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News and Analysis

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

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Commentary

Ten ways to take down the political temperature

The intensification of political polarization in recent years has raised pressing concerns about the health of democratic discourse and the rise of political violence. Ash Center Senior Fellow Stephen Richer shares ten principles he believes provide a framework for fostering more constructive engagement: encouraging self-reflection, prioritizing substantive dialogue over hyperbole, and creating incentives that reward integrity and ideas rather than division.

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To Fix Tech, Democracy Needs to Grow Up
A collage showing an I voted sticker, bees, and honeycomb

Commentary

To Fix Tech, Democracy Needs to Grow Up

There isn’t much we can agree on these days. But two sweeping statements that might garner broad support are “We need to fix technology” and “We need to fix democracy.”

Present at the Beginning: Over 50 Years at the Kennedy School
Mark Moore, smiling, stands with arms folded in front of a book case in a black and white photo

Feature

Present at the Beginning: Over 50 Years at the Kennedy School

Mark Moore began his career at the Kennedy School as a member of the inaugural class of the Master in Public Policy (MPP) program. He was subsequently awarded one of Harvard’s first Ph.D.s in public policy before being appointed assistant professor in 1974, and the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Management in 1979. On the eve of his retirement, Moore, now a Research Professor at HKS, sat down with the Ash Center to discuss his work and share his unique perspective on the Kennedy School’s decades-long evolution.

“Lengthy and convoluted and vague”: HKS historian Alex Keyssar on the problems with the Electoral Count Act and how proposed reforms could fix it
Three persons standing at voting booths placed in an outside sitting, against a brick wall backdrop

Q+A

“Lengthy and convoluted and vague”: HKS historian Alex Keyssar on the problems with the Electoral Count Act and how proposed reforms could fix it

A law written in post-Civil War America to try to avoid problems with the counting of Electoral College votes has never been very clear. A new set of proposed reforms tries to change that.

As Supreme Court Hands Down Decisions, New Polling Shows Divided Public on High-Profile Cases
a crowd, many holding signs, outside of the Supreme Court building

Media Release

As Supreme Court Hands Down Decisions, New Polling Shows Divided Public on High-Profile Cases

New polling analysis released today shows that the American public is narrowly divided on a slew of ideologically charged issues before the Supreme Court such as abortion, gun control, immigration, and whether public funds can be used to pay for private religious education.