicability of federal Indian policy to the Wabanaki Nations in Maine

A team of researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School today released a research report documenting the costs to the Wabanaki Nations in Maine and to Maine’s non-tribal citizens of the state’s being screened off from federal policies of Indian self-determination and self-governance.

Democracy on the (Down) Ballot: Unpacking the Midterms, Voting Rights, and Local Electoral Reforms

Video

Democracy on the (Down) Ballot: Unpacking the Midterms, Voting Rights, and Local Electoral Reforms

During the 2022 midterms, voters not only cast a ballot to decide the balance of power in congress, but in in many states voters decided on a range of consequential ballot initiatives impacting the nuts and bolts of the electoral process including voter-ID laws, party primary reform, ranked choice voting, and proportional representation. The outcomes of these statewide and local level ballot initiatives have direct implications for future elections and participatory democracy.

This midterm recap webinar goes beyond the candidate horse race and focus on analysis and perspectives from advocates and scholars on recent voting-related ballot initiatives, immediate implications for future elections, and what’s ahead for emerging electoral reforms at the state and local level. See panelists Deb Otis, Director of Research at FairVote; Jenny Lee, Deputy Director of the Coalition of Communities of Color; and Wendy Underhill, Director of Elections and Redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ash Center Reimagining Democracy Fellow Nick Chedli Carter moderated.

How fragile is our democracy? Five midterm indicators
Vote Here placard at polling station

Commentary

How fragile is our democracy? Five midterm indicators

The midterm elections will forecast not only which party controls Congress but the health of our democracy, writes Archon Fung in a new essay.