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Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation

Renovating our democratic institutions for the 21st century.

Andy Feliciotti, Unslpash
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GETTING-Plurality


The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation aims to reinforce democracy through strengthening institutions, building interpersonal and informational trust, and reducing hyper-partisan affective polarization with research and field-building. Our multidisciplinary community of scholars, practitioners, and partner organizations work together to shepherd concepts and reforms into practice — to translate research into impact. From community-led initiatives to national-level policies and structural reforms, the Allen Lab works to renovate American democracy.

Our Vision: Justice is achieved by means of democracy: through robust political equality, fully inclusive institutions, and broad avenues for participation and connectedness, all of which rest on and support the material and social bases for human flourishing.

Our Mission: The Allen Lab develops the policy innovations needed to achieve healthy democracy in the 21st century. Our applied research converts the theory of power sharing liberalism into reality. Healthy democracy in the 21st century must deliver responsive representation and effective decision-making for large, complex, digitally-powered societies with significant heterogeneity operating in a globalized economy.

 

Research Workstreams

The lab currently supports four key research workstreams:

  • New Political Economy: Develop exemplary policies in support of a new paradigm in political economy that prioritizes equal dignity, voice, community, sustainability, and social relations free from domination. We call this paradigm power-sharing liberalism. The policies that embody this paradigm draw on the benefits of markets, civil society organizations, and the public sector, deploying diverse combinations of these forms of human coordination to solve public goods problems.
  • Technology and Democracy: Research and develop policies such that public and private sector AI governance policy is democracy sustaining, industry is defined by professional norms that lead to technology development supportive of human pluralism, and the pool of people able to bring merged ethical and technical expertise into policy spaces and industry meets the need. Learn more about our work here.
  • Civic Education Policy: Advance policy to ensure high quality universal civic learning, where excellent civic learning opportunities are available in the K-12, higher education, and life-long learning sectors and shared across political divides.
  • Governance Mechanisms: Develop innovative solutions to tough policy problems that are stuck due to systemic democratic failures. These select projects cross the three sectors vital to healthy democracy—political institutions, civil society, and civic culture. Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, a report of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, provides the basis for this workstream.

Our work is carried out through the identification and development of exemplary policies that permit further testing and refinement of the power-sharing liberalism paradigm. The Lab is committed to supporting the development of emerging scholars and thought leaders, and our organizational structure reflects this commitment. Lab activities to support the development of emblematic policy solutions include team-based research collaborations (staffed by undergraduate and graduate level research assistants), independent Fellow-driven research, an active professional learning community, regular lab meetings and workshops, publications and special stakeholder convenings.

Lab Staff


Danielle Allen
Headshot of Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen

James Bryant Conant University Professor

Darshan Goux

Darshan Goux

Senior Lab Director, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation

Sarah Hubbard

Sarah Hubbard

Associate Director for Technology & Democracy, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation

Priyanka Sethy

Lab Program Manager, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation;
Doctoral student, Harvard Gov Department

Lab Members


Ben Barsky

Doctoral Student, Harvard Chan School of Public Health

Sofia Corona

Researcher, Harvard College

Owen Ebose

Researcher, Harvard College

Ami Fields-Meyer
Headshot of Ami Fields-Meyer

Ami Fields-Meyer

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
July 2024-June 2025

Brian Highsmith

Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department

David Knight

Principal Investigator;
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Columbia University

Hannah Kunzman

Researcher;
Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department

Alexander Pascal

Alexander Pascal

Senior Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation

Charlotte Ritz-Jack

Researcher, Harvard College

Allison Stanger

Allison Stanger

Non-resident Senior Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation;
Co-Director and Co-Investigator, GETTING-Plurality Research Network

Andrei Stupu
Headshot of Andrei Stupu

Andrei Stupu

Fulbright Doctoral Researcher, August 2024-May 2025

Shlomit Wagman

Faculty Associate, Berkman-Klein Center, Harvard Law School & Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School

Lab Alumni


Eli Frankel

Researcher, Harvard College

Woojin Lim

Researcher, Harvard College

Christian Schmidt

Researcher;
Master in Urban Planning Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Jama Willis

Communications, Harvard College

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The Role of AI in the 2024 Elections

Video

The Role of AI in the 2024 Elections

The year 2024 was dubbed “the largest election year in global history” with half the world’s population voting in national elections. Earlier this year, we hosted an event on AI and the 2024 Elections where scholars spoke about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on the election cycle– from misinformation to threats on election infrastructure. This webinar offered a reflection and exploration of the impacts of technology on the 2024 election landscape.

Political Economy of AI Essay Collection

Political Economy of AI Essay Collection

Earlier this year, the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation hosted a convening on the Political Economy of AI. This collection of essays from leading scholars and experts raise critical questions surrounding power, governance, and democracy as they consider how technology can better serve the public interest.

Watching the Generative AI Hype Bubble Deflate

Additional Resource

Watching the Generative AI Hype Bubble Deflate

As a part of the Allen Lab’s Political Economy of AI Essay Collection, David Gray Widder and Mar Hicks draw on the history of tech hype cycles to warn against the harmful effects of the current generative AI bubble.

AI and Practicing Democracy

Additional Resource

AI and Practicing Democracy

As a part of the Allen Lab’s Political Economy of AI Essay Collection, Emily S Lin and Marshall Ganz call on us to reckon with how humans create, exercise, and structure power, in hopes of meeting our current technological moment in a way that aligns with our values.

Medicare Advantage as Asset Management: The Pretense of Care Under Logics of Extraction

Additional Resource

Medicare Advantage as Asset Management: The Pretense of Care Under Logics of Extraction

As a part of the Allen Lab’s Political Economy of AI Essay Collection, Ajeet Singh explores how AI technologies deployed in the health care sector often orient towards the extraction of greater surplus revenues at the expense of patient health.

Stay updated on the Allen Lab’s most recent news and events

Cooperative Paradigms for Artificial Intelligence

Additional Resource

Cooperative Paradigms for Artificial Intelligence

As a part of the Allen Lab’s Political Economy of AI Essay Collection, Sarah Hubbard explores alternative ownership and governance structures for artificial intelligence that may better serve the public interest.

Sunset and Renew: Section 230 Should Protect Human Speech, Not Algorithmic Virality

Commentary

Sunset and Renew: Section 230 Should Protect Human Speech, Not Algorithmic Virality

Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Senior Fellow Allison Stanger, in collaboration with Jaron Lanier and Audrey Tang, advocate for a “repeal and renew” approach to Section 230 in an effort to reform the current social media ecosystem.

Can Higher Education Help Renovate American Democracy?
Photo of several people wearing graduation caps

Video

Can Higher Education Help Renovate American Democracy?

The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation hosted a webinar with several panelists to discuss a host of new campus initiatives that offer promising pathways for higher education to reassert its vital role in strengthening democracy by engaging students’ civic learning and supporting their development as civic actors.

Tech Policy that (Actually) Serves the People

Commentary

Tech Policy that (Actually) Serves the People

Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Fellow Ami Fields-Meyer lays out research questions for developing a new U.S. tech policy agenda that puts people first.

The National Security Case for Public AI
tech background with a square in the middle

Occasional Paper

The National Security Case for Public AI

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.

Building a Digital Democracy with Audrey Tang and Megan Smith

Video

Building a Digital Democracy with Audrey Tang and Megan Smith

The “Building a Digital Democracy” panel brought together Audrey Tang, Megan Smith, Professor Danielle Allen, and Professor Mathias Risse for a conversation on how technology is being used to transform our political institutions.

Conference on the Political Economy of AI Podcast Episodes

Podcast

Conference on the Political Economy of AI Podcast Episodes

Check out the podcast episodes from the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation’s Conference on the Political Economy of AI to glean insights from each panel.