Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
Podcast
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Jennifer Lemmerman, Chief Policy Officer at Project Bread, to discuss the impact the lapse in SNAP funding is having on individuals and families.
Newest
Feature
Events this week in JFK Jr. Forum examined what can be done to address grinding problems of race, internet’s power to exploit political, and cultural schisms to destructive ends.
Media Release
In Ensuring All Votes Count: Reducing Rejected Ballots, Wang and Alitamirano tackle the questions: Were mail ballots rejected at a higher rate in 2020 compared to previous years? What impact did policy changes, the political environment, and voter outreach have on mail ballot rejection rates in such an extraordinary election year?
Media Release
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School announced the appointment of former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki as a senior fellow. Marzouki, Tunisia’s first post-Arab spring head of state will join the Ash Center’s Democracy in Hard Places initiative.
Commentary
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.”
Feature
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.
Q+A
Speaker Pelosi’s trip is likely to engender ire from China, much of which will be directed at Taiwan anticipates Ash Center Fellow Wenchi Yu.
Feature
Scholars conclude terms limits would help restore ideological balance to the nation’s highest court
Q+A
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.
Feature
Research shows professional sports stadiums and arenas are not only ideal polling locations, but support for their use in elections reaches across the aisle and benefits the team.