Danielle Allen
Professor of Public Policy, James Bryant Conant University Professor
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
Renovating constitutional democracy for the 21st century
The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation works to ensure that public policies, political institutions, and the technologies that support them are designed and judged by how well they strengthen constitutional democracy—expanding freedom and political equality, building fully inclusive institutions, and widening avenues for participation and connection, all rooted in the conditions people need to flourish.
Too often, democracy is treated as a stand-alone policy domain rather than a standard shaping all policymaking; the Lab works to change this by developing new democracy-supporting frameworks and standards, grounded in the field-defining scholarship of Danielle Allen. We advance this work through research, teaching, field-building, proof-of-concept pilots, professional training, network-building, and the promotion of exemplary policy solutions that equip decisionmakers to deliver responsive representation and effective governance for large, complex, digitally powered societies.
Areas of Focus
- Technology and Democracy: Learn more about our work here.
- New Frameworks for Political Economy
- Universal Civic Learning Policy
- Governance Mechanisms
Lab Staff
Sadie Cox
Executive Assistant to Danielle Allen
Darshan Goux
PhD, Senior Lab Director
Sarah Hubbard
Associate Director for Technology & Democracy
Ryan Pell
Coordinator, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
Lab Members
Ben Barsky
Lab Affiliate; Assoc. Professor, UCSF Law School
Mathis Bitton
Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department
Carly Chen
Researcher, Harvard College
Emily Clough
Research Fellow, AY2025-2026
Charlie Covit
Researcher, Harvard College
Emma Ebowe
Assistant Professor, College of William and Mary
Keren Elmore
Harvard College
Ami Fields-Meyer
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
July 2024-June 2026
Tyler Fisher
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Cynthia Garcia
Researcher, Harvard College
Yen-Lin Huang
Non-resident Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Martina Jaramillo
Researcher, Harvard College
Thao Nguyen Kelly
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Femi Ositade
Researcher, Harvard College
Hannah Kunzman
Researcher;
Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department
Hillary Lehr
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Gideon Lichfield
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Jeremy McKey
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Sonali Nijhawan
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Rishab Ramamurthy
Researcher, Harvard Law School
Priyanka Sethy
Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department
Karan Shah
Researcher, Harvard College
Christine Slaughter
Research Fellow, AY2025-2026
Allison Stanger
Senior Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation;
Co-Director and Co-Investigator, GETTING-Plurality Research Network
Feb. 2024-Jan. 2026
Summer Sun
Researcher, Harvard College
Kenneth Woodland
Researcher, Harvard Kennedy School
Paulius Yamin
Non-resident Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Lab Alumni
Felix Chen
Harvard College
Naomi Corlette
Harvard College
Sofia Corona
Researcher, Harvard College
Caroline Curran
Researcher, Harvard College
Owen Ebose
Researcher, Harvard College
Eli Frankel
Researcher, Harvard College
Brian Highsmith
Doctoral Student, Harvard Government Department
Conner Huey
Researcher, Harvard College
David Knight
Principal Investigator;
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Columbia University
Woojin Lim
Researcher, Harvard College
Neil Miller
Researcher, Harvard Kennedy School
Cris Moore
Professor, Santa Fe Institute
Saddat Nazir
Researcher, Harvard College
Alex Pascal
Lab Affiliate; Executive Director, Berkman Klein Center
Charlotte Ritz-Jack
Researcher, Harvard College
Christian Schmidt
Researcher;
Master in Urban Planning Candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Andrei Stupu
PhD; Fulbright Alumnus
Tessel van Oirsouw
EthicAI and Former Visiting Fellow, Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation
Shlomit Wagman
Allen Lab Policy Fellow AY 2023-2025
Sam Wang
Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026
Jama Willis
Communications, Harvard College
Upcoming Events
Black Women Civic Leaders in Massachusetts and Renovating Democracy
In-Person Event
Ash Center Seminar Room 225, Suite 200, 124 Mount Auburn Street
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm EDT
The Latest News and Research
Additional Resource
Reimagining Democracy for AI
“Reimagining Democracy for AI” by Aviv Ovadya was featured in the October 2023 Journal of Democracy.
Abstract: AI advances are shattering assumptions that both our democracies and our international order rely on. Reinventing our “democratic infrastructure” is thus critically necessary—and the author argues that it is also possible. Four interconnected and accelerating democratic paradigm shifts illustrate the potential: representative deliberations, AI augmentation, democracy-as-a-service, and platform democracy. Such innovations provide a viable path toward not just reimagining traditional democracies but enabling the transnational and even global democratic processes critical for addressing the broader challenges posed by destabilizing AI advances—including those relating to AI alignment and global agreements. We can and must rapidly invest in such democratic innovation if we are to ensure that our democratic capacity increases with our power.
Video
The Dark Side of AI: Crime and Adversarial Use Cases
“The Dark Side of AI: Crime and Adversarial Use Cases” webinar session featured the following speakers and topics:
- Bruce Schneier (Harvard): Hackers and Security Vulnerabilities
- Matt Groh (Northwestern): Deepfakes and Misinformation, see related paper The Art and Science of Generative AI
- Shlomit Wagman (Harvard): Financial Crime
- Jennifer Calvery (HSBC): Financial Crime
Video
Introduction to AI and Public Policy
The “Introduction to AI and Public Policy” webinar session featured the following speakers and topics:
- Danielle Allen (Harvard): AI and Democracy
- Sandy Pentland (MIT): A Practical Framework for Data and AI systems for Regulators
- Shayne Longpre (MIT): A Primer in Large Language Models
- Gabriele Mazzini (European Commission): Overview of the EU AI Act
Article
Bridging Systems: Open Problems for Countering Destructive Divisiveness across Ranking, Recommenders, and Governance
This working paper aims to articulate an interdisciplinary research and practice area focused around bridging systems.
Policy Brief
GETTING-Plurality Comments to White House OSTP on National Priorities for Artificial Intelligence
The GETTING-Plurality Research Network submitted a series of memos which respond to various questions posed around the topics of bolstering democracy and civic participation; protecting rights, safety, and national security; and promoting economic growth and good jobs.
Video
Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society
GETTING-Plurality Workstream Lead Aviv Ovadya recently discussed his work on bridging systems as part of “Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society.” This two-day symposium at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute explored algorithmic amplification and distortion as well as potential interventions.
Commentary
How AI could write our laws
ChatGPT and other AIs could supercharge the influence of lobbyists—but only if we let them.
Commentary
We Don’t Need to Reinvent our Democracy to Save it from AI
When is it time to start worrying about artificial intelligence interfering in our democracy? Maybe when an AI writes a letter to The New York Times opposing the regulation of its own technology.
Digital Humanism: The Time Is Now
Digital humanism highlights the complex relationships between people, society, nature, and machines. It has been embraced by a growing community of individuals and groups who are setting directions that may change current paradigms. Here we focus on the initiatives generated by the Vienna Manifesto.
Commentary
How ChatGPT Hijacks Democracy
“… for all the consternation over the potential for humans to be replaced by machines in formats like poetry and sitcom scripts, a far greater threat looms: artificial intelligence replacing humans in the democratic processes — not through voting, but through lobbying.”
Cryptocurrencies and National Security: The Case of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing
This Article reviews the anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework and its application to cryptocurrencies. Then, it presents case studies demonstrating the important contributions that the AML/CFT toolkit has made to countries’ security.
Hybrid Intelligence: A Paradigm for More Responsible Practice
The authors propose an alternate approach to mainstream AI practice that broadens the focus beyond algorithms viewed in isolation to processes of human-algorithm collaboration.
Podcast
Consumers vs. Citizens in Democracy’s Public Sphere
Attempting to balance the challenging trade-offs between individual rights and our obligations to one another.
Big Tech’s Rise to Political Power
An interview with Allison Stanger
Decentralized Society: Finding Web3’s Soul
Web3 today centers around expressing transferable, financialized assets, rather than encoding social relationships of trust.