TY - BOOK T1 - When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, From Ancient Athens to the Present Day Y1 - Forthcoming ED - Archon Fung ED - Arne Westad ED - David Moss AB -

Archon Fung, Arne Westad, and David Moss

Democracy is often described in two opposite ways, as either wonderfully resilient or dangerously fragile. Curiously, both characterizations can be correct, depending on the context. When Democracy Breaks aims to deepen our understanding of what separates democratic resilience from democratic fragility by focusing on the latter. The volume’s collaborators—experts in the history and politics of the societies covered in their chapters—explore eleven episodes of democratic breakdown, ranging from ancient Athens to Weimar Germany to present-day Turkey, Russia, and Venezuela. Strikingly, in every case, various forms of democratic erosion long preceded the final democratic breakdown.  Although no single causal factor emerges as decisive, linking together all of the episodes, some important commonalities (including extreme political polarization, explicitly anti-democratic political actors, and significant political violence) stand out across the cases. Moreover, the notion of democratic culture, while admittedly difficult to define and even more difficult to measure, may play a role in all of them.

Throughout the volume, we see again and again that the written rules of democracy are insufficient to protect against tyranny. They are mere “parchment barriers,” as James Madison once put it, unless embedded within a strong culture of democracy, which itself embraces and gives life not only to the written rules themselves but to the essential democratic values that underlie them.

 

PB - Oxford University Press UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/when-democracy-breaks-studies-democratic-erosion-and-collapse-ancient-athens-present-day?admin_panel=1 ER - TY - Generic T1 - AGI and Democracy Y1 - 2024 A1 - Seth Lazar A1 - Alex Pascal AB -

Seth Lazar and Alex Pascal, March 2024 

If we are a long way short of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), why worry about it now?

Seth Lazar and Alex Pascal argue that the people building the most advanced AI systems are explicitly and aggressively working to bring AGI about, and they think they’ll get there in two to five years. Even some of the most publicly skeptical AI researchers don’t rule out AGI within this decade. If we, the affected public, do not actively shape this agenda now, we may miss the chance to do so at all. We face a fundamental question: is the very pursuit of AGI the kind of aim democracies should allow?

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/340307_ash_agi_pascal_v2_.pdf?m=1711656551 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Democracy as Approximation: A Primer for “AI forDemocracy” Innovators Y1 - 2024 A1 - Aviv Ovadya AB -

Aviv Ovadya, March 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Aviv Ovadya at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/oyada_iword_essay.pdf?m=1709741290 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Permission and Participation Y1 - 2024 A1 - Kathryn Peters AB -

Kathryn Peters, March 2024  

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Kathryn Peters at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/peters_iword_essay.pdf?m=1709741291 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Moving Beyond theParadigm of “Democracy”:12 Questions Y1 - 2024 A1 - Claudia Chwalisz AB -

Claudia Chwalisz, March 2024  

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Claudia Chwalisz at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/chwalisz_iword_essay.pdf?m=1709741292 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Privacy-Preserving Data Governance Y1 - 2024 A1 - Riley Wong AB -

Riley Wong, March 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Riley Wong at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/wong_iword_essay.pdf?m=1709741344 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Recommendations for Implementing Jail Voting: Identifying Common Themes Y1 - 2024 A1 - Christine Tran, HKS MPP ‘24 AB -

Christine Tran, February 2024

This guide is intended for advocates, organizers, and practitioners working across America to facilitate the voting process for eligible voters in jails. Presently, about 427,000 individuals held in local jails nationwide have not been convicted of a crime. As such, they are eligible to vote — but they often encounter a range of barriers.

As more and more legal scholars, policymakers, election officials, and advocates look to expand access to voting for jail-based populations, several of them have issued reports with recommendations and best practices. By synthesizing their various insights and proposals, we aim to provide an annotated list of all the recommendations from the reports and identify the most common ones. Organizations, practitioners, and advocates can use this guide as a centralized resource to view current best practices for jail-based voting as identified by their colleagues. While not exhaustive, this document offers a starting point for practitioners eager to engage in this work.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/jail_voting_recommendations_-_ash_center_-_2.20.24.pdf?m=1708452609 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Chinese Economy: Sectors and Prospects Y1 - 2024 A1 - Hao Chen AB -

Hao Chen, February 2024

The future of the Chinese economy has sparked extensive discussions in both academia and the policy community. Opinions among China specialists are varied; some believe the economy is in the midst of a severe cyclical downturn, while others maintain that a sharp decline is unlikely. There are also those who believe it is still too early to tell.

Indeed, China is experiencing a trend of economic slowdown. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China’s economy grew at a dazzling pace; the average growth rate of China’s gross domestic product from 2001 to 2012 was 10.25%. However, since Xi Jinping came up in spring 2013, the average annual growth rate has dropped to 6.22%, plummeting to only 3% in 2022. So, which sectors have been most affected by this economic slowdown? And what are the future prospects of the Chinese economy?

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/the_chinese_economy_sectors_and_prospects.pdf?m=1707748049 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Double-Edged Sword of Algorithmic Governance: Transparency at Stake Y1 - 2024 A1 - Niclas Boehmer AB -

Niclas Boehmer, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Niclas Boehmer at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/niclas_boehmer_essay.pdf?m=1707499110 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Can We Talk? An Argument for More Dialogues in Academia Y1 - 2024 A1 - Manon Revel AB -

Manon Revel, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Manon Revel at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/340160_hvd_ash_revel_v2.pdf?m=1708526083 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Ensuring We Have A Democracy in 2076 Y1 - 2024 A1 - Aditi Juneja AB -

Aditi Juneja, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Aditi Juneja at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/aditi_juneja_essay.pdf?m=1707498323 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Jail-Based Voting in the District of Columbia: A Case Study Y1 - 2024 A1 - Tova Wang AB -

Tova Wang, February 2024

While many people are aware of the restrictions formerly incarcerated individuals face in voting, few know about the challenges faced by another group of incarcerated citizens: people in pretrial detention and those incarcerated for misdemeanors. Despite having the right to vote, incarcerated persons often confront challenges in registering and/or voting while being held. In the last few years, organizers, election administrators, and corrections staff in a handful of jurisdictions have taken an innovative approach to address this problem, making the jail an early vote center and setting up a polling place right in the facility.

The District of Columbia is one of the first jurisdictions to do this, and their success with the program can inform the efforts of policymakers, election administrators, jail staff, and organizers to put similar programs in place and successfully implement them in other jurisdictions. This case study tells the story of Washington, D.C., through the eyes of those who have been directly involved. It presents the evolution of jail voting in the district, what it took to get it to happen, the logistics of its successful implementation, the challenges it has presented, and how different stakeholders in the process have made it work. It demonstrates that providing incarcerated people with a true opportu- nity to vote is not overly burdensome and is something they will enthusiastically participate in. Furthermore, it suggests that the voting experience may have positive impacts on the voters that could carry over into future elections.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/jail-based_voting_in_the_district_of_columbia_case_study_2.6.24.pdf?m=1707256195 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Resonance, Not Scalability Y1 - 2024 A1 - Nick Couldry AB -

Nick Couldry, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Nick Couldry at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/340126_hvd_ash_couldry_v2.pdf?m=1706896654 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Experimentocracy Y1 - 2024 A1 - Joe Evans AB -

Jon Evans, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Jon Evans at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/jon_evans_essay_v2.pdf?m=1706638830 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Democracy On, Not Just Around, the Internet Y1 - 2024 A1 - Nathan Schneider AB -

Nathan Schneider, February 2024 

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Nathan Schneider at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/nathan_schneider_essay_v2.pdf?m=1706638829 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Enrichment and Decay of Ionia Y1 - 2024 A1 - Eugene Fischer AB -

Eugene Fischer, February 2024

This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Eugene Fischer at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023. Convened with support from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the conference was intended to bring together a diverse set of thinkers and practitioners to talk about how democracy might be reimagined for the twenty-first century.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/fischer_essa7_v2.pdf?m=1706638830 ER - TY - Generic T1 - A Roadmap for Governing AI: Technology Governance and Power Sharing Liberalism Y1 - 2024 A1 - Danielle Allen A1 - Sarah Hubbard A1 - Woojin Lim A1 - Allison Stanger A1 - Shlomit Wagman A1 - Kinney Zalesne AB -

Danielle Allen, Sarah Hubbard, Woojin Lim, Allison Stanger, Shlomit Wagman, and Kinney Zalesne, January 2024

This paper aims to provide a roadmap to AI governance. In contrast to the reigning paradigms, we argue that AI governance should not be merely a reactive, punitive, status-quo-defending enterprise, but rather the expression of an expansive, proactive vision for technology—to advance human flourishing. Advancing human flourishing in turn requires democratic/political stability and economic empowerment. Our overarching point is that answering questions of how we should govern this emerging technology is a chance not merely to categorize and manage narrow risk but also to construe the risks and opportunities much more broadly, and to make correspondingly large investments in public goods, personnel, and democracy itself. To lay out this vision, we take four steps. First, we define some central concepts in the field, disambiguating between forms of technological harms and risks. Second, we review normative frameworks governing emerging technology that are currently in use around the globe. Third, we outline an alternative normative framework based in power-sharing liberalism. Fourth, we walk through a series of governance tasks that ought to be accomplished by any policy framework guided by our model of power-sharing liberalism. We follow these with proposals for implementation vehicles.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/340040_hks_ashgovroadmap_v2.pdf?m=1705501105 ER - TY - Generic T1 - “This Ancient Atrocity”: The Return of Child Labor in the United States: Why Now? What Should be Done? Y1 - 2023 A1 - David Weil AB -

David Weil, December 2023 

We tend to think of child labor in factories as a thing of the past. However, child labor in the US is surging with recent investigations and reporting finding violations in meat processing, automobile, packaged food and seafood manufacturing. In several cases, children as young as 14 have been exposed to chemicals, dangerous machinery and long hours (often working in the middle of the night). In this policy brief, David Weil examines the causes for this upsurge and connect it to the confluence of three forces: the presence of a large pool of unaccompanied minors in the US awaiting asylum decisions; labor shortages arising from the post-pandemic recovery; and the widescale use of “fissured” business models relying on contracted workforces in all of the recent cases. Given these causes, Weil reviews steps that can be taken under the federal law (the Fair Labor Standards Act) that regulates child labor as well as review potential revisions of that law to prevent future violations.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/331543_hvd_ash_child_labor_v3.pdf?m=1702928415 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Democracy and Authoritarianism in the 21st Century: A sketch Y1 - 2023 A1 - Grzegorz Ekiert AB -

Grzegorz Ekiert, December 2023  

In recent years significant academic attention has been devoted to the phenomenon of democratic backsliding characterized by assault on the rule of law, attempts to steal elections, and efforts to subjugate the judicial system and control free media. Yet, parallel political developments affecting hybrid and authoritarian regimes have by and large been neglected. This related process can be described as dictatorial drift and implies the transition from “soft” forms of authoritarian rule to hard core authoritarian policies characterized by the concentration of executive power, the destruction of political institutions such as fair elections, independent judiciary, free media, and autonomous civil society organizations, and worsening political repressions. This paper describes both democratic backsliding and authoritarian drift and argues that each are to a significant degree demand side phenomena: in countries undergoing such changes, significant parts of the electorates support anti-liberal and authoritarian policies. These two processes are illustrated by political developments in formerly communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/democracy_and_authoritarianism_in_the_21st_century-_a_sketch.pdf?m=1702585716 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Defending Democracy in an Age of Sharp Power Y1 - 2023 A1 - William J Dobson A1 - Tarek Masoud A1 - Christopher Walker AB -

 William J. Dobson, Tarek Masoud, and Christopher Walker; July 2023 

The world's dictators are no longer content with shoring up control over their own populations—they are now exploiting the openness of the free world to spread disinformation, sow discord, and suppress dissent. In Defending Democracy in an Age of Sharp Power, editors William J. Dobson, Tarek Masoud, and Christopher Walker bring together leading analysts to explain how the world's authoritarians are attempting to erode the pillars of democratic societies—and what we can do about it.

Popular media, entertainment industries, universities, the tech world, and even critical political institutions are being manipulated by dictators who advance their regimes' interests by weakening democracies from within. Autocrats' use of "sharp power" constitutes one of the gravest threats to liberal, representative government today. The optimistic, early twenty-first-century narrative of how globalization, the spread of the internet, and the rise of social media would lead to liberalization everywhere is now giving way to the realization that these same forces provide inroads to those wishing to snuff out democracy at the source. And while autocrats can do much to wall their societies off from democratic and liberal influences, free societies have not yet fully grasped how they can resist the threat of sharp power while preserving their fundamental openness and freedom.

Far from offering a counsel of despair, the international contributors in this collection identify the considerable resources that democracy provides for blunting sharp power's edge. With careful case studies of successful resistance efforts in such countries as Australia, the Czech Republic, and Taiwan, this book offers an urgent message for anyone concerned with the defense of democracy in the twenty-first century.

Contributors: Ketty W. Chen, Sarah Cook, William J. Dobson, John Fitzgerald, Martin Hála, Samantha Hoffman, Aynne Kokas, Edward Lucas, Tarek Masoud, Nadège Rolland, Ruslan Stefanov, Glenn Tiffert, Martin Vladimirov, Christopher Walker

PB - John Hopkins University Press UR - https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12791/defending-democracy-age-sharp-power ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Institutional Change and Adaptive Efficiency: A Study of China's Hukou System Evolution Y1 - 2023 A1 - Anthony Saich A1 - Kunling Zhang AB -

Tony Saich and Kunling Zhang, December 2023


Since the 1990s, neo-institutionalists have posited that "institutions matter". However, they overlook one important issue: the ways institutions change also matters. Numerous academic studies have identified "good" and "bad" institutions, but little has been written about effective methods of transforming "bad" institutions so that they enhance economic performance. To fill this gap, this book reframes the approach of neo-institutional economics to analyze institutions' role and evolution, focusing on the interaction between the household registration (hukou) system evolution and economic transformation.

The authors apply an endogenous and dynamic perspective. First, the theory of endogenous institutional change illustrates how the drivers of hukou system evolution differ in the pre-reform and reform eras. Second, the theory of adaptive efficiency evaluates the evolution of the system's institutional efficiency. Finally, the authors were able to test the impact of the hukou reform on urban economic growth by examining local experimentation, helping explain the current "stickiness" of the system.

At the heart of hukou reform lies the question of how to deal with the link between hukou and welfare provision. This book will offer policymakers a better understanding of institutional change in dynamic economic contexts, helping them enhance economic performance.

Read the introduction
PB - World Scientific CY - Singapore UR - https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13475#t=aboutBook ER - TY - Generic T1 - Mini-Public Selection: Ask What Randomness Can Do for You Y1 - 2023 A1 - Bailey Flanigan A1 - Paul Gölz A1 - Ariel Procaccia AB -

Bailey Flanigan, Paul Gölz, Ariel Procaccia, November 2023

Deliberative mini-publics convene a panel of randomly selected constituents to deeply engage with complex policy issues. This essay considers the process of selecting the members of this panel, with a particular focus on the central role of randomness in this process. Among other benefits, this random- ness confers legitimacy by affording all members of society some chance of participation. The main constraint placed on this selection process is representativeness—the requirement that the resulting panel accurately reflects the demographic and ideological makeup of the population. Within this constraint, there is a vast space of possible ways to randomly choose a panel, and each method spreads the random chance of selection differently across willing participants. In this essay, we explore approaches for inten- tionally designing this randomness to promote specific goals, such as increasing fairness, transparency, non-manipulability, and richness of representation in mini-publics.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/mini-public_selection_final_report.pdf?m=1699304332 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The 2023 Slomoff Lectureship Delivered by Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad Y1 - 2023 A1 - Khalil Gibran Muhammad AB -

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, October 2023 

Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad delivered the 2023 Slomoff Lectureship at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Professor Muhammad's remarks were focused on his forthcoming study examining global justice, truth-telling, and healing work.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/muhammad_umass_boston_lecture.pdf?m=1699451182 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Public-Private Partnerships in the Thailand Medical Tourism Industry Y1 - 2023 A1 - Gumporn Supasettaysa AB -

Gumporn Supasettaysa, September 2023 

Patients frequently travel across international borders to seek health care in Southeast Asia. This practice, known as medical tourism, has grown rapidly in Thailand in recent years. In this Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia policy brief, Gumporn Supasettaysa argues that to take the next step and continue to grow the medical tourism industry, Thailand must expand the partnership between the government and private hospitals to include airports, airlines, and logistics companies, fully supporting the patient journey and providing end-to-end care. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/331231_hvd_ash_thailand_medical_v2.pdf?m=1696359866 ER - TY - Generic T1 - An Aspirational Path for American Conservatism Y1 - 2023 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Ryan Streeter AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Ryan Streeter, September 2023

In this working paper, Stephen Goldsmith and Ryan Streeter argue that the Republican Party is philosophically adrift, and it has been for a while. This is not only bad for the Party’s political future but bad for the country and its democracy by depriving voters of meaningful choice in ideas, they argue. The United States’ socioeconomic progress over the past 250 years, however uneven, can be attributed to the interplay of competing ideas on how to achieve progress. Central to the competition is how we understand individual rights and responsibilities, fairness and justice, and the definition of progress itself. When our political parties lose their ability to articulate governing principles and resort instead to defining themselves as the opposite of their enemies, the competition of ideas stagnates—and so does the condition of the country.

Goldsmith and Streeter describe an alternative ideological path, aspirational conservatism, which is populist in spirit while rejecting the view that American institutions no longer offer upward mobility for ordinary individuals. It is pro-opportunity for grassroots doers and makers, such as shop owners, small-scale entrepreneurs, and new business owners with aspirations to grow. It is pro-worker in its focus on boosting wages by modernizing training, increasing access to the fastest-growing sectors for skilled work, and removing job barriers that have accrued over time. Additionally, it strikes a healthy balance by upholding the character and values inherent in American institutions and celebrating the diverse viewpoints and lifestyles that share those core values.

The authors make the case for conservative governance that is respectful of its citizens, supportive of America’s underlying values, mindful that significant challenges remain, and aware that good politics and good policy require an effective government that helps individuals achieve their aspirations.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/9.15.23_goldsmith_and_streeter_aspirational_conservatism_policy_brief.pdf?m=1694781885 ER - TY - Generic T1 - China’s Most Generous: Examining Trends in Contemporary Chinese Philanthropy (2020 Update) Y1 - 2023 A1 - Edward Cunningham A1 - Yunxin Li AB -

Edward Cunningham and Yunxin Li, August 2023

This report on elite philanthropy presents the latest findings from the Harvard Kennedy School Rajawali Foundation Institute’s China Philanthropy Project and provides insight into current trends among China’s major donors and recipients.

The China Philanthropy Project research team reviewed reports and articles covering over 7,000 foundations, over 1,200 charitable organizations, and nearly 3,000 universities in China. Throughout this process, they collected data on more than 17,000 donations made in 2020, accounting for 44 percent of China’s total estimated national giving. In the report, they then focus on the nearly 6,000 donations valued over RMB 1 million (USD $0.14 million), resulting in over 4,000 unique donors analyzed.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/331036_hks_policy_brief_china_philanthropy_v4.pdf?m=1692281789 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Vietnam: Navigating a Rapidly Changing Economy, Society, and Political Order Y1 - 2023 ED - Dwight Perkins ED - Borje Ljunggren AB -

Börje Ljunggren and Dwight Perkins, June 2023 

In the late 1980s, most of the world still associated Vietnam with resistance and war, hardship, refugees, and a mismanaged planned economy. During the 1990s, by contrast, major countries began to see Vietnam as both a potential partner and a strategically significant actor—particularly in the competition between the United States and an emerging China—and international investors began to see Vietnam as a land of opportunity.

Vietnam remains a Leninist party-state ruled by the Communist Party of Vietnam that has reconciled the supposedly irreconcilable: a one-party system and a market-based economy linked to global value chains. For the Party stability is crucial and, recently, increasing economic openness has been combined with growing political control and repression.

This book, undertaken by scholars from Vietnam, North America, and Europe, focuses on how the country’s governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and relations with the outside world, as well as on the reforms required if Vietnam is to become a sustainable and modern high-income nation in the coming decades.

Despite the challenges, including systemic ones, the authors remain optimistic about Vietnam’s future, noting the evident vitality of a determined society.

Read the introduction 
PB - Harvard University Press CY - Cambridge UR - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674291348 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Civic Engagement in Somerville: Joe Curtatone’s Story of How Community Activism Powered a Remarkable Urban Renaissance Y1 - 2023 A1 - Curtatone, Joseph A1 - Tolve, Andrew AB -

Joseph Curtatone and Andrew Tolve, April 2023

Under the leadership of Mayor Joe Curtatone, Somerville, Massachusetts achieved one of the most remarkable stories of urban transformation in recent American history. Once derided by Bostonians as “Slumerville” due to its broken transportation system and high levels of poverty, crime, and corruption, Somerville is now a thriving city. It has new metro lines, vibrant neighborhoods, a diverse population, and innovative zoning and housing initiatives. Coupled with its newfound hipster credentials, it’s earned a reputation as the Brooklyn of Boston. None of this would have been possible without Somerville’s bold and innovative approach to civic engagement.

In this case study, the former mayor of Somerville, Joe Curtatone, reflects on his 18 years in office and illuminates the many ways in which civic engagement enabled Somerville’s renaissance. The mayor offers intimate, behind-the-scenes accounts of the Assembly Square development, Green Line extension, and Shape Up Somerville program, which helped inspire Michelle Obama’s nationwide “Let’s Move!” campaign. Curtatone is a self-described innovation junky, who thrived on taking risks and implementing participatory policies that made his administration as transparent and inclusive as possible. The case details breakthrough programs in civic engagement, including ResiStat, SomerVision, and SomerViva, while also acknowledging setbacks and the resulting improvements.

“There is no blueprint for civic engagement,” says Curtatone, “but hopefully by sharing the principles and practices that Somerville implemented, other leaders can learn how to improve civic engagement in their own communities.”
 
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/5.10.23_330601_hks_policy_civic_engagement.pdf?m=1683742097 ER - TY - Generic T1 - China's Most Generous: Examining Trends in Contemporary Chinese Philanthropy (2019 Update) Y1 - 2023 A1 - Edward Cunningham A1 - Yunxin Li AB -

Edward Cunningham and Yunxin Li, March 2023  

This annual report highlights leading results from the most recent data analysis of the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center’s China Philanthropy Project. Our team gathered 2019 data on over 20,000 donations from 7,166 foundations, 1,220 charitable organizations, and 2,597 universities in China. To focus on elite giving, we further refined our analysis to 4,434 donations of over RMB 1 million (US$0.14 million), given by 4,070 unique donors. The resulting report on top individual, corporate, and organizational philanthropy provides an important view into current trends among China’s major donors and recipients.

In 2019, elite Chinese giving:

  1. was dominated by large organizations (most commonly corporations) rather than individuals,
  2. supported in large part central government policy priorities in the areas of education and poverty alleviation, and
  3. remained fairly local in scope.
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2019_final_report35.pdf?m=1681917385 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Antiracist Institutional Change in Healthcare Y1 - 2023 A1 - Khalil Gibran Muhammad A1 - Angel Rodriguez AB -

Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Angel Rodriguez, March 2023

COVID-19 and the 2020 wave of racial justice demonstrations in the United States moved many healthcare organizations to enact antiracist change goals. Yet, many of these commitments lacked effective strategies and accountability mechanisms.

IARA conducted a one-year study of existing antiracist interventions in healthcare organizations and a review of authoritative evidence for institutional accountability.

Key Findings:

IARA’s pioneering case studies indicate five key organizational levers necessary to close racial disparities in healthcare outcomes and produce long-term sustainable institutional transformation:

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/330395_hks_policy_brief_antiracism_web.pdf?m=1680201352 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend them Back Y1 - 2023 A1 - Bruce Schneier AB -

Bruce Schneier, February 2023 

It’s not just computers—hacking is everywhere.

Legendary cybersecurity expert and New York Times best-selling author Bruce Schneier reveals how using a hacker’s mindset can change how you think about your life and the world.

A hack is any means of subverting a system’s rules in unintended ways. The tax code isn’t computer code, but a series of complex formulas. It has vulnerabilities; we call them “loopholes.” We call exploits “tax avoidance strategies.” And there is an entire industry of “black hat” hackers intent on finding exploitable loopholes in the tax code. We call them accountants and tax attorneys.

In A Hacker’s Mind, Bruce Schneier takes hacking out of the world of computing and uses it to analyze the systems that underpin our society: from tax laws to financial markets to politics. He reveals an array of powerful actors whose hacks bend our economic, political, and legal systems to their advantage, at the expense of everyone else.

Once you learn how to notice hacks, you’ll start seeing them everywhere—and you’ll never look at the world the same way again. Almost all systems have loopholes, and this is by design. Because if you can take advantage of them, the rules no longer apply to you.

Unchecked, these hacks threaten to upend our financial markets, weaken our democracy, and even affect the way we think. And when artificial intelligence starts thinking like a hacker—at inhuman speed and scale—the results could be catastrophic.

But for those who would don the “white hat,” we can understand the hacking mindset and rebuild our economic, political, and legal systems to counter those who would exploit our society. And we can harness artificial intelligence to improve existing systems, predict and defend against hacks, and realize a more equitable world.

PB - W. W. Norton CY - New York, New York UR - https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393866667 ER - TY - HEAR T1 - American Indian Self-Determination Through Self-Governance: The Only Policy That Has Ever Worked Y1 - 2022 A1 - Joseph P. Kalt AB -

In testimony before the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children on December 15, 2022, Joseph Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Emeritus testified about the importance that American Indian self-determination has played in helping spark a remarkable period of economic growth across a broad swath of Indian Country.

Kalt, who serves as the co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School delivered a detailed set of findings outlining how the expansion of the responsibilities and capacities of tribal governments have resulted in a remarkable period of economic growth over the past thirty years. “The onset of tribal self-determination through self-government in the late 1980s ushered in the only policy that has ever worked to improve economic and social conditions in Indian Country,” said Kalt in his remarks before the commission.

 

JF - The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/native_children_commission_hearing_12-15-22_kalt_statement_vfin2.pdf?m=1671056068 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Economic and Social Impacts of Restrictions on the Applicability of Federal Indian Policies to the Wabanaki Nations in Maine Y1 - 2022 A1 - Amy Besaw Medford A1 - Joseph Kalt A1 - Jonathan B. Taylor AB -

Joseph Kalt, Amy Besaw Medford, and Jonathan B. Taylor, December 2022 

For at least the last several decades, federal Indian policy in the US has supported tribal self-determination through tribal self-government. The results have been (1) remarkable economic growth across most of Indian Country, and (2) concomitant expansions of the responsibilities and capacities of tribal governments. Hundreds of tribes across the other Lower 48 states now routinely serve their citizens with the full array of governmental functions and services that we expect from non-Indian state and local governments in the US, and increasing numbers of tribes are the economic engines of their regions.

[[{"fid":1156096,"view_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"height":"365","width":"463","style":"float: left;","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]Unique to Maine, the federal Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 (MICSA) empowers the state government to block the applicability of federal Indian policy in Maine. As a result, the development of the Wabanaki Nations’ economies and governmental capacities have been stunted. Today, all four of the tribes in Maine—Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot—are stark economic underperformers relative to the other tribes in the Lower 48 states.

The subjugation of the Wabanaki Nation’s self-governing capacities is blocking economic development to the detriment of both tribal and nontribal citizens, alike. For the tribal citizens of Maine held down by MICSA’s restrictions, loosening or removing those restrictions offers them little in the way of downside risks and much in the way of upside payoffs.

Importantly, we find in this study that “nowhere to go but up” also applies to the Maine state government and Maine’s non-tribal citizens. From case after case, the pattern that has emerged under federal policies of tribal self-determination through self-government is one in which tribal economic development spills over positively into neighboring non-tribal communities and improves the abilities of state and local governments to serve their citizens. As is the case with any neighboring governments, conflicts can arise between tribal and non-tribal governments. The overall experience outside of Maine in this regard has been that increasingly capable tribal governments improve state-tribal relations by enabling both parties to come to the table with mature capacities to cooperate. Against these upside prospects is a status quo in which all sides leave economic opportunities on the table and ongoing cycles of intergovernmental conflict, litigation, recrimination, and mistrust continue.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/wabanaki_report_vfin_for_dist_2022-12-09.pdf?m=1670635016 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The World’s Best-Kept Financial Inclusion Secret Revealed: The Untold Success Story of BRI Microbanking Since 1895 Y1 - 2022 A1 - Rosengard, Jay K. AB -

Jay Rosengard, November 2022 

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Indonesia People’s Bank, has been the most successful promoter of financial inclusion in Indonesia since the country declared independence in 1945. 

BRI’s first major financial inclusion initiative was the 1970 creation of a nationwide network of BRI “unit desas,” or village units, for channeling Bimas (Mass Guidance) agricultural credit. The primary objective of Bimas was to promote national self-sufficiency by bringing the Green Revolution to Indonesia. However, by the 1983–84 planting season, successful rice farmers no longer needed Bimas support, leaving only marginal and failing farmers in the program.

BRI thus began its microbanking metamorphosis and rebirth with painful adjustment and slow adaptation, subsequently laying the foundation for dramatic growth and rapid expansion. Three principal policy changes turned unit desas from marginally useful, extremely costly entities that had outlived their initial mission into profitable rural banks providing vital financial services: 1) transformation of unit desas from Bimas conduits to full-service rural banks; 2) internal treatment of unit desas as semi autonomous units of account (discrete profit/loss centers); and 3) evaluation of unit desas based primarily on their profitability rather than on hectares covered or money lent. BRI has built on its successful commercialization of microbanking in the mid-1980s to grow, broaden, and deepen its microbanking business over the past three decades. 

BRI faces two significant future challenges if it is to remain a profitable and effective global leader and national driver of financial inclusion. First, it must continue to evolve and adapt amidst an increasingly difficult political and economic environment. This is indeed a formidable challenge but one BRI has successfully met since Indonesia declared independence in 1945. However, the second challenge facing BRI is even more daunting. While continuing to navigate the treacherous waters of well-intentioned but counterproductive national policies that threaten to undermine past accomplishments in financial inclusion, BRI must also manage a transition back to sustainable, market-based microbanking.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/bri_microbanking_paper.pdf?m=1668782556 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Considerations for Federal and State Landback Y1 - 2022 A1 - Miriam Jorgensen A1 - Laura Taylor AB -

Miriam Jorgensen and Laura Taylor, October 2022 

This policy brief showcases how geographic information system (GIS) techniques can be used to identify public and/or protected land in relation to current and historic reservation boundaries, and presents maps showcasing the scope of landback opportunities.

These lands include federal- or state-owned or managed land within current external reservation boundaries; within former reservation boundaries; near or abutting current reservation land; and protected areas designated for conservation management (which can include land held in fee).

The sentiment to give all U.S. national park landback to the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples is gaining momentum. These areas indeed may provide a cohesive set of initial opportunities towards that aim, and can lean on management or co-management agreements in strategic areas that present win-win solutions for both public agencies and American Indian nations in expanding their footprint.

While historically the laws that diminished reservations were intended to create opportunities for private ownership and settlement by non-Indigenous people, it is in fact the case that, 140 years later, six federal agencies currently manage approximately one-third the land that had been within former reservation boundaries.

A quarter of land just outside of present-day reservation boundaries (within a 10-mile buffer) is managed by one of six federal agencies, largely made up of the Bureau of Land Management (11%) and the Forest Service (11%).

Identifying where these parcels are, especially in relation to current or former reservation land, is a powerful first step for tribes and government agencies to begin to develop strategies for landback. Making this information more accessible will help streamline the process.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/land_back_policy_brief180.pdf?m=1666224970 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - In Praise of Skepticism: Trust but Verify Y1 - 2022 A1 - Pippa Norris AB -

Pippa Norris, September 2022 

A culture of trust is usually claimed to have many public benefits--by lubricating markets, managing organizations, legitimating governments, and facilitating collective action. Any signs of its decline are, and should be, a matter of serious concern. Yet, In Praise of Skepticism recognizes that trust has two faces. Confidence in anti-vax theories has weakened herd immunity. Faith in Q-Anon conspiracy theories triggered insurrection. Disasters flow from gullible beliefs in fake Covid-19 cures, Madoff pyramid schemes, Russian claims of Ukrainian Nazis, and the Big Lie denying President Biden's legitimate election.

Trustworthiness involves an informal social contract by which principals authorize agents to act on their behalf in the expectation that they will fulfill their responsibilities with competency, integrity, and impartiality, despite conditions of risk and uncertainty. Skeptical judgments reflect reasonably accurate and informed predictions about agents' future actions based on their past performance and guardrails deterring dishonesty, mendacity, and corruption. We should trust but verify. Unfortunately, assessments are commonly flawed. Both cynical beliefs (underestimating performance) and credulous faith (over-estimating performance) involve erroneous judgements reflecting cultural biases, poor cognitive skills, and information echo chambers. These conclusions draw on new evidence from the European Values Survey/World Values Survey conducted among over 650,000 respondents in more than 100 societies over four decades.

In Praise of Skepticism warns that an excess of credulous trust poses serious and hitherto unrecognized risks in a world full of seductive demagogues playing on our insecurities, lying swindlers exploiting our greed, and silver-tongued conspiracy theorists manipulating our darkest fears.

PB - Oxford University Press. UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-praise-of-skepticism-9780197530115?cc=us&lang=en& ER - TY - Generic T1 - What to Expect from the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Y1 - 2022 A1 - Anthony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, September 2022

On October 16, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will convene its 20th Party Congress. Held every five years, the Congress is a critical event. While nothing is seriously debated there, the symbolic function of the Congress is extremely important. It summarizes past achievements and sets out future objectives, all while displaying an outward power and unity. The Congress brings together just over 3,000 delegates from the provinces, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and some central agencies for about a week to approve the report of the General Secretary, amendments to the party statutes, and any other documents placed before them. In theory, this sets in motion the appointment of a new leadership by electing candidates to the Central Committee (around 200 members and 150 alternates). In reality, the Congress approves the slate proposed by the outgoing Political Bureau (Politburo) and senior leader- ship. In turn, the Central Committee elects members of the Politburo, its Standing Committee, and the Secretariat, again based on lists provided after the Party leadership has finished haggling.

This Congress will be special, as General Secretary Xi Jinping seeks a third term as political leader (either as general secretary or party chairman), confirms his place and ideas even more concretely within the party statutes, and seeks to appoint a leadership cohort drawn from his associates. Below, I provide my best guesstimates on his chances of reappointment, the leadership structure, and indications for future policy trends.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/what_to_expect_from_the_10th_congress_of_the_chinese_community_party_9.22.22.pdf?m=1663873014 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Democracy in Hard Places Y1 - 2022 A1 - Scott Mainwaring A1 - Tarek Masoud AB -

Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud, August 2022 

The last fifteen years have witnessed a "democratic recession." Democracies previously thought to be well-established--Hungary, Poland, Brazil, and even the United States--have been threatened by the rise of ultra-nationalist and populist leaders who pay lip-service to the will of the people while daily undermining the freedom and pluralism that are the foundations of democratic governance. The possibility of democratic collapse where we least expected it has added new urgency to the age-old inquiry into how democracy, once attained, can be made to last.

In Democracy in Hard Places, Scott Mainwaring and Tarek Masoud bring together a distinguished cast of contributors to illustrate how democracies around the world continue to survive even in an age of democratic decline. Collectively, they argue that we can learn much from democratic survivals that were just as unexpected as the democratic erosions that have occurred in some corners of the developed world. Just as social scientists long believed that well-established, Western, educated, industrialized, and rich democracies were immortal, so too did they assign little chance of democracy to countries that lacked these characteristics. And yet, in defiance of decades of social science wisdom, many countries that were bereft of these hypothesized enabling conditions for democracy not only achieved it, but maintained it year after year. How does democracy persist in countries that are ethnically heterogenous, wracked by economic crisis, and plagued by state weakness? What is the secret of democratic longevity in hard places?

This book--the first to date to systematically examine the survival persistence of unlikely democracies--presents nine case studies in which democracy emerged and survived against the odds. Adopting a comparative, cross-regional perspective, the authors derive lessons about what makes democracy stick despite tumult and crisis, economic underdevelopment, ethnolinguistic fragmentation, and chronic institutional weakness. By bringing these cases into dialogue with each other, Mainwaring and Masoud derive powerful theoretical lessons for how democracy can be built and maintained in places where dominant social science theories would cause us to least expect it.

PB - Oxford University Press UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-in-hard-places-9780197598757?cc=us&lang=en&# ER - TY - Generic T1 - Ensuring All Votes Count: Reducing Rejected Ballots Y1 - 2022 A1 - Jose Altamirano A1 - Tova Wang AB -

Executive Summary

This brief studies trends in mail ballot rejection rates in 2020 compared to previous years and how different factors, including sets of policies and policy changes, the political environment, and voter outreach, may have contributed to these changes in an extraordinary election year. Our main findings include:

  • Mail ballot rejection rates decreased in most states in 2020 compared to 2018, and a number of states saw a consistent drop from 2016 to 2018 to 2020.
  • Certain states that adapted their voting laws to make mail voting more accessible in 2020, particularly in the South, saw especially pronounced changes in rejection rates.
  • In North Carolina, rejection rates vary from county to county. Previous studies of other states’ rejection rates found similar trends.
  • States that implemented mail ballot policies, including ballot curing, increased ease of access when returning mail ballots at boards of elections, early voting sites, drop boxes, and ballot tracking, saw lower rejection rates than those that didn’t, though we caution against assuming a causal relationship.
  • Previous academic and advocacy research suggests that voters of color, young voters, and first-time voters are disproportionately more likely to have their mail ballots rejected.

We highlight these trends and suggest further areas of study that researchers, advocates, organizers, and policymakers can explore to better understand how voters casting their ballots by mail can ensure their votes are counted.

Download the PDF

 

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Strengthening Models of Civic Engagement: Community-Informed Approaches to Inclusive and Equitable Decision-Making Y1 - 2022 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman A1 - Mark Schmitt AB -

Archon Fung, Hollie Russon Gilman, and Mark Schmitt; July 2022

For too long the federal policymaking process has been mysterious and inaccessible to everyone but the most sophisticated, elite stakeholders. Not only has this made the policymaking process exclusive to long-standing players with connections and resources, but it has also made it extremely difficult for most Americans, especially those from underrepresented communities, to be engaged in authentic ways with federal agencies and institutions.

The costs of such exclusion are evident: Federal policies created and implemented without meaningful input from local leaders and residents are less efficient, less effective, and more likely to perpetuate the very systems of injustice they are often designed to disrupt or reverse. In contrast, inclusive engagement demonstrably increases the efficacy and legitimacy of federal policy, triggering a virtuous cycle of feedback and trust between government and the people.

When the Biden-Harris administration took office, one of their very first acts was to issue an executive order to advance equity and racial justice throughout federal agencies and institutions. This was quickly followed by orders intended to transform the experience of interacting with government, modernize the federal regulatory process, and strengthen tribal consultations and nation-to-nation relationships. Together, these efforts push the executive branch to improve equity and racial justice through more inclusive policy processes.

UR - https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/strengthening-models-of-civic-engagement/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reflecting on a Year of Promises: A Conference Assessing Organizational Antiracism Journeys Y1 - 2022 AB -

The annual Truth and Transformation Conference is convened by Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and hosted by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability (IARA) Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center. This is the third installment of the conference, which began in 2019 and was established to focus on drivers of antiracist change in private, public, and academic institutions.

During this free virtual conference, the IARA team invited fellow advocates, organizers, scholars, students, and community members to engage in challenging and thoughtful conversations centered around the 2021 theme “Reflecting on A Year of Promises.”

This year’s event focused on examining the prior year of institutional promises and publicly stated intentions to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the United States and globally in the wake of the “George Floyd” moment in American history. This year our organizers asked; Did organizations keep their promises? What more work is there to be done to follow through on these public commitments?

The conference was organized in four parts around the question; How does historical reflection and reckoning move the public conversation and lead to policy and institutional change?

In the opening Institute of Politics Forum, Professor Muhammad was joined by a leading scholar and practitioner, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Heather McGhee, to discuss ways to understand and measure change at this moment. The opening panel situated the conference and theme in a historical and con- temporary context that served as a reminder that the history and politics of racism must be viewed in tandem as mechanisms to measure change.

Three additional panels featured leaders in academia and professional practice in discussion on transformative change beyond performative statements into actionable, institutional shifts. The first panel examined the validity of an economic argument for improving diversity and brought insights to the discussion from bankers, economists, and philanthropic directors. The second panel emphasized the importance of board membership as a conduit for enacting or inhibiting organizational change in relation to equity and inclusion. The final panel challenged the notion of risk as a measuring tool for organizational change and offered alternative perspectives on ways to identify and value humanity in the work across industries.

The conference and its proceedings serve to remind us that if we are truthful about racism in our politics and policy making, then we must accept that it has a cost for all of us.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2021_t_and_t_proceedings_paper.pdf?m=1655151956 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Taiwan: A Risk Analysis Through the Lens of Hong Kong Y1 - 2022 A1 - Dennis W. H. Kwok A1 - Johnny Patterson AB -

Dennis W.H. Kwok and Johnny Patterson, May 2022

This paper aims to provide an overall risk analysis of the Taiwan Strait situation by using Hong Kong’s experience over the past three decades as a point of comparison. The authors focus on three areas where those watching Taiwan can learn from Hong Kong. Since Deng Xiaopeng’s rule, Hong Kong and Taiwan have been inextricably intertwined, with China intending to reunify both territories using the “one country, two systems” formula. There are, of course, fundamental differences between the situations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. But there are also many similarities from which one can draw useful lessons. In the past three decades, Hong Kong tried to preserve its liberal democratic values whilst coexisting under an authoritarian regime. Hong Kong’s experience proved that a liberal democratic society cannot survive alongside an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime. Taiwan essentially faces the same dilemma.

Hong Kong offers four key insights: First, Hong Kong provides a window through which to understand the modus operandi of Xi Jinping’s CCP. Political priorities trump all others —while CCP actions make sense within the system, they may confuse outsiders. Ultimately, Xi’s words should be taken literally and seriously. Second, the failure of the “one country, two systems” formula and Hong Kong’s collapse should not be lost on Taiwan. The so-called “United Front” tactics and the political polarization that occurred in Hong Kong are being emulated in Taiwan, with the Kuomintang’s (KMT’s) platform feeling increasingly untenable and anachronistic, especially in light of Hong Kong’s experience. Third, the infiltration of Mainland capital into Hong Kong over the past two decades has changed the underlying structure of Hong Kong as a business and financial center. The effect of ‘red’ capital made local Hong Kong and international business voices irrelevant. The authors saw their ability to influence and thereby moderate government policies waned over the years—leading to disastrous consequences for Hong Kong. Finally, Hong Kong has changed the geopolitical landscape in ways that have profound ramifications for Taiwan and how the international community perceives the CCP. The CCP openly walked back on an international treaty registered with the United Nations. The response of the international community and businesses reveals important lessons about the West’s vulnerabilities to this kind of geopolitical shock should the situation over the Taiwan Strait worsen.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/taiwan_risk_analysis.pdf?m=1651073106 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Best Practices for the Governance of Digital Public Goods Y1 - 2022 A1 - David Eaves A1 - Leonie Bolte A1 - Omayra Chuquihuara A1 - Surabhi Hodigere AB -

David Eaves, Leonie Bolte, Omayra Chuquihuara, and Surabhi Hodigere, April 2022

“Digital government” is becoming simply “government.” As a result, an ever-increasing number of systems and processes critical to the operation of government—the core infrastructure of a state—are being digitized. This necessity creates enormous opportunities—to enhance, scale, and even standardize government services—and challenges—including a risk that building out this new infrastructure will impose costs that will reinforce global inequities.

In this light, it is no surprise that Digital Public Goods (DPGs)—an institutionalized sharing of “open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content” between government and other actors—are an increasingly discussed model. This presents an opportunity to share the burden of modernizing the core infrastructure of a state.

Inspired by the open-source movement, not only are DPGs non-rivalrous, but sharing them across jurisdictions could lower costs, speed adoption, and create standards to facilitate cooperation and trade. However, the joint management of any resource by sovereign entities—particularly of key infrastructure for the maintenance of public goods and services offered by the state—carries with it significant questions of governance.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/best_practices_for_the_governance_of_digital_public_goods.pdf?m=1650463335 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The 2021 Digital Services Convening Y1 - 2022 A1 - David Eaves A1 - Sechi Kailasa AB -

David Eaves and Sechi Kailasa, March 2022

This year’s convening marked the fourth Digital Services Convening jointly organized by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Public Digital, a disruptive digital trans- formation consultancy. The event has been described by a Cambridge University study as one of six seminal digital government conferences across the globe. The importance of having a space where digital government practitioners can learn, share, and discuss their experiences is only growing, as more and more governments are grappling with transformation efforts and the subsequent issues that such efforts give rise to.

Many digital service teams had made significant gains during the pandemic and were awarded more authority, remit, and funding. COVID-19 had also affected governments’ risk appetites across the world, leading to more experimentation and iteration. This has not always led to successful outcomes; in some cases, it might not be appropriate to bypass processes or use a magic wand as a lever. However, this general shift has meant that the entrenched ways of working and the prevailing speed of bureaucracy were challenged. It remains an open question as to whether all the gains made during the pandemic can or should be retained.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/digital_services_convening_2021.pdf?m=1648569262 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Growing Fairly: How to Build Opportunity and Equity in Workforce Development Y1 - 2022 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Kate Markin Coleman AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Kate Markin Coleman, February 2022  

The labor market in the United States faces seemingly contradictory challenges: Many employers have trouble finding qualified applicants for current and future jobs, while millions of Americans are out of work or are underemployed—their paths to living-wage jobs blocked by systemic barriers or lack of adequate skills.

Growing Fairly offers workforce development reforms that meet the needs of both workers and employers. Based on the experiences of hundreds of leaders and workers, the authors set out ten principles for designing a more effective and equitable system that helps workers obtain the skills necessary for economic mobility.

The principles outlined in the book argue for a more comprehensive view of the skilling needs of current and prospective workers. They spell out the attributes of effective programs and make the case for skill-based hiring, widely distributed performance data, and collaboration. The book emphasizes the importance of local action to overcome the structural barriers that challenge even the most determined would-be learners. Growing Fairly shows cross sector leaders how to work across organizational boundaries to change the trajectory of individuals struggling to make a living wage.

This is not a book of untested theories. Instead, it is written by practitioners for practitioners. Much of it is told through the voices of those who run programs and people who have taken advantage of them. While the issues the book addresses are profound, its take on the subject is optimistic.

Between them, the authors have spent decades searching out and supporting effective practices. Even more critically, they have learned how to knit competing agencies and organizations into cohesive systems with coordinated missions. Their practical ideas will benefit a wide range of readers, from practitioners in the field to students and scholars of the American labor system.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/growing-fairly/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, State of Ohio: Innovations in American Government Award Case Study Y1 - 2022 A1 - Colleen Crispino AB -

Colleen Crispino, January 2022 

Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD), Ohio’s Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency, is responsible for providing employment-related services to eligible individuals in Ohio to help them achieve their employment goals. Their program model, designed to improve employment outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities, addresses some of the barriers that exist for these populations. Since 2013, their Business Relations team has partnered with more than 500 employers statewide to match skilled candidates to available jobs. As part of this service, OOD provides no-cost solutions for employers, including improved worksite accessibility and accommodations and training on disability etiquette and awareness. These strategies have resulted in increased hiring of VR participants by employer partners.3

As part of their innovative service system, OOD partners with large employers in the Columbus area to embed Ohio State VR staff in each employer’s human resources department to quickly match qualified candidates with disabilities to open positions. OOD first tested this approach with one major employer in 2017, leading to the hiring of 60 individuals with disabilities in the first three years. They later expanded the program to include an additional major employer, in a different industry, with similarly positive results.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/opportunities_for_ohioans_with_disabilities_iag_case_study.pdf?m=1641571583 ER - TY - Generic T1 - BenePhilly, City of Philadelphia: Innovations in American Government Award Case Study Y1 - 2022 A1 - Betsy Gardner AB -

Betsy Gardner, January 2022 

The American social safety net exists to meet needs for: unemployment assistance, supplemental money for food, help with health care costs and medical expenses, and more. However, the process of signing up for these services is often time-consuming, confusing, repetitive, and frustrating.

To address these challenges, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Benefits Data Trust (BDT) developed BenePhilly, in partnership with the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Departments of Aging and Human Services, to inform people of their eligibility for benefits and assist them in quickly and efficiently enrolling. This paper is a case study of the BenePhilly program and will serve as a guide to replicate its success. By using proven, data-driven methods, the program connects high-need, eligible individuals with up to 19 different benefits, all while reducing overall poverty, providing a better application experience, and increasing trust in local government.

BenePhilly is a network of government agencies, nonprofits, and community-based organizations connecting Philadelphians to benefits through targeted, data-driven outreach, referrals from a network of organizations, and in-person and telephone application assistance. The trained staff at both BDT and the nonprofit organizations embedded in the communities they serve help individuals easily find and enroll in benefits. According to BDT’s Chief Strategy Officer Pauline Abernathy, BenePhilly has helped more than 125,000 Philadelphia residents secure over $1.6 billion in benefits as of January 2021.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/benephilly_iag_case_study_1.26.22.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Pathways to Economic Advancement, Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Innovations in American Government Award Case Study Y1 - 2022 A1 - Jeanne Batalova AB -

Jeanne Batalova, January 2022 

Adult English learners (ELs) are as likely to find jobs in the U.S. labor market as those who speak English fluently. There are significant differences, however, when it comes to salary, job quality, and professional opportunities. Today, more than 240,000 working-age adults are in need of English-language services in Greater Boston, with most seeking to improve their English fluency to find a job or get pro- moted. Despite this need, only 11,600 adults receive English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services each year. As a result, adult ELs are often limited in their ability to contribute to local and state economies in terms of taxes and consumer spending.

Developed by Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) in Boston, the Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement (Pathways) program started with a fundamental question: Given the high unmet demand for vocational and workplace English, how do we effectively scale up a proven workforce-oriented model of teaching adults English for employment. Through its four program tracks and an innovating fund- ing model (Pay for Success), Pathways offers a continuum of work-related ESOL services coupled with individualized job coaching and job placement.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/pathways_to_economic_advancement_iag_case_study.pdf?m=1641570673 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, City University of New York: Innovations in American Government Award Case Study Y1 - 2022 A1 - Philip Jordan AB -

Philip Jordan, January 2022 

Social and economic mobility are at historic lows in America, while entrenched racial inequality cotinues to erect barriers. Research suggests that education is critically important to enable economic mobility, particularly for the lowest-income populations, which are most frequently served by the patch- work of community colleges across the US.

While progress in expanding access and enrollment at community colleges over the past 20 years is significant, the rate of degree completion has generally not improved. Systemic barriers, including financial, social, and academic, persist. Three-year completion rates for associate degrees are very low, and there is a significant achievement gap for racial and ethnic minorities. Eliminating barriers to success is not easy and the community colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY) have not been immune to these challenges. However, while many programs attempt to overcome these obstacles, few have demonstrated verifiable success and none more so than CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP).

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/311850_hks_policy_brief_asap_v2.pdf?m=1641569133 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Designing for Community Engagement: Toward More Equitable Civic Participation in the Federal Regulatory Process Y1 - 2021 A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Mark Schmitt AB -

Archon Fung, Hollie Russon Gilman, and Mark Schmitt; December 2021 

To understand the advantages of and challenges to a reformed regulatory review process, New America’s Political Reform program and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government convened a group of local community engagement experts, public sector leaders, and on-the-ground organizers to share their expertise in designing processes that support more inclusive engagement, in particular working with historically underserved communities.

During this discussion with local community engagement experts, we sought to identify the process designs and other innovations that would empower residents to exercise meaningful influence over decisions about the formation, review, and implementation of regulations. Our discussion focused on extending community engagement processes to give grassroots groups and affected parties a voice in the federal regulatory process.

These experts agreed that when engagement is designed intentionally, policymakers can work with communities more effectively to garner information and insights, implement programs or provide services, and build trusting relationships. Furthermore, while participation in and of itself is important, designing more effective engagement can also ensure that participants identify and harness opportunities to protect their interests and influence decision-making. And, most importantly, transparent and inclusive engagement practices can improve policy outcomes and strengthen equity.

UR - https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/designing-for-community-engagement/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Assessing the U.S. Treasury Department’s Allocations of Funding for Tribal Governments under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 Y1 - 2021 A1 - Eric C. Henson A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen A1 - Joseph P. Kalt A1 - Isabelle G. Leonaitis AB -

Eric C. Henson, Miriam R. Jorgensen, Joseph P. Kalt, & Isabelle G. Leonaitis; November 2021  

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“the Act” or “ARPA”) has resulted in the single largest infusion of federal funding for Native America in U.S. history. The core of this funding is $20 billion for the more than 570 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments. As required by the Act, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury” or “the Department”) devised and has now implemented a formula for allocating these monies. In this report, the authors find that the allocations that have been made are grossly inequitable and contrary to the policy objectives of Congress, the Biden Administration, and the Treasury Department itself.

 

This study uses publicly available information to estimate enrollment and employment counts for tribes. These figures are only estimates created for the express purpose of analyzing the appropriateness of the US Department of the Treasury’s American Rescue Plan Act allocations. Our estimates have not and cannot be verified against actual enrollment or employment data submitted to the Department of Treasury by each tribe.  We believe the estimates are as accurate as possible and reliable for the purpose of assessing the relative positions of tribes under Treasury’s ARPA allocations, but should not be extracted and used as accurate for any individual tribe or for any purpose other than how they are used here.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/assessing_the_u.s._treasury_departments_allocations_of_funding_for_tribal_governments.pdf?m=1635972521 ER - TY - HEAR T1 - Testimony in Support of H 788, An Act Making Voting Obligatory and Increasing Turnout in Elections Y1 - 2021 A1 - Miles Rapoport AB -

Testimony in Support of H 788, An Act Making Voting Obligatory and Increasing Turnout in Elections given to the Joint Committee on Election Laws by Miles Rapoport, Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, October 20, 2021.

View a Recording of the Testimony 

The testimony begins at the 17:43 minute mark. 

JF - Joint Committee on Election Laws, General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/testimony_in_support_of_massachusetts_h_788._october_20_2021_final49.pdf?m=1634869133 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Democratizing the Federal Regulatory Process: A Blueprint to Strengthen Equity, Dignity, and Civic Engagement through Executive Branch Action Y1 - 2021 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman A1 - Mark Schmitt AB -

Archon Fung, Hollie Russon Gilman, and Mark Schmitt; September 2021 

While legislation tends to get more attention, the regulatory process within the executive branch is at the core of day-to-day democratic governance. Federal regulation and rule-making engages dozens of agencies and affects every American. In writing the rules and regulations to implement laws, revise standards, and exercise the substantial authority granted to the presidency, the agencies of the federal government set directions, priorities, and boundaries for our collective life. At times, the regulatory process has moved the country in the direction of greater justice, equality, and security. At other times, it has pulled us in other directions, often with little public engagement or debate.

The Biden-Harris administration acknowledged the centrality of the regulatory process with two actions on the President’s first day in office. The first called for modernizing the regulatory review process, particularly the central oversight role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The second was an executive order calling on the federal government to support underserved communities and advance racial equity. To understand the challenges to and advantages of a reformed regulatory review process, New America’s Political Reform Program and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government convened a group of academic experts from across the country to share their findings on the state of regulatory review and to identify alternative measures of not just the cost of regulations, but also the distributional impact of their costs and benefits. These experts specialize in administrative law, economic analysis, public participation, and regulatory review, and their work covers policy areas including patent law, healthcare, and environmental justice.

UR - https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/reports/democratizing-the-federal-regulatory-process/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Understanding the Role of Local Election Officials: How Local Autonomy Shapes U.S. Election Administration Y1 - 2021 A1 - Hannah Furstenberg-Beckman A1 - Greg Degen A1 - Tova Wang AB -

Hannah Furstenberg-Beckman, Greg Degen, and Tova Wang; September 2021 

This policy brief will examine the independence and discretionary powers of local election officials and offer a framework to better understand local autonomy in our electoral system. It will also describe the larger system within which the local election official operates and demonstrate how local power and voter-focused decision-making varies across the country. The brief will use illustrative examples of the exercise of autonomy by local election officials from past elections as well as examples of shifts in local discretionary powers from the recent wave of state legislative efforts that seek to restrict autonomy.

It will also address the implications of local autonomy for those with an interest in increasing voter access and promoting voter participation. This brief can be a resource for those seeking a better understanding of the possible levers of change in their own state or locality’s electoral system.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/role_of_local_election_officials.pdf?m=1632410559 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Toward a Smarter Future: Building Back Better with Intelligent Civil Infrastructure -- Smart Sensors and Self-Monitoring Civil Works Y1 - 2021 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Betsy Gardner A1 - Jill Jamieson AB -

Stephen Goldsmith, Betsy Gardner, and Jill Jamieson; September 2021 

 

The United States needs to build better infrastructure. The current repairs and replacements are disorganized and patchwork, resulting in unsafe, costly, and inequitable roads, bridges, dams, sidewalks, and water systems. A strategic, smart infrastructure plan that integrates digital technology, sensors, and data not only addresses these issues but can mitigate risks and even improve the conditions and structures that shape our daily lives.

 

By applying data analysis to intelligent infrastructure, which integrates digital technology and smart sensors, we can identify issues with the country’s roadways, buildings, and bridges before they become acute dangers. First, by identifying infrastructure weaknesses, smart infrastructure systems can address decades of deferred maintenance, a practice that has left many structures in perilous conditions. Sensors in pavement, bridges, vehicles, and sewer systems can target where these problems exist, allowing governments to allocate funding toward the neediest projects.

From there, these sensors and other smart technologies will alert leaders to changes or issues before they pose a danger—and often before a human inspector can even see them. The many infrastructure emergencies in the U.S. cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year, so identifying and fixing these issues is a pressing security issue. Further, as the changing climate leads to more extreme weather and natural disasters, the safety and resiliency of the country’s infrastructure is an immediate concern. Sensor systems and other intelligent infrastructure technology can identify and mitigate these problems, saving money and lives.

In addition, intelligent infrastructure can be layered onto existing infrastructure to address public health concerns, like monitoring sewer water for COVID-19 and other pathogens or installing smart sensors along dangerous interstates to automatically lower speed limits and reduce accidents. It can also be used to improve materials, like concrete, to reduce the carbon footprint of a project, ultimately contributing to better health and environmental outcomes.

Finally, addressing inequities is a major reason to utilize intelligent infrastructure. Research shows that people of color in the U.S. are exposed to more pollutants, toxic chemicals, and physical danger through excess car emissions, aging water pipes, and poor road conditions. The implementation and funding of these intelligent infrastructure projects must consider where—and to whom—harm has traditionally been done and how building back better can measurably improve the quality of life in marginalized and vulnerable communities.

While there are challenges to implementing a sweeping intelligent infrastructure plan, including upfront costs and security concerns, all levels of government play a role in achieving a safer society. At the federal level, with infrastructure funding bills being debated at this moment, the government must look beyond roads and bridges and consider that intelligent infrastructure is a system: upheld, connected, and integrated by data. Through grants, incentives, and authorized funding, the federal government can effect monumental change that will improve how all residents experience their daily lives. At the state level, budgeting with intelligent infrastructure in mind will encourage innovative approaches to local infrastructure. And on a municipal level, cities and towns can invest in comprehensive asset management systems and training for local workers to best utilize the intelligent infrastructure data.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/311026_hks_policy_brief_infrastructure_v2.pdf?m=1629215995 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Emerging Stronger than Before: Guidelines for the Federal Role in American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes’ Recovery from the COVID‐19 Pandemic Y1 - 2021 A1 - Eric C. Henson A1 - Megan M. Hill A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen A1 - Joseph P. Kalt AB -

The COVID‐19 pandemic has wrought havoc in Indian Country. While the American people as a whole have borne extreme pain and suffering, and the transition back to “normal” will be drawn out and difficult, the First Peoples of America arguably have suffered the most severe and most negative consequences of all. The highest rates of positive COVID‐19 cases have been found among American Indian tribes, but that is only part of the story.

Even before the pandemic, the average household income for Native Americans living on Indian reservations was barely half the U.S. average. Then the pandemic effectively shut down the economies of many tribal nations. In the process, tribal governments’ primary sources of the funding – which are needed to fight the pandemic and to meet citizens’ needs – have been decimated.

As with the rest of the U.S., emergency and interim support from the CARES Act and other federal measures have helped to dampen the social and economic harm of the COVID‐19 crisis in Indian Country. Yet this assistance has come to the country’s 574 federally recognized Indian tribes with litigation‐driven delay and counterproductive strings attached, and against a pre‐ pandemic background characterized by federal government underfunding and neglect – especially as compared to the funding provided and attention paid to state and local governments.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/policy_brief_4-federal_policy_24july2020_final_for_dist.pdf?m=1595612546 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Federal COVID‐19 Response Funding for Tribal Governments: Lessons from the CARES Act Y1 - 2021 A1 - Eric C. Henson A1 - Megan M. Hill A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen A1 - Joseph P. Kalt AB -

The federal response to the COVID19 pandemic has played out in varied ways over the past several months. For Native nations, the CARES Act (i.e., the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) has been the most prominent component of this response to date. Title V of the Act earmarked $8 billion for tribes and was allocated in two rounds, with many disbursements taking place in May and June of this year.

This federal response has been critical for many tribes because of the lower socioeconomic starting points for their community members as compared to nonIndians. Even before the pandemic, the average income of a reservationresident Native American household was barely half that of the average U.S. household. Low average incomes, chronically high unemployment rates, and dilapidated or nonexistent infrastructure are persistent challenges for tribal communities and tribal leaders. Layering extremely high coronavirus incidence rates (and the effective closure of many tribal nations’ entire economies2) on top of these already challenging circumstances presented tribal governments with a host of new concerns. In other words, at the same time tribal governments’ primary resources were decimated (i.e., the earnings of tribal governmental gaming and nongaming enterprises dried up), the demands on tribes increased. They needed these resources to fight the pandemic and to continue to meet the needs of tribal citizens.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/policy_brief_5-cares_act_lessons_24july2020_final_for_dist.pdf?m=1595612547 ER - TY - Generic T1 - 2020 Public Narrative Impact Survey Overview Report Y1 - 2021 A1 - Emilia Aiello A1 - Marshall Ganz AB -

Emilia Aiello and Marshall Ganz, July 2021

This report describes the results of the 2020 Public Narrative Impact Survey administered to individuals who learned public narrative in classrooms and in workshops between 2006 and 2020. Individual responses to the survey items provide data that will inform efforts to learn how public narrative is being used in different domains of usage (workplace, constituency groups, and campaigns; and within the private sphere, in interpersonal relationships such as family and friends), areas of societal action (e.g., advocacy/organizing in education, health, politics), and cultural and geographical contexts as well.

The 2020 Public Narrative Impact Survey is part of the research project Narratives4Change led by Dr. Emilia Aiello, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 841355. As part of this larger project, two research questions guided the survey. First, how is public narrative being used by individuals as a leadership practice within different domains of usage (e.g., workplace, constituency groups, campaigns, and within the private domain including family and friends)? Second, what impact does use public narrative have as reported by “users” at the individual, community, societal, and institutional level?

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/public_narrative_impact_survey.pdf?m=1626714440 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Risks for International Business under the Hong Kong National Security Law Y1 - 2021 A1 - Dennis W. H. Kwok A1 - Elizabeth Donkervoort AB -

Dennis W. H. Kwok and Elizabeth Donkervoort, July 2021 

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1997. The National People’s Congress promulgation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong National Security Law, HK NSL) on June 30, 2020, has a substantial impact on Hong Kong’s constitutional structure known as “One Country, Two Systems.” Enshrined under the Basic Law (Hong Kong’s constitution under the Sino British Joint Declaration), One Country, Two Systems guaranteed that Hong Kong would exercise a high degree of autonomy—with its own political, economic, and legal systems—based on the rule of law. The HK NSL has been in operation for one year. This article analyzes the impact of the HK NSL on Hong Kong’s legal system and, in particular, its civil law jurisprudence. The article also explores the new legal risks and challenges international businesses face when dealing with PRC businesses or matters impinging on national security in mergers and acquisitions, commercial transactions, and civil disputes. These issues will be examined against the current geopolitical landscape and rising tensions between the PRC and other nations.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/the_risks_for_international_business_under_the_hong_kong_national_security_law_7.7.21.pdf?m=1626968393 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party Y1 - 2021 A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, July 2021 

Mao Zedong and the twelve other young men who founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 could hardly have imagined that less than thirty years later they would be rulers. On its hundredth anniversary, the party remains in command, leading a nation primed for global dominance.

Tony Saich tells the authoritative, comprehensive story of the Chinese Communist Party—its rise to power against incredible odds, its struggle to consolidate rule and overcome self-inflicted disasters, and its thriving amid other communist parties’ collapse. Saich argues that the brutal Japanese invasion in the 1930s actually helped the party. As the Communists retreated into the countryside, they established themselves as the populist, grassroots alternative to the Nationalists, gaining the support they would need to triumph in the civil war. Once in power, however, the Communists faced the difficult task of learning how to rule. Saich examines the devastating economic consequences of Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the political chaos of the Cultural Revolution, as well as the party’s rebound under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms.

Leninist systems are thought to be rigid, yet the Chinese Communist Party has proved adaptable. From Rebel to Ruler shows that the party owes its endurance to its flexibility. But is it nimble enough to realize Xi Jinping’s “China Dream”? Challenges are multiplying, as the growing middle class makes new demands on the state and the ideological retreat from communism draws the party further from its revolutionary roots. The legacy of the party may be secure, but its future is anything but guaranteed.

PB - Harvard University Press CY - Cambridge UR - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674988118 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Chinese Population Implosion: An Unparalleled Demographic Challenge with Global Consequences Y1 - 2021 A1 - Borje Ljunggren AB -

Borje Ljunggren, June 2021 

In late May, the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that couples would be allowed to have three children. As late as 2015, CCP finally gave up its draconic one-child policy, in force since 1979, for a two-child policy, but the number of births soon kept falling. In spite of the two-child policy the fertility rate has in the last few years actually fallen to just 1.3, well below 2.1 births per woman, the level required to maintain a stable population.

The Party is experiencing the recoil effect of its biopolitics. At the turn of the century, China’s population, according to UN World Population Prospects (2019) medium variant, will have fallen to just over 1 billion. The population in 55 countries is expected to decrease during the next few decades, but no other country, with the exception of Iran, has undergone such a rapid and compressed demographic transformation as China, with a rapidly aging population and a diminishing labor supply. The causes are deep-rooted, beyond just launching a three-child policy. The one-child policy also had a tragic impact on the nation’s gender ratio, resulting in an extreme predominance in birth rates for boys and tens of millions of “missing women.” Technological developments with robots and AI will dramatically reduce the effects of China’s declining supply of labor but is seems clear is that the country is facing unique demographic challenges, with global consequences. The shadow that China is casting is growing in complexity!

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/310791_hks_policy_brief_china_pop.pdf? ER - TY - Generic T1 - Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Immigration Are Needed for the Middle Class Y1 - 2021 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, June 2021 

The US population aged 20–65, according to US Census projections, will grow by 355,000 a year this decade, and of that number, only 225,000 new entrants a year will likely be working and increasing the labor force. Yet, even after prepandemic employment is reached later this year or early in 2022, labor demand will continue to grow by millions of jobs far more than will be supplied by new entrants. If immigration policy and automation adjustments are not enough to make up for the deficit, there will be shortages and inflation, forcing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and perhaps cause a recession. Such a recession hurts middle- and working-class families. 

The US has indicated it wishes to compete with China. China has already formed a large trade bloc in Asia, and the obvious alternative—the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—was negotiated by the US but was never even put up for approval, lacking support from politicians on both sides of the aisle. Given all this, it is worth asking: is the TPP actually bad for labor and the middle class?

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/310666_hks_policy_brief_dapice_v2.pdf?m=1623072734 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Risk Mitigation and Creating Social Impact: Chinese Technology Companies in the United States JF - Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Y1 - 2021 A1 - Wenchi Yu AB -

Wenchi Yu, April 2021

Chinese technology companies have become a topic of interest to not only the business and investor communities but also increasingly the national security and intelligence communities. Their scale and level of innovation present new possibilities and new competition as well as shape global trends. Yet the relationship of such companies to the Chinese government is often opaque. As a result, their growing integration into the global telecommunications system also casts doubt on their intentions and legitimacy.

This paper reviews key US policy developments under the Trump administration, both broadly toward China and more narrowly relating to trade and technology, and examines the business strategy of four Chinese technology companies operating in the United States. It outlines the benefits of a corporate risk mitigation approach that incorporates social impact creation as an integral part of business and nonmarket strategy for Chinese technology companies, in the United States, and elsewhere. However, this paper also argues that corporate actions can only go so far. Because technology necessarily involves concerns of national security, the role of government—and government cooperation—is essential. It is only through a combination of more locally engaged corporate actions and internationally agreed upon sectoral rules and standard settings that we will be better able to improve transparency and trust-building across borders.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/wenchi_yu_policy_brief.pdf?m=1618407028 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Public Narrative and Its Use in the Stand Up with the Teachers Campaign in Jordan (QMM) Y1 - 2021 A1 - Emilia Aiello AB -

Emilia Aiello, April 2021

This report presents and discusses the main findings of the case study on the “Stand up with the teachers’ campaign” supported by the organization Ahel in Jordan, carried out in the framework of the Narratives4Change research project.

This case study is part of the research project Narratives4Change led by Dr. Emilia Aiello, and which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 841355. This is a 36-month research investigation consisting in two main phases: data collection and analysis in an outgoing phase (outside of Europe), and implementation of results in a return phase (in Europe). This way, the first 24 months of the project (outgoing phase) have been carried out at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), and the last 12 months (return phase) will take place in Europe, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB, Barcelona, Spain).

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/public_narrative_and_its_use_in_the_stand_up_with_the_teachers_campaign_in_jordan_qmm.pdf?m=1618326468 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Chinese Regional Planning Under Xi Jinping: The Politics and Policy Implications of the Greater Bay Area Initiative Y1 - 2021 A1 - Jason Wu AB -

Jason Jia-Xi Wu, April 2021

This paper seeks to explain the logic of Chinese regional planning pertaining to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (粤港澳大湾区 , hereafter GBA) and the challenges it entails for spatial development. Three questions guide the inquiry of this research: First, what are the institutional underpinnings of the GBA initiative, and how is the path dependency of regional integration in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) unique compared to that in China’s other coastal macroregions? Second, how does Beijing’s changing strategy toward Hong Kong inform the costs and limits of the GBA initiative, and what are their policy implications for the future development of the PRD? Third, why is regional planning uniquely favored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) central leadership, and what does this tell us about the changing policy parameters that govern center-local relations in China?

This paper argues that the GBA initiative is an overly ambitious plan with very few policy instruments and little regulatory flexibility. It contends that the tensions between the GBA’s intended goals and the means of policy implementation are jointly resulted by three factors:

  1. Beijing’s emerging inclination toward using regional planning as an instrument to police center-local relations and cement its national security interests rather than using it as a mere instrument of economic governance.
  2. The declining room for policy experimentation at the local level, which reduces the state’s responsiveness to local demands and capacity to learn from mistakes.
  3. The historical and strategic importance of the Pearl River Delta to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which causes Beijing to prioritize the political interests of PRD integration much more than its pursuit for regional development in China’s other macroregions.

These changes are reflective of a broader paradigm shift in Beijing’s regional developmental strategies, under the climate of power centralization in the Xi Jinping era (2012–present). Finally, this paper demonstrates that such changes in the CCP’s regional planning in relation to the GBA initiative will engender both the decline of adaptive governance and premature deindustrialization.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/310331_hks_occasional_regional_planning_v3.pdf?m=1618237363 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Brokering Collaboration: Involving Officials in Community Scorecard Programs Y1 - 2021 A1 - Stephen Kosack A1 - Jessica Creighton A1 - Courtney Tolmie A1 - Fatu Conteh A1 - Eric Englin A1 - Linda Gassama A1 - Hannah Hilligoss A1 - Takondwa Iman A1 - Mitchris Chapman Kodam A1 - Agnes Lahai A1 - James Rasaiah A1 - Emmanuel Sapalado A1 - J. Preston Whitt A1 - James Quophy Wumenu A1 - Archon Fung AB -

Transparency for Development Team, April 2021 

Programs to improve the transparency and accountability of public services are an increasing focus of international commitments to sustainable development. We ask whether involving officials in one common approach—community scorecard programs—brokers state-society collaboration that improves public services. We compare two scorecard programs focused on improving maternal and newborn health care that were offered in 215 communities similarly stratified across five countries. The first program, offered in 200 communities in Indonesia and Tanzania, involved facilitated meetings among community members. A similar program in 15 communities in Ghana, Malawi, and Sierra Leone involved facilitated meetings among community participants as well as between community members and hereditary authorities (in Malawi) or district-level elected and appointed officials (in Ghana and Sierra Leone). Interviews, focus groups, and systematic observations consistently suggest that in the program in Malawi, participants took similar approaches to improving their health care to participants in Indonesia and Tanzania—focusing primarily on improving care themselves and with health-care providers and others in their communities—and that the results of their efforts were similar to the program in Indonesia and Tanzania, where a randomized controlled impact evaluation found that average community outcomes did not improve significantly faster than in a control group of communities. In both Ghana and Sierra Leone, participants collaborated more with officials and saw tangible changes to health care that they and others noticed and remembered in nearly twice the proportion of communities as in the program in Indonesia and Tanzania. We conclude that involving officials in these programs may increase their effectiveness.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/310285_hks_occasional_brokering_v2.pdf?m=1617816614 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Recommendations for Allocation and Administration of American Rescue Plan Act Funding for American Indian Tribal Governments Y1 - 2021 A1 - Eric Henson A1 - Megan Hill A1 - Miriam Jorgenson A1 - Joseph Kalt AB -

Eric C. Henson, Megan Hill, Miriam R. Jorgensen, and Joseph P. Kalt; April 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provides the largest infusion of federal funding for Indian Country in the history of the United States. More than $32 billion dollars is directed toward assisting American Indian nations and communities as they work to end and recover from the devastating COVID19 pandemic – which was made worse in Indian Country precisely because such funding is long overdue.

In this policy brief, we set out recommendations which we hope will promote the wise and productive allocation of ARPA funds to the nation’s 574 federally recognized American Indian tribes. We see ARPA as a potential “Marshall Plan” for the revitalization of Indian nations. The Act holds the promise of materially remedying at least some of the gross, documented, and long-standing underfunding of federal obligations and responsibilities in Indian Country. Yet, fulfilling that promise requires that the federal government expeditiously and wisely allocate ARPA funds to tribes, and that tribes efficiently and effectively deploy those funds to maximize their positive impacts on tribal communities.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/policy_brief_6_-_arpa_04-09-21_vfin_dist.pdf?m=1618001727 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Transparency for Development: Project Results and Implications Y1 - 2021 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Jean Arkedis A1 - Jessica Creighton A1 - Steve Kosack A1 - Dan Levy A1 - Courtney Tolmie AB -

Transparency for Development, January 2021 

The Transparency for Development Project was a novel, decade-long research initiative, housed at the Ash Center and executed in partnership with Results for Development. The Project investigated whether, why, and in what contexts local transparency and accountability interventions improve development outcomes, such as those around health and citizen participation. Specifically, T4D worked with local civil society partners in Tanzania, Indonesia, Ghana, Malawi, and Sierra Leone to implement transparency and accountability interventions along with mixed-methods evaluation, leveraging quantitative (randomized controlled trial) and qualitative (including ethnography, observations, and key informant interviews) data collection. 

The project team, led by Principal Investigators Archon Fung, Jean Arkedis, Jessica Creighton, Steve Kosack, Dan Levy, and Courtney Tolmie. 

This report contains the Project's results and implications. 

 

PB - Transparency For Development UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/t4d_consolidated_findings_2021_01_v2.pdf?m=1610036153 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Judicial Tug of War Y1 - 2020 A1 - Maya Sen A1 - Adam Bonica AB -

Maya Sen and Adam Bonica, Cambridge University Press, December 2020 

Why have conservatives decried 'activist judges'? And why have liberals - and America's powerful legal establishment - emphasized qualifications and experience over ideology? This transformative text tackles these questions with a new framework for thinking about the nation's courts, 'the judicial tug of war', which not only explains current political clashes over America's courts, but also powerfully predicts the composition of courts moving forward. As the text demonstrates through novel quantitative analyses, a greater ideological rift between politicians and legal elites leads politicians to adopt measures that put ideology and politics front and center - for example, judicial elections. On the other hand, ideological closeness between politicians and the legal establishment leads legal elites to have significant influence on the selection of judges. Ultimately, the judicial tug of war makes one point clear: for good or bad, politics are critical to how judges are selected and whose interests they ultimately represent.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/judicial-tug-of-war/668C79835CDA6839FB21303F10D98C23 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America Y1 - 2020 A1 - Yanilda María González AB -

Yanilda María González, Cambridge University Press, November 2020 

In countries around the world, from the United States to the Philippines to Chile, police forces are at the center of social unrest and debates about democracy and rule of law. This book examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book opens up the 'black box' of police bureaucracies to show how police forces exert power and cultivate relationships with politicians, as well as how social inequality impedes change. González shows that authoritarian policing persists not in spite of democracy but in part because of democratic processes and public demand. When societal preferences over the distribution of security and coercion are fragmented along existing social cleavages, politicians possess few incentives to enact reform.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/latin-american-government-politics-and-policy/authoritarian-police-democracy-contested-security-latin-america?format=PB ER - TY - Generic T1 - 2020 State of Digital Transformation Y1 - 2020 A1 - David Eaves A1 - Lauren Lombardo AB -

David Eaves, Lauren Lombardo, February 2021 

Starting in 2018, every year, the State of Digital Transformation report documents the main lessons from a Digital Services Convening hosted at Harvard Kennedy School. In 2020, Harvard Kennedy School and Public Digital hosted a series of discussions on the coronavirus digital response. These gatherings, which included a wide range of digital service groups, highlighted success stories, lessons learned, and tools that digital teams could leverage or repurpose. 

This year's report highlights some of the new possibilities discussed at the convening and provides further reflections on crisis response. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2020-state-digital-transformation.pdf?m=1613751911 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Deploying the Once-Only Policy: A Privacy-Enhancing Guide for Policymakers and Civil Society Actors Y1 - 2020 A1 - Naeha Rashid AB -

Naeha Rashid, November 2020 

The once-only policy (OOP) is increasingly seen by some digital government experts as central to establishing a national digital government strategy and as a gateway to next-generation government services. Once-only is so called because users (citizens, residents, and businesses) have to provide diverse data only one time when in contact with public administrations; after the initial data transfer, different parts of government can internally share and reuse this data to create public value and better service for users. 

Members of the digital government community are excited by the potential of OOPs to create public value and reduce the cost of government, and I want to help governments harness this potential. I am also deeply concerned by the potential for OOPs to concentrate and increase state power and the negative impact this could have on individuals’ privacy, freedoms, and capacity to dissent. 

The goal is to harness the benefits of OOP while minimizing the risks, to create a world in which the power of the state is counterbalanced by the power of its citizenry. This document outlines the key policy questions and concerns that must be addressed by governments intending to implement an OOP. It is designed to help stakeholders—including policymakers in government and interested parties in civil society—ask key questions during the development of OOP-facilitating infrastructure, specifically identity- and data-sharing mechanisms, and the development of OOP strategy. 

This document is not to intended to encourage or prescribe a specific pathway of development, but to consolidate and present a compendium of the key considerations at each stage. This work is based on an extensive literature review across the areas of privacy, identification, data sharing, and OOP; interviews with experts in the field; and mini case studies highlighting different lessons of implementation from five countries—the Netherlands, Estonia, the UK, Canada, and Australia—with diverse approaches and at very different stages of OOP maturity. 

Read the full report

Read the Deploying the Once-Only Policy Supplement

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Getting Value from Workforce Stimulus Investments: What Works in Youth Workforce Programs and How to Grow the Evidence Base Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, November 2020 

The current economic crisis will likely inspire federal investment in training for unemployed and underemployed Americans. When funds are made available for youth workforce development, transparent reporting and publication of results data should be required. User-friendly reports should be created that enable unemployed and underemployed Americans to see which training providers achieve the best results, much as the current College Scorecard helps youth and their families evaluate colleges. This will benefit program recipients, the taxpayer, and society at large. Evidence about what works for youth workforce development is still in an early stage of maturity, so upcoming investments present an opportunity to advance the state of knowledge. With this data and insight, future investments can continue to fund effective programs and ineffective ones can be discontinued.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/getting-value-workforce-stimulus-investments1.pdf?m=1605219108 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The 2020 Election Season and Aftermath: Preparation in Higher Education Communities Y1 - 2020 A1 - Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - Judith B. McLaughlin AB -

Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, Arnold M. Howitt, and Judith B. McLaughlin; October 2020 

There is widespread uncertainty and heightened anxiety on higher education campuses and elsewhere about what might happen during the 2020 election season in the United States. At every turn, we see elevated emotions and anxieties generated by the election process and related events, together with the potential for disruption of various kinds in the election process itself – before, during, and/or after the end of voting on November 3. This is compounded by the possibility of uncertainty, perhaps over many days or even weeks, about who has won various contests and about who will take office.

A wide range of scenarios related to the election process and possible election outcomes have been described in mainstream media, in social media, and in other forums. Given the considerable (and, generally speaking, desirable) involvement and energy invested in these events within higher education communities among faculty, staff, students, and alumni, a number of these scenarios might well result in situations on campuses, in higher education communities, or in the surrounding communities where they reside that would call for institutional response. Many campus leaders and management groups are now thinking through what might be necessary or desirable and figuring out what they might usefully do in advance to prepare to provide the best response possible. Obviously, the difficulties of planning for the many possible circumstances that might confront us are compounded by the fact that all of this is taking place during an ongoing (and, indeed, now intensifying) pandemic accompanied by calls for racial justice and police reform. In this brief note, we suggest some ideas that might be helpful for higher education communities organizing themselves in the face of these uncertainties.

UR - https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/files/Preparing_Higher_Ed_2020Election_20201018.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Disrupting the Party: A Case Study of Ahora Madrid and Its Participatory Innovations Y1 - 2020 A1 - Quinton Mayne A1 - Cecilia Nicolini AB -

Quinton Mayne and Cecilia Nicolini, September 2020 

In this paper, Quinton Mayne and Cecilia Nicolini examine the rise of Ahora Madrid, a progressive electoral alliance that—to the surprise of onlookers—managed to gain political control, just a few months after being formed, of the Spanish capital following the 2015 municipal elections. Headed by the unassuming figure of Manuela Carmena, a former judge, Ahora Madrid won voters over with a bold agenda that reimagined the relationship between citizens and city hall. Mayne and Nicolini’s analysis is a case study of this innovation agenda. The paper begins by exploring how Ahora Madrid’s agenda emerged as a response to, and built off of, historic levels of political disaffection and mass mobilization spurred by the 2008–2014 Spanish financial crisis. The authors examine how the alliance’s agenda of democratic disruption was realized, first through an unusual bottom-up electoral campaign and then, after taking office, by challenging and rethinking established relations between public officials, civil society, and city residents.  

Mayne and Nicolini show that while Ahora Madrid’s time in power was not without its challenges, it still successfully implemented a set of far-reaching democratic reforms centered on institutional innovation. This included the creation of an internationally recognized online civic engagement platform, the establishment of neighborhood forums, and the implementation of a €100 million participatory budgeting process. Although Ahora Madrid lost the 2019 elections and the city swung back to the right, a number of its reforms, explored by Mayne and Nicolini in the case study’s conclusion, live on in an altered form, serving as a reminder of the alliance’s original bold vision for the city. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/disrupting_the_party-_a_case_study_of_ahora_madrid.pdf?m=1600178950 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Disciplining of a Society: Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China Y1 - 2020 A1 - Thomas Heberer AB -

Thomas Heberer, August 2020

In this paper, we specifically focus on the social disciplining process in China since 2012, i.e., in the Xi Jinping era, although we also briefly touch upon historical aspects of disciplining (Confucianism, Legalism, New Life Movement” in the 1930s political campaigns in the Mao era, etc.). The approach adopted in this paper is to conduct an analysis of the disciplining/civilizing top-down project of the state.
 
We argue that the function of the current Chinese state as a disciplining and civilizing entity is the connecting link tying policies such as the state’s morality policies, its anti-corruption drive or the so-called “social credit system” together under a specific governance logic: to discipline and civilize society in order to prepare the people to become modernized. In fact, modernization and modernity encompass not only a process of economic and political-administrative modernizing but concurrently one related to the organization of society in general and the disciplining of this society and its individuals to create people with “modernized” minds in particular.
 
Our principal research questions in this paper are twofold: (1) How should disciplining and civilizing processes in general and in contemporary China in particular be understood? (2) What kind of policies and tools does the Chinese state use to pursue and implement its disciplining objectives?
 
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/disciplining_of_a_society_social_disciplining_and_civilizing_processes_in_contemporary_china.pdf?m=1598377158 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Lynching and Local Justice: Legitimacy and Accountability in Weak States Y1 - 2020 A1 - Dara Kay Cohen A1 - Danielle F. Jung AB -

Dara Kay Cohen and Danielle F. Jung, Cambridge University Press, September 2020 

What are the social and political consequences of poor state governance and low state legitimacy? Under what conditions does lynching – lethal, extralegal group violence to punish offenses to the community – become an acceptable practice? We argue lynching emerges when neither the state nor its challengers have a monopoly over legitimate authority. When authority is contested or ambiguous, mass punishment for transgressions can emerge that is public, brutal, and requires broad participation. Using new cross-national data, we demonstrate lynching is a persistent problem in dozens of countries over the last four decades. Drawing on original survey and interview data from Haiti and South Africa, we show how lynching emerges and becomes accepted. Specifically, support for lynching most likely occurs in one of three conditions: when states fail to provide governance, when non-state actors provide social services, or when neighbors must rely on self-help.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/political-economy-of-legitimacy-and-accountability-in-weak-states/EA1E70D633DFCDD744DFBA66A7723A0A ER - TY - Generic T1 - A Turbulent Decade: The Changes in Chinese Popular Attitudes toward Democracy Y1 - 2020 A1 - Yinxian Zhang AB -

Yinxian Zhang, August 2020 

In light of the increasingly aggressive policies and rhetoric of the Chinese government, many came to believe that China may pose a severe threat to democracy and the international order. However, less attention has been paid to Chinese popular attitudes toward democracy and authoritarianism. How does the Chinese public think of democracy in the changing domestic and international environment?

 

This paper uses a novel data set of Chinese social media posts generated between 2009 and 2017 and investigates the changes in popular attitudes toward democracy in the past decade. Results show that online discussion around democracy has decreased and voices questioning democracy have become pronounced since 2013. While tightened state control is a critical factor shaping popular attitudes, this paper demonstrates that people’s increasing exposure to two types of foreign information has also played into this trend. These information lead to a perception of dissatisfying performance of other countries and an awareness of racial attitudes of the West. Lastly, increasing doubts about democracy are not necessarily translated into a strong authoritarian legitimacy. Instead, online discussion presents a sense of ambivalence toward the two models, and the Chinese regime has continued to face a predicament of legitimacy.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/a_turbulent_decade_8.19.20.pdf?m=1597840989 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Analytics Playbook for Cities: A Navigational Tool for Understanding Data Analytics in Local Government, Confronting Trade-Offs, and Implementing Effectively Y1 - 2020 A1 - Amen Ra Mashariki A1 - Nicolas Diaz A1 - David Eaves AB -

Amen Ra Mashariki and Nicolas Diaz, August 2020 

Properly used data can help city government improve the efficiency of its operations, save money, and provide better services. Used haphazardly, however, the use of analytics in cities may increase risks to citizens’ privacy, heighten cybersecurity threats, and even perpetuate inequities.

Given these complexities and potentials, many cities have begun to install analytics and data units, often head by a chief data officer, a new title for data-driven leaders in government. This report is aimed at practitioners who are thinking about making the choice to name their first CDO, start their first analytics team, or empower an existing group of individuals.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/the_analytics_playbook_for_cities.pdf?m=1597345915 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - COVID-19 Crisis Leadership Essentials for Mayors: Insights and Guidance from 11 Sessions on Crisis Leadership Y1 - 2020 A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - Jorrit de Jong AB -

Elizabeth Patton, Gaylen Moore, and Jorrit de Jong; August 2020 

Throughout the spring of 2020, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, held eleven sessions on crisis leadership for city leaders responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over those harrowing weeks, as city leaders scrambled to protect their community members from the disease and provide services to the ill, the bereaved, and the vulnerable, these sessions offered a space for them to share their stories, concerns, hopes, and plans—and to get answers to their most pressing questions about the pandemic and how to mitigate not just the spread of the virus but also the economic and social fallout of measures taken to contain it.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/insights-from-11-sessions ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response Session III: Situational Briefing & Leadership Lessons from Africa and Latin America Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, August 2020 

Amanda McClelland, Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of the global health organization Vital Strategies, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa. Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, facilitated a discussion between Mayors Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Sierra Leone; Claudio Castro of Renca, Chile; and Bettina Romero of Salta, Argentina, on lessons learned while leading their cities through the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/latin-americanafrica-session-recaps/session-iii ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Federal COVID‐19 Response Funding for Tribal Governments: Lessons from the CARES Act Y1 - 2020 A1 - Eric Henson A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen A1 - Joseph Kalt A1 - Megan Hill AB -

Eric C. Henson, Megan M. Hill, Miriam R. Jorgensen & Joseph P. Kalt; July 2020 

The federal response to the COVID‐19 pandemic has played out in varied ways over the past several months.  For Native nations, the CARES Act (i.e., the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) has been the most prominent component of this response to date. Title V of the Act earmarked $8 billion for tribes and was allocated in two rounds, with many disbursements taking place in May and June of this year.

This federal response has been critical for many tribes because of the lower socio‐economic starting points for their community members as compared to non‐Indians. Even before the pandemic, the average income of a reservation‐resident Native American household was barely half that of the average U.S. household. Low average incomes, chronically high unemployment rates, and dilapidated or non‐existent infrastructure are persistent challenges for tribal communities and tribal leaders. Layering extremely high coronavirus incidence rates (and the effective closure of many tribal nations’ entire economies) on top of these already challenging circumstances presented tribal governments with a host of new concerns. In other words, at the same time tribal governments’ primary resources were decimated (i.e., the earnings of tribal governmental gaming and non‐gaming enterprises dried up), the demands on tribes increased. They needed these resources to fight the pandemic and to continue to meet the needs of tribal citizens.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/policy_brief_5-cares_act_lessons_24july2020_final_for_dist.pdf?m=1595612547 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Emerging Stronger than Before: Guidelines for the Federal Role in American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes’ Recovery from the COVID‐19 Pandemic Y1 - 2020 A1 - Eric Henson A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen A1 - Joseph Kalt A1 - Megan Hill AB -

Eric C. Henson, Megan M. Hill, Miriam R. Jorgensen & Joseph P. Kalt; July 2020 

In this policy brief, we offer guidelines for federal policy reform that can fulfill the United States’ trust responsibility to tribes, adhere to the deepest principles of self‐governance upon which the country is founded, respect and build the governing capacities of tribes, and in the process, enable tribal nations to emerge from this pandemic stronger than they were before. We believe that the most‐needed federal actions are an expansion of tribal control over tribal affairs and territories and increased funding for key investments in tribal communities. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/policy_brief_4-federal_policy_24july2020_final_for_dist.pdf?m=1595612546 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Lift Every Voice: The Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Voting JF - Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Brookings Governance Program Y1 - 2020 A1 - Miles Rapoport A1 - E.J. Dionne A1 - et al AB -

The Universal Voting Working Group, July 2020 

Imagine an American democracy remade by its citizens in the very image of its promise, a society where the election system is designed to allow citizens to perform their most basic civic duty with ease. Imagine that all could vote without obstruction or suppression. Imagine Americans who now solemnly accept their responsibilities to sit on juries and to defend our country in a time of war taking their obligations to the work of self-government just as seriously. Imagine elections in which 80 percent or more of our people cast their ballots—broad participation in our great democratic undertaking by citizens of every race, heritage and class, by those with strongly-held ideological beliefs, and those with more moderate or less settled views. And imagine how all of this could instill confidence in our capacity for common action.

This report is offered with these aspirations in mind and is rooted in the history of American movements to expand voting rights. Our purpose is to propose universal civic duty voting as an indispensable and transformative step toward full electoral participation. Our nation’s current crisis of governance has focused unprecedented public attention on intolerable inequities and demands that Americans think boldly and consider reforms that until now seemed beyond our reach.

UR - https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Br_LIFT_Every_Voice_final.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Our Path to “New Normal” in Employment? Sobering Clues from China and Recovery Scores for U.S. Industry JF - Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Y1 - 2020 A1 - Edward Cunningham A1 - Philip Jordan AB -

Edward Cunningham and Philip Jordan, July 2020 

The US National jobs reports for May and June exceeded expectations, and for many, this signaled that April was the true peak of American job losses and real recovery may be underway. Yet mounting evidence suggests that a job recovery is a long way off and that many jobs may not return.

Part of the analytic disconnect stems from the fact that the global pandemic is a novel challenge for policymakers and analysts. We lack current, useful benchmarks for estimating the damage to the labor market, for estimating what recovery would look like, and for measuring an eventual recovery in jobs. Given this paucity of models, one place to look for patterns of potential recovery – particularly relating to consumption and mobility – is China.

The Chinese economy is driven largely by consumption, urban job creation is driven by small and medium-sized companies, and China is several months ahead of the US in dealing with the pandemic’s economic and labor impact. An analysis of China’s experience may, therefore, offer important clues about our recovery here at home, and inform new models of thinking about American job recovery.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/us_china_covid_policy_brief_7.6.2020_01.pdf?m=1594842725 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Understanding CCP Resilience: Surveying Chinese Public Opinion Through Time Y1 - 2020 A1 - Edward Cunningham A1 - Tony Saich A1 - Jessie Turiel AB -

Edward Cunningham, Tony Saich, and Jessie Turiel, July 2020

This policy brief reviews the findings of the longest-running independent effort to track Chinese citizen satisfaction of government performance. China today is the world’s second largest economy and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ruled for some seventy years. Yet long-term, publicly-available, and nationally-representative surveys in mainland China are so rare that it is difficult to know how ordinary Chinese citizens feel about their government.

We find that first, since the start of the survey in 2003, Chinese citizen satisfaction with government has increased virtually across the board. From the impact of broad national policies to the conduct of local town officials, Chinese citizens rate the government as more capable and effective than ever before. Interestingly, more marginalized groups in poorer, inland regions are actually comparatively more likely to report increases in satisfaction. Second, the attitudes of Chinese citizens appear to respond (both positively and negatively) to real changes in their material well-being, which suggests that support could be undermined by the twin challenges of declining economic growth and a deteriorating natural environment.

While the CCP is seemingly under no imminent threat of popular upheaval, it cannot take the support of its people for granted. Although state censorship and propaganda are widespread, our survey reveals that citizen perceptions of governmental performance respond most to real, measurable changes in individuals’ material well-being. For government leaders, this is a double-edged sword, as citizens who have grown accustomed to increases in living standards will expect such improvements to continue, and citizens who praise government officials for effective policies may indeed blame them when such policy failures affect them or their family members directly. While our survey reinforces narratives of CCP resilience, our data also point to specific areas in which citizen satisfaction could decline in today’s era of slowing economic growth and continued environmental degradation.

PB - Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/final_policy_brief_7.6.2020.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - Growing Pains: How A Dutch Cross-agency Team Took On Illegal Marijuana Production In Residential Areas Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Sanderijn Cels A1 - Martijn Groenleer A1 - Eric Weinberger AB -

Sanderijn Cels, Jorrit de Jong, Marijn Groenleer, and Erica Weinberger; July 2020 

In June 2015, a task force convened in the Netherlands to consider cross-sectoral approaches to fighting organized crime in the south of the country, particularly in the homegrown marijuana industry. From that larger group, five professional managers and officials were tasked with devising an approach to target and break up criminal drug gangs that paid or coerced residents in beleaguered neighborhoods to grow pot in back rooms or attics; activities which put a huge strain on the power supply and greatly increased the risk of fire.

The five men did not know each other and came from different organizations or professional backgrounds with their own training and ideas: the police, the regional utility company, the national tax bureau, the mayor’s office in nearby Breda, and the public prosecutor’s office. A policeman would not see the problem, or the solution, in the same way as a utility company manager. How would the five manage to work together—not just devise an approach, but return to their organizations and convince their bosses and colleagues this could work? Not all of the team were based in the City of Breda, but Breda, under the auspices of Mayor Paul Depla, would serve as the first trial ground to identify a neighborhood and carry out an operation to see if the new cross-sectoral approach could work.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/growing-pains-how-a-dutch-cross-agency-team-took-on-illegal-marijuana-production-in-residential-areas ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response Session II: Situational Briefing & Crisis Leadership Essentials Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, July 2020 

Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Director of the Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa. Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, the George F. Baker Jr. Professor of Public Management at the Kennedy School and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration and Cochair of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School, facilitated a discussion on crisis leadership. The session was moderated by Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/latin-americanafrica-session-recaps/session-i-situational-briefing-amp-possible-futures-mastering-the-managerial-tool-of-scenario-planning-45gr3 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Leading Civic Engagement: Three Cases Y1 - 2020 A1 - Howard Husock A1 - Inessa Lurye A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Jorrit de Jong AB -

Howard Husock, Inessa Lurye, Gaylen Moore, Archon Fung, and Jorrit de Jong; July 2020 

These three short cases are stories of city officials leading civic engagement and public participation in pursuit of public goals. From a variety of different positions in city government, the protagonists in each case departed from typical bureaucratic processes to reach out directly to the public, using unexpected methods to solicit input, raise awareness, and effect behavioral change in their communities. In the first case, the new director of the Seattle Solid Waste Utility, Diana Gale, implemented sweeping changes to the City’s solid waste collection practices. To secure compliance with new rules and regulations and tolerance for inevitable stumbles along the way, she developed a public relations capacity, became the public face of her agency, and embraced an ethos of humility and accountability. In the second case, Antanas Mockus, the eccentric mayor of Bogotá, sought to improve public safety—focusing particularly on the unregulated and lethal use of fireworks around the Christmas holiday. He tried at first to effect change through persuasion, offering citizens alternatives to fireworks and engaging vendors in the effort to reduce fireworks-related injuries and deaths. When a child suffered severe burns, however, Mockus followed through on a threat to ban firework sales and use in the City. In the third case, David Boesch, city manager of Menlo Park, California, decided to engage residents in setting priorities around cost reduction as a major budget shortfall loomed for the coming fiscal year. He hired a local firm to plan and execute a comprehensive participatory budgeting process. In a city with a sharp divide between haves and have-nots, Boesch and his partners had to take special care to ensure that everyone’s interests were heard and represented in budgetary decision-making.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case(s).

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/leading-civic-engagement-three-cases ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Leading Social and Economic Recovery Session II: Situational Briefing - A Public Health Focus on How to Safely Reopen Schools & Crisis Leadership Essentials, Staying on Message in Volatile Times Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, July 2020 

Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States and guidance on how to safely reopen schools. Juliette Kayyem, the Senior Belfer Lecturer in International Security at the Kennedy School, addressed mayors on strategies for effective communication in the midst of a complex and evolving crisis, contradictory or unreliable information, and a constantly shifting operational environment. The session was moderated by Harvard Business School Professor Rawi Abdelal, the faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/recovery-sessions/situational-briefing-a-public-health-focus-on-racism-protests-and-covid-19-prevention-7xadc ER - TY - ABST T1 - Public Value Tool Kit Y1 - 2020 A1 - Mark Moore A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - George Veth AB -

Mark Moore, Jorrit de Jong, Gaylen Moore, and George Veth; July 2020 

The Public Value Tool Kit is a set of materials designed to help educators and practitioners understand, utilize, and share the core concepts of the public value framework.

Public value is a central principle in public management. It is the net “good” that public leaders produce that each of us—and all of us together—enjoy. 

Based on Professor Mark Moore’s seminal Creating Public Value, this tool kit is the result of over four decades of dialogue with leaders and thinkers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. 

The basic ideas contained in here will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried to solve a public problem or untangle a bureaucratic knot. What the tool kit offers public leaders and change agents is a common vocabulary and a logical framework that can help those who do this work become more focused and effectively leverage what experience has already taught them. 

The Public Value Tool Kit is for anyone who sees the world with what Moore calls “a restless, value-seeking imagination”—the creative impulse and entrepreneurial spirit that inspires and propels change. This basic drive exists in all sectors, at all levels. This tool kit offers entry points and inspiration for each and every restless imagination.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/public-value-tool-kit ER - TY - CASE T1 - Design Decisions for Cross-Sector Collaboration: Mini-Case Modules Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jan Rivkin A1 - Susie Ma A1 - Michael Norris AB -

Jan Rivkin, Susie Ma, and Michael Norris; June 2020

These five short cases aim to help city leaders explore whether working with sectors outside their own government organizations is the right path forward, and how to be effective if/when they choose to engage in cross-sector collaboration. The cases especially highlight key design decisions that every cross-sector collaboration must make, to help students reflect on design decisions of their own collaborative efforts.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - The “Bilbao Effect” The Collaborative Architecture that Powered Bilbao’s Urban Revival Y1 - 2020 A1 - Fernando Monge A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Linda Bilmes AB -

Fernando Monge, Jorrit de Jong, and Linda Bilmes; June 2020  

In 2018, Bilbao was presented with the Best European City award, adding the prize to a long list the Spanish city had collected since the mid-2000s. The success was often attributed to the Guggenheim museum, giving name to the "Guggenheim effect." This was based on a fairly shallow assessment of the City's transformation. In fact, the building blocks of Bilbao's transformation are to be found in the collaborative efforts established by government entities during the 1990s, in the context of a deep economic, political, and social crisis.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/the-bilbao-effect-the-collaborative-architecture-that-powered-bilbaos-urban-revival ER - TY - Generic T1 - Leading Social and Economic Recovery Session 1: Situational Briefing, A Public Health Focus on Racism, Protests, and COVID-19 Prevention Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, June 2020 

In the first session of the Leading Social and Economic Recovery series convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, discussed racism and protests in the context of COVID-19, offering mayors recommendations on measures to consider when protesting to reduce exposure of COVID-19. Professor Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, addressed the mayors on how the global pandemic, economic recession, and renewed focus on racial justice provide city leaders with an opportunity to reinvent public governance. The session was moderated by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jorrit de Jong, and Harvard Business School Professor Rawi Abdelal, the faculty co-chairs of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/recovery-sessions/situational-briefing-a-public-health-focus-on-racism-protests-and-covid-19-prevention ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 11: Situational Briefing & Leading Through a Crisis, Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, May 2020 

In the eleventh session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Juliette Kayyem, the Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Dutch Leonard, the George F. Baker Jr. Professor of Public Management at the Kennedy School and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration and Cochair of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the Kennedy School, review the crisis leadership tools to help mayors and city leaders navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/session-11-situational-briefing-leading-through-a-crisis-lessons-learned-and-the-road-ahead ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 10: Situational Briefing & An Uncertain Future, Scenario Planning in a Pandemic Y1 - 2020 AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, May 2020 

In the tenth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Rebecca Henderson, the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, discussed scenario planning in a pandemic and offered tools for imagining and working through the implications of various plausible futures. Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director, offered guidance and answered mayors’ questions on responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

JF - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/session-10-situational-briefing-an-uncertain-future-scenario-planning-in-a-pandemic ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 9: Situational Briefing and Leading Diverse and Dispersed Teams in Times of Crisis Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, May 2020 

In the ninth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, discussed leading diverse and dispersed teams in times of crisis. Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Caitlin Rivers, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provide critical public health updates and general guidance for what organizations, businesses, and other settings need to do when they reopen, with information on how mayors can both help as well as support these efforts.

Vice President Joe Biden highlighted the ongoing role mayors have in leading the response to the crisis.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf-n48pp-dwp6f-j9nyg-446cw-h45wk ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 8: Situational Briefing & Financial Resilience, Budgeting During COVID-19 Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, May 2020 

In the eighth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Linda Bilmes, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and a leading expert on budgetary and public financial issues, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, discuss budgeting during a COVID-19. Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provide critical public health updates and examine metrics mayors need to have in order to reopen their communities. Chef Jose Andres offered words of inspiration in his welcoming remarks to the mayors.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf-n48pp-dwp6f-j9nyg-446cw ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 7: Situational Briefing & Taking Risks Responsibly and Innovating in Real Time: Possibility Government in a Pandemic Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, April 2020 

In the seventh session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Mitchell Weiss, Professor of Management Practice in the Entrepreneurial Management unit and the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, lead a discussion on public entrepreneurship and how mayors can generate, try out and scale up new ideas while managing risk. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Dr. Lisa Cooper, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provide critical public health updates, examine racial disparities we are seeing during COVID-19, and offer actions mayors can take to address these disparities in their cities. Governor Hogan offered advice on convening a coronavirus response team to address the crisis in his welcoming remarks to the mayors.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf-n48pp-dwp6f-j9nyg ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 6: Situational Briefing & Learning from History to Act Now and Prepare for the Future: Leading Through a Multi-stage Crisis Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, April 2020 

In the sixth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Nancy Koehn, James E. Robison chair of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, explored principles of leadership to effectively guide teams and communities during an unprecedented, multi-stage crisis. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, provided critical public health updates and guidance on preventing the spread of the virus in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi advised the mayors to rely on science in her welcoming remarks.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf-n48pp-dwp6f ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 5: Situational Briefing & Crucibles of Leadership, From Conflict to Collaboration Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, April 2020 

In the fifth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Howard Koh, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Kennedy School; Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School; Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Tom Frieden, former director of CDC, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, explored collaboration—across sectors, departments, and levels of government—and the challenges, conflicts, and opportunities for effective leadership and a resilient recovery that come with this work. Bill Gates stressed the importance of relying on science to guide reopening the economy in his welcoming remarks to mayors.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf-n48pp ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 4: Situational Briefing & Leading the Local Response to COVID-19, Addressing Stress and Mental Health Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, April 2020 

In the fourth session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, moderated a discussion with Kimberlyn Leary, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, on stress and mental health during the COVID-19 crisis. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided critical public health information, and Tom Frieden, former director of CDC, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, presented the latest thinking on the conditions necessary to lift restrictions, reopen the economy, and resume city life. President Barack Obama offered advice to mayors on speaking truthfully in his opening remarks.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5-f4d2a-m83je-97zmf ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 3: Situational Briefing & Learning As Fast As You Can (and Creating a Basis for Hope) Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, April 2020 

In the third session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided critical public health information. Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, moderated the discussion on learning as fast as you can and creating a basis for hope with Dutch Leonard, the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management, at HKS and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at HBS and Juliette Kayyem, the Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at HKS. President George W. Bush offered support for mayors and frontline health care workers in his opening remarks.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/19-9wer5-f4d2a ER - TY - Generic T1 - Policy Prototyping for the Future of Work Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jenn Gustetic A1 - Carlos Teixeira A1 - Becca Carroll A1 - Joanne Cheung A1 - Susan O’Malley A1 - Megan Brewster AB -

Jenn Gustetic, Carlos Teixeira, Becca Carroll, Joanne Cheung, Susan O'Malley, and Megan Brewster; June 2020

The future of work will require massive re-skilling of the American workforce for which current policy “toolboxes” for economics, labor, technology, workforce development and education are often siloed and antiquated. To meet the needs of tomorrow’s workers, today’s policy makers must grapple with these interdisciplinary policy issues.

This report describes a novel design-driven approach we developed to create policy “prototype” solutions that are inherently interdisciplinary, human-centered, and inclusive for the future of work. Using our design-driven approach, we collaborated with more than 40 interdisciplinary and cross-sector thinkers and doers to generate 8 distinct policy prototypes to support the future of work.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/colab-hks_5-6-2020_1_1.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response Session I: Situational Briefing & Possible Futures, Mastering the Managerial Tool of Scenario Planning Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, June 2020 

In the first session of the Latin American and Africa COVID-19 Response program, Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Director of the Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives, provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 in Latin America and Africa and introduced the Adaptive Response Framework, a public health tool to guide pandemic response decision making. Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School Professor and faculty co-chair of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, facilitated a discussion on crisis leadership—providing mayors with a tool for imagining and working through the implications of various plausible futures, and strengthening their capacity to respond and learn as they go. The session was moderated by Jennifer Musisi, the former executive director of Kampala, Uganda, and City Leader in Residence at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and three-term mayor of NYC, welcomed the mayors.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/latin-americanafrica-session-recaps/session-i-situational-briefing-amp-possible-futures-mastering-the-managerial-tool-of-scenario-planning ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Social and Economic COVID-19 Recovery Session I: Situational Briefing - A Public Health Focus on Racism, Protests, and COVID-19 Prevention Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, June 2020 

In the first session, Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided a briefing of critical public health information on COVID-19 within the United States. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association, discussed racism and protests in the context of COVID-19, offering mayors recommendations on measures to consider when protesting to reduce exposure of COVID-19. Professor Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, addressed the mayors on how the global pandemic, economic recession, and renewed focus on racial justice provide city leaders with an opportunity to reinvent public governance. The session was moderated by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Jorrit de Jong, and Harvard Business School Professor Rawi Abdelal, the faculty co-chairs of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/recovery-sessions/situational-briefing-a-public-health-focus-on-racism-protests-and-covid-19-prevention ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Fiscal Strategies to Help Cities Recover—And Prosper JF - Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Charles “Skip” Stitt AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Charles "Skip" Stitt, May 2020 

Despite robust economies, many local officials entered 2020 already worried about budget balances that looked fragile in the short term and problematic in the long term due to enormous pension and health-care issues. Today, in the wake of COVID-19, clearly federal support is necessary, but it is also apparent that it cannot alleviate all the pressures on communities as responsibilities related to the pandemic skyrocket while revenues plummet.

While many public managers will rightly deploy a host of tactical cost-cutting measures, the most creative among them will explore deeper and more strategic changes, such as those presented herein, which will help address the current crisis while preparing their cities for the future. This paper suggests a transition to a culture deeply focused on data, incentives for city workers to produce internal reforms, public-private partnerships that monetize operational excellence, and rapid adoption of both new technologies and good ideas borrowed from other jurisdictions. These more deliberate and strategic approaches may be harder to implement but those offered here need not harm incumbent public employees nor negatively impact cities’ efforts to ensure access and equity. Rather, the strategies we outline should strengthen the efficiency and mandates of existing government offices while helping make cities more resilient and better prepared for tomorrow’s challenges.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/300871_hvd_ash_fiscal_strategies_v3.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Union Impact on Voter Participation—And How to Expand It Y1 - 2020 A1 - Tova Wang AB -

Tova Wang, May 2020

Some politicians have enacted measures in recent years to make voting harder and to reduce participation among certain groups. Others have sought to counteract that voter suppression by implementing laws to make voting easier, such as same-day or automatic registration. There is another antidote to the effort to reduce participation: lifting up worker organizations. This is especially important to understand given the ways in which powerful individuals and groups have sought to weaken unions because of their political strength representing American workers.

In this report, the author first explains efforts to weaken unions and the voice of working people; then what the decline of unions and union membership has meant for participation; next, Wang looks at the data showing the positive effects unions have on voter participation; and finally, she suggests how going forward we can reform the laws and how labor is structured such that it not only continues to facilitate voter participation, but even enhances it.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/300871_hvd_ash_union_impact_v2.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - 2019 State of Digital Transformation Y1 - 2020 A1 - David Eaves A1 - Georges Clement AB -

David Eaves, Georges Clement; May, 2020

In June of 2019, the Harvard Kennedy School hosted digital service teams from around the world for our annual State of Digital Transformation convening. Over two days, practitioners and academics shared stories of success, discussed challenges, and debated strategy around the opportunities and risks digital technologies present to governments.

Teams that joined us for the summit used different approaches and methodologies in vastly different contexts. Some governments—such as those of Estonia and Bangladesh—were building on decade or more of experience refining already-advanced practices; others—such as the state of Colorado’s—were still getting ready to formally launch. Some had deep connections across their entire executive branch; others were tightly focused within a single agency.

Despite these differences, many key themes emerged throughout the convening. This paper contains reflections from the Summit. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/300871_hvd_ash_digital_trans_1.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Dissecting the US Treasury Department’s Round 1 Allocations of CARES Act COVID‐19 Relief Funding for Tribal Governments Y1 - 2020 A1 - Joseph Kalt A1 - Miriam Jorgenson A1 - Eric Henson A1 - Randall K.Q. Akee AB -

Randall K.Q. Akee, Eric C. Henson, Miriam R. Jorgensen, and Joseph P. Kalt; May 2020 

This study dissects the US Department of the Treasury’s formula for distributing first-round CARES Act funds to Indian Country. The Department has indicated that its formula is intended to allocate relief funds based on tribes’ populations, but the research team behind this report finds that Treasury has employed a population data series that produces arbitrary and capricious “over-” and “under-representations” of tribes’ enrolled citizens.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2harvard_nni_dissection_of_treasury_allocation_w_appendix_05_18_2020_vfin_for_dist_2_.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - Driving Change in São Paulo Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Carlos Paiva A1 - Carin-Isabel Knoop A1 - Rawi Abdelal AB -

Jorrit de Jong, Carlos Paiva, Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Rawi Abdelal; May 2020 

In 2016, after many months of negotiation, the City of São Paulo approved a new ordinance regulating Transportation Network Companies (TNC). The new regulation allowed citizens to take advantage of innovative services and it enabled city leaders to manage the fleet with significant savings as well as unprecedented transparency and data. São Paulo, the first Brazilian city to adopt this model, faced internal responses ranging from vehement opposition to overwhelming support.

The case chronicles the road to implementation, including lessons learned from the TNC ordinance process and the previous pilots. It examines the efforts of key players—including Administration Secretary Paulo Spencer Uebel—to fulfill Mayor João Doria’s public commitment to fix the transportation model, consider public opinion, and minimize disruption during Doria’s first year in office. The case also explores strategies for implementing innovative practices in government as well as dealing with resistance to change in organizations, especially in the public sector.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/driving-change-in-sao-paulo ER - TY - CASE T1 - The “Garbage Lady” Cleans Up Kampala: Turning Quick Wins Into Lasting Change Y1 - 2020 A1 - Lisa Cox A1 - Jorrit de Jong AB -

Lisa Cox and Jorrit de Jong, May 2020 

In 2011, at the newly formed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Judith Tumusiime, an impassioned technocrat who prided herself on operating outside of politics, was charged with transforming a “filthy city” to a clean, habitable, and healthy one. Early in her tenure, she was able to vastly improve Kampala’s solid waste management (SWM) system by creating efficiencies, increasing accountability, and bringing her technical know-how to a team that held little expertise. But by 2015, after several years of strong momentum, Tumusiime felt that her progress was stalling, and she faced political challenges around creating a sustainable SWM system.

More specifically, her team was grossly overextended and needed to assign some of its SWM responsibilities to private contractors through an innovative public-private partnership (PPP). To ensure that the PPP was viable, Tumusiime strongly believed that all residents, no matter their income, needed to pay fees for garbage collection. However, the federal and local elections were approaching in February 2016, and politicians had told their constituents that they would not allow garbage collection fees, leaving Tumusiime with little support for her long-term vision. She was faced with a challenge: she could either dive into a political world that she had never wanted anything to do with to see if she could achieve radical change, or she could continue to make tweaks that might achieve short-term, small improvements at a slow—and even halting—pace.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/the-garbage-lady-cleans-up-kampala-turning-quick-wins-into-lasting-change ER - TY - CASE T1 - In the Green: Negotiating Rail Expansion in Somerville, MA Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stefan Norgaard A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Stegan Norgaard, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020

Successful litigation against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made an original, legal, and moral case for building alternative transportation in Somerville: the Green Line Extension (GLX). Having campaigned on extending the Green Line—first as alderman, then as mayor—Joe Curtatone took office as mayor in 2005. His first victory was creating a MBTA “T” stop for the Orange Line at Assembly Station. Working with the same coalition of nonprofits, he pursued a participatory visioning process (“SomerVision”) that brought together over sixty organizations from different sectors in Somerville, that had a common vision for the GLX. Curtatone overcame hiccups surrounding industrial parcels and successfully kept the project eligible for a federal NewStarts grant; using an economic-development narrative, he acquired the problematic parcels through eminent domain. By 2014-2015, though, the project was running over budget and it was uncertain whether the Commonwealth would support the GLX.

Curtatone negotiated with the State of Massachusetts and agreed on simplifications to the original GLX, including a shorter route that would no longer directly benefit neighboring regional communities. He also negotiated project funding by the Cities of Cambridge and Somerville and the Boston Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization board (BRMPO). But then, the Commonwealth announced a shortfall of roughly $200 million, that Curtatone resolved through an agreement: Somerville paid $50M, Cambridge $25M, and the BRMPO diverted funding for the rest. The narrower GLX project was approved and construction began in May 2018. This case is designed as the capstone case in a series of negotiation cases developed by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. 

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/in-the-green-negotiating-rail-expansion-in-somerville-ma ER - TY - CASE T1 - Beyond the Table: Infrastructure Development in Kampala, Uganda Y1 - 2020 A1 - Hung Vo A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Hung Vo, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020 

Uganda’s development relied heavily on the economic growth and management of its capital city, Kampala. The World Bank had been active in Uganda’s urban sector since the 1980s and, in 2007, awarded Kampala a $33 million loan for institutional reforms and infrastructure development. Yet by the project’s 2010 deadline, only 30 percent of the project had been completed. Given the delays and its skepticism of a new, inexperienced administration, the World Bank threatened to withdraw funding. Nonetheless, Judith Tumusiime—first as a technical consultant and then as deputy executive director of the newly established Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)—managed to turn the project around within two years, an almost miraculous transformation. Beyond revitalizing and completing the project’s first phase, could Tumusiime convince the World Bank to invest even more in the second phase?

The case explores Tumusiime’s work to regain trust with the World Bank and persuade it to not only fund a second phase of the project, but to also significantly increase its funding commitment to the City. It examines how Tumusiime navigated her team, the World Bank, other local officials, and national level government actors. Moreover, it unpacks the misguided notion that a negotiation is a solely interpersonal activity that occurs at the table; a broader understanding of process—specifically scope and sequence—can impact the outcome (1). Drawing from David Lax and James Sebenius’ 3-D negotiation framework, the case demonstrates how Tumusiime built a strategy to effectively sequence actions in her negotiation with the World Bank. Her strategic vision and interpersonal strengths enabled her to make dynamic setup moves, improving her ability to negotiate at the table and craft a better deal with the World Bank.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/beyond-the-table-infrastructure-development-in-kampala-uganda ER - TY - CASE T1 - Fortaleza: Keeping An Electoral Promise Y1 - 2020 A1 - Carin-Isabel Knoop A1 - Carlos Paiva A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Rawi Abdelal AB -

Carin-Isabel Knoop, Carlos Paiva, Jorrit de Jong, and Rawi Abdelal; May 2020 

During his re-election campaign in 2016, Mayor Roberto Cláudio faced recurring complaints from voters concerning the availability of essential medicines at their health clinics. Limited access to medicine frustrated patients and health care providers, raised the cost of treating chronic conditions, and increased the risk of infectious diseases. It also placed the City in violation of Brazil’s constitution that guaranteed access to essential medicines to patients of the public health system, most of whom were low income. In Cláudio’s first term, Fortaleza’s public health network went through significant advances, renovating the majority of its health clinics and improving access to medical personnel. The team’s considerable progress nonetheless fell short of a comprehensive solution for the lack of access to medicine. This became one of Cláudio’s main campaign promises, and a priority for his second term. The case chronicles how he approached a persistent problem, changed tactics and teams, and pushed for the necessary improvements and innovations to fulfill his promise.

The case raises questions around how to deliver on a campaign promise when your organization seems to have hit a ceiling in performance improvement: When do you push harder for better execution and advancement of current systems? When do you invest in something new to achieve optimal performance? What is the role of mayoral leadership in ensuring that goals are achieved?

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/fortaleza-keeping-an-electoral-promise ER - TY - CASE T1 - In the Weeds: Securing a Grass-Mowing Contract in Stockton, CA Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stefan Norgaard A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Stegan Norgaard, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020

Kurt Wilson, the City Manager of Stockton, CA, joined the city government ten months after the City declared bankruptcy. After successfully steering Stockton out of bankruptcy, Wilson committed to implementing a set of permanent financial control measures to ensure that the City remained fiscally solvent well into the future. He had an extensive background in both the private and nonprofit sectors and had served as city manager in four other California cities.

Stockton’s Long-Range Financial Plan (L-RFP) indicated that the City could spend, at most, approximately $1.3M in 2019 fiscal year (FY19) on a contract to mow grass on city medians. The City had spent $1.2M the previous year. Wilson believed shortages of tradespeople in the Bay Area—caused in part by demand for construction after California wildfires—would affect price points. At worst, he thought he could justify spending $1.6M on the contract. Wilson cared about the fiscal health of Stockton, but he also wanted to ensure high-quality public services.

When the City issued its RFP, bids started at $2.26M, well above what Stockton could afford. After considering his options, Wilson issued a new RFP that included a lower “base” scope of services with modular components that the City could accept or decline depending on cost. Stockton ended up spending $1.91M for a year of service, but even as costs increased, tall grasses remained on city medians. Wilson wondered whether there might have been a better way for the City to have anticipated the higher prices.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/in-the-weeds-securing-a-grass-mowing-contract-in-stockton-ca ER - TY - CASE T1 - Making a Statement: Mayor Libby Schaaf and the Sanctuary City of Oakland, CA Y1 - 2020 A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - Chistopher Robichaud A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Anna Burgess AB -

Gaylen Moore, Christopher Robichaud, Jorrit de Jong, and Anna Burgess; May 2020 

In February 2018, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf learned through unofficial sources that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was planning to arrest a large number of undocumented immigrants in her City. Oakland had been a “sanctuary city” since 1986, and more than one in ten residents were undocumented. Mayor Schaaf believed that the ICE action was the Trump administration’s political retaliation against California’s sanctuary cities. She feared that law-abiding immigrants in her community—who she saw as scapegoats for a broken federal immigration system—would be swept up in the raid and subject to deportation. Faced with very little time and potentially significant legal implications, Mayor Schaaf had to decide whether and how to alert the community to a threat she took to be highly credible.

The case is designed to help mayors, city leaders, and other public executives think through adaptive leadership challenges with highly sensitive moral dimensions.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.
 

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/making-a-statement-mayor-libby-schaaf-and-the-sanctuary-city-of-oakland-ca ER - TY - CASE T1 - Many Ways to Get There: Securing Public Investments in Richmond, VA Y1 - 2020 A1 - Hung Vo A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Hung Vo, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020 

The City of Richmond elected Levar Stoney as its youngest mayor in 2016. Mayor Stoney campaigned for better-funded public schools, government accountability, and crime prevention. One of the mayor’s main responsibilities was to propose biannual budgets to a nine-member city council, which could approve the budget as proposed or pass it with amendments. This case illustrates Stoney’s efforts to increase Richmond’s real estate tax from $1.20 to $1.29 per $100 of assessed value. This tax increase was quickly rejected by a majority of city council members. Disagreements climaxed when the mayor’s administration walked out of a city council budget hearing, prompting council members to respond by voting to pursue legal action against Stoney.

This case focuses on how positional bargaining prevents creative deal-making when negotiators fail to understand the interests of other parties. By exploring Stoney’s relationship with city council, the case emphasizes the downsides of positional bargaining and the opportunities for better outcomes with an interest-based approach to negotiation. This case also introduces the four negotiation concepts of interests, options, criteria, and alternatives, and examines their relevance to city-level negotiations.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/many-ways-to-get-there-securing-public-investments-in-richmond-va ER - TY - CASE T1 - “Pressing the Right Buttons” Jennifer Musisi for New City Leadership Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Eric Weinberger AB -

Jorrit de Jong and Eric Weinberger, May 2020 

Jennifer Musisi, a career civil servant most recently with the Uganda Revenue Authority, was appointed by President Museveni as executive director (equivalent to city manager) of a new governing body for Uganda’s capital, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Previously, power in Kampala had been held by an elected body, the Kampala City Council (KCC), dominated by opposition politicians and notorious for corruption, poor service delivery, and inadequate tax and revenue collections.

As head of the new KCCA, a quasi-corporate authority now under central government, Musisi’s job was to change all that, and quickly, by fighting corruption and modernizing (thereby increasing) tax and revenue collections. She had to decide which municipal fees or taxes would recoup the greatest revenues for maximum impact on her city-improvement agenda of better roads, clean streets and markets, modern drainage and lighting, and more.

Musisi also needed to find ways to remove longtime private tax agents who took, supposedly, a 10 percent commission from the City but in fact withheld most of their receipts, sometimes extorting additional, unofficial sums. Property tax—as it is throughout the world—was potentially Kampala’s most lucrative revenue source, but here Musisi’s effectiveness was limited without national legislative reform and government support. Thus, her most difficult challenges were transit and trading, on which thousands of poor people depended for their living while being vulnerable to private revenue collectors, middlemen, local bosses, and law enforcement.

The case describes an extremely difficult, often dangerous situation in a fast-growing African capital, and an individual determined to make Kampala the model city she believed it could be. How did Musisi even begin? What was the best strategy for raising own-source revenue (OSR), and how did she navigate the politics—both ways, that is, with opposition city politicians who cultivate the poor, but also with President Museveni and his governing NRM (National Resistance Movement)? In recent history African capitals have depended on central government transfers for their budgets and that is still the case in Kampala. But with little expectation that she would get more support from central government, Musisi had to collect enormous sums for the improvements needed for Kampala’s infrastructure, health services, schools, and general business environment.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/pressing-the-right-buttons-jennifer-musisi-for-new-city-leadership ER - TY - CASE T1 - The Queen City’s Collective and Compassionate Approach: Fighting Opioids and Homelessness in the Granite State Y1 - 2020 A1 - Brady Roberts A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Brady Roberts, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020 

Elected at the height of the opioid epidemic, Mayor Joyce Craig came to represent the City of Manchester, New Hampshire as it grappled with the dual tragedies of substance abuse and chronic homelessness. An idealist in a state that valued personal responsibility and financial restraint, Craig had successfully expanded her City’s services to those seeking treatment for opioid use disorder and shelter. But these were hard-fought victories at every stage, and there was still work to be done. With just a few months remaining in her first two-year term, the mayor found herself on the eve of another difficult negotiation. She had recently established a diverse Task Force on Homelessness and set her sights on permanently solving Manchester’s homelessness and opioid crises. Next, Craig had to convince her counterparts at the state and local level to dedicate equitable funding to solving these intractable, moral challenges. (See Teaching Case Appendix 1 for a timeline of events in the case.)

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/the-queen-citys-collective-and-compassionate-approach-fighting-opioids-and-homelessness-in-the-granite-state ER - TY - CASE T1 - Shanties in the Skyline: Addressing Unauthorized Building Works in Hong Kong Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - Howard Husock AB -

Howard Husock, Gaylen Moore, and Jorrit de Jong, May 2020 

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, high atop a great many of the older, concrete-block buildings in lower-income areas of central Hong Kong and the neighborhoods of the Kowloon peninsula, informal metal-framed wooden structures housed thousands of families in austere, inexpensive quarters. These rooftop dwellings created a sort of shantytown in the air and, though built illegally, were nonetheless bought, sold, and rented on the open market. These structures were just one example of the larger phenomenon of so-called unauthorized building works (UBWs) in Hong Kong. These included balconies added to windows—sometimes used for beds—as well as hundreds of thousands of storefront street signs and canopy extensions on buildings in commercial districts, used to create rental space below for stores and restaurants on the ground floor. By 1999, the total number of UBWs was estimated at 800,000. By one assessment, if authorities continued enforcing the laws in the manner they had been, it would take more than 130 years to remove all such structures—assuming that new ones were not built in their place.

This case raises questions about how to respond effectively to a complex problem that has arisen as a solution to other problems.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/shanties-in-the-skyline-addressing-unauthorized-building-works-in-hong-kong ER - TY - CASE T1 - You Get What You Pay for: Reforming Procurement in Naperville, Illinois Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stefan Norgaard A1 - Elizabeth Patton A1 - Monica Giannone A1 - Brian Mandell A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guhan Subramanian AB -

Stegan Norgaard, Elizabeth Patton, Monica Giannone, Brian Mandell, Jorrit de Jong, and Guhan Subramanian; May 2020

Naperville, Illinois is a suburb of approximately 150,000 people in the Chicago metropolitan area. Traditionally, the City focused on price for all procurement negotiations, but it often had few vendors applying for key contracts and struggled to negotiate on both price and quality.

Naperville’s original procurement process was called Quality-Adjusted Cost (QAC). This process sought to simplify a myriad of concerns and variables (including price, quality, timeline, and scope, among others) into a single metric, so that the City could easily and objectively evaluate bids. Although QAC attempted to incorporate quality into the evaluation, there were instances when it seemed the best vendor was not selected.

In an effort to improve the quality of City services, Naperville adopted a new procurement approach called “Cost as a Component.” This revamped process allowed the City to negotiate with vendors on more than just price for technology upgrades and aimed to ensure long-term partnerships with relevant firms, creating value for both vendors and the City. This case illustrates the trade-offs between QAC and “Cost as a Component” for Naperville and prompts participants to apply negotiation concepts to the broader process of city procurement.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/you-get-what-you-pay-for-reforming-procurement-in-naperville-illinois ER - TY - CASE T1 - “You Have One Hundred Days”: Accelerating Government Performance in the UAE Y1 - 2020 A1 - Fernando Monge A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Warren Dent AB -

Fernando Monge, Jorrit de Jong, and Warren Dent; May 2020 

In the fall of 2016, the state government of the United Arab Emirates decided to take a new approach to spur floundering projects toward faster results.

Frustrated with slow progress on key issues like public health and traffic safety, the state launched a new program to accelerate change and enhance performance across government agencies. The innovative program, called Government Accelerators, ran 100-day challenges—intense periods of action where “acceleration” teams of frontline staff worked across agency boundaries to tackle pressing problems. This case illustrates how three teams were chosen to participate in the program, and how, in the 100-day timeframe, they worked toward clear and ambitious goals that would impact citizens’ lives.

The case aims to raise discussion about different types of public sector innovation, to explain the approach and methodology of the Government Accelerators, and to analyze the conditions under which a similar tool might work in other cities.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/cases/you-have-one-hundred-days-accelerating-government-performance-in-the-uae ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? Y1 - 2020 A1 - Alexander Keyssar AB -

Alexander Keyssar, Harvard University Press, July 2020

With every presidential election, Americans puzzle over the peculiar mechanism of the Electoral College. The author of the Pulitzer finalist The Right to Vote explains the enduring problem of this controversial institution.

Every four years, millions of Americans wonder why they choose their presidents through the Electoral College, an arcane institution that permits the loser of the popular vote to become president and narrows campaigns to swing states. Most Americans have long preferred a national popular vote, and Congress has attempted on many occasions to alter or scuttle the Electoral College. Several of these efforts—one as recently as 1970—came very close to winning approval. Yet this controversial system remains.

UR - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674660151 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Crisis Communications for COVID-19 Y1 - 2020 A1 - Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - David Giles AB -

Herman "Dutch" Leonard, Arnold Howitt, and David Giles; April 2020

Communication with employees, customers, investors, constituents, and other stakeholders can contribute decisively to the successful navigation of a crisis.  But how should leaders think about what they are trying to say – and how to say it?

This policy brief lays out simple frameworks that can be used to formulate the messages that leaders can and should – indeed, must – convey to help their communities and organizations make their way forward as effectively as they reasonably can.

UR - https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/files/PCL_Crisis-Communications_Web20200427.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Policy Memo Regarding the Allocation of COVID-19 Response Funds to American Indian Nations Y1 - 2020 A1 - Randall K.Q. Akee A1 - Joseph P. Kalt A1 - Eric C. Henson A1 - Miriam Jorgenson AB -

The COVID-19 crisis poses an immediate threat to three decades of improvement in economic conditions across Indian Country. Federal policies of tribal self-determination through self government have gradually, if unevenly, allowed economic development to take hold in Indian County. Nevertheless, the poverty gap for American Indians is large and hard to close. American Indian/Alaska Native household incomes remain barely half that of the typical household in the US. Tribes now routinely undertake and self-fund the full array of basic governmental services – from law enforcement and public safety to social services and educational support – that we expect any state or local government to provide.

Tribes lack the traditional tax bases enjoyed by state and local governments. Tribal enterprise revenues – both gaming and non-gaming – are tribes’ effective tax bases. Prior to the total shutdown of their casinos, tribes’ gaming enterprises alone were channeling more than $12.5 billion per year into tribal government programs and services . No tribal casinos are operating at this time. The same applies to many non-gaming enterprises and many tribal government programs. The COVID-19 crisis is devastating tribes’ abilities to fund their provision of basic governmental services and forcing tribes to make painful decisions to lay off employees, drop workers’ insurance coverage, deplete assets, and/or take on more debt.
 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/hpaied_ash_covid_letter_to_treasury_04-10-20_vsignedvfinv02.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Crisis Management for Leaders Coping with COVID-19 Y1 - 2020 A1 - Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - David W. Giles AB -

Herman "Dutch" Leonard, Arnold Howitt, and David Giles; April 2020

In the face of the rapidly evolving coronavirus crisis that demands many urgent decisions but provides few clear-cut cues and requires tradeoffs among many critically important values, how can leaders and their advisers make effective decisions about literally life-and-death matters?  This policy brief contrasts the current “crisis” environment with the more familiar realm of “routine emergencies.” It argues that for crises, leaders need to adopt a more agile, highly adaptive, yet deliberate decision-making method that can move expeditiously to action, while retaining the capacity to iteratively re-examine tactics in light of decision impacts. This method can help the team take account of the multiple dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis and cope as well as possible with swiftly changing conditions.

UR - https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/files/PCL_Crisis-Management-for-COVID_Web20200428.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 2: Situational Briefing & Crisis Communication Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

 

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, March 2020 

 

In the second session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided critical public health information. Jorrit de Jong, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, moderated the discussion on crisis communication and preventing the spread of the virus with Dutch Leonard, the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management, at HKS and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at HBS, Juliette Kayyem, the Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at HKS and Tom Frieden, former director of CDC, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives. President Bill Clinton shared inspiration in his opening remarks to mayors.

UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19-9wer5 ER - TY - Generic T1 - COVID-19 Local Response Session 1: Crisis Leadership Essentials: Real-Time Problem-Solving Under Uncertain Conditions Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, March 2020 

In the first session of the COVID-19 Local Response Initiative convened by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provided critical public health information. Dutch Leonard, the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Management, at HKS and Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration at HBS and Juliette Kayyem, the Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at HKS, taught crisis leadership and management.

JF - Session One Resources UR - https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/sessions/2020/3/19 ER - TY - Generic T1 - China's Most Generous: Examining Trends in Contemporary Chinese Philanthropy Y1 - 2020 A1 - Edward Cunningham A1 - Yunxin Li AB -

Edward Cunningham and Yunxin Li, March 2020 

This annual report highlights leading results from the most recent data analysis of the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center’s China Philanthropy Project, capturing over one-quarter of estimated national giving in China. We focus on elite giving by building an annual database of the top 100 individual donors, top 100 donors from corporations and other organizations, and also top university recipients of philanthropic giving.

In 2018, such Chinese giving:

Read the report in Chinese 

UR - https://chinaphilanthropy.ash.harvard.edu/uploads/files/50c7e107-8214-492c-afc9-6570dde69388-CPP%20Report_2020_EN.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - China’s Role in Promoting Transboundary Resource Management in the Greater Mekong Basin (GMB) Y1 - 2020 A1 - Malcolm McPherson AB -

Malcolm McPherson, March 2020 

This paper examines how China can improve transboundary resource management within the Greater Mekong Basin (GMB) through its participation in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). Such improvement would ensure the efficient management and equitable development of the basin’s natural resources and ecosystems.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/300675_hvd_ash_chinas_role.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Finding Allies and Making Revolution Y1 - 2020 A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, Brill, February 2020 

What does a Dutchman have to do with the rise of the Chinese Communist Party? Finding Allies and Making Revolution by Tony Saich reveals how Henk Sneevliet (alias Maring), arriving as Lenin’s choice for China work, provided the communists with two of their most enduring legacies: the idea of a Leninist party and the tactic of the united front. Sneevliet strived to instill discipline and structure for the left-leaning intellectuals searching for a solution to China’s humiliation. He was not an easy man and clashed with the Chinese comrades and his masters in Moscow. This new analysis is based on Sneevliet’s diaries and reports, together with contemporary materials from key Chinese figures, and important documents held in the Comintern’s China archive.

Watch a video introduction to the book 

PB - Brill UR - https://brill.com/display/title/39022?language=en ER - TY - Generic T1 - Prioritizing Public Value in the Changing Mobility Landscape Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Betsy Gardner AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Betsy Gardner, January 2020

In this paper we will look at the values and goals cities affect with policies concerning connected mobility, and how to create a new framework that aligns with these objectives. First, we identify the transformative changes affecting cities and mobility. Second, we discuss in more detail the guiding values and goals that cities have around mobility with examples of these values in practice. Our next paper, Effectively Managing Connected Mobility Marketplaces, discusses the different regulatory approaches that cities can leverage to achieve these goals.

We recommend that cities identify various public values, such as Equity or Sustainability, and use these to shape their transit policy. Rather than segmenting the rapidly changing mobility space, cities should take advantage of the interconnectivity of issues like curb space management, air quality, and e-commerce delivery to guide public policy. Cities must establish a new system to meet the challenges and opportunities of this new landscape, one that is centered around common values, prioritizes resident needs, and is informed by community engagement.

In conclusion, cities must use specific public values lenses when planning and evaluating all the different facets of mobility. Transportation has entered a new phase, and we believe that cities should move forward with values- and community-driven policies that frame changing mobility as an opportunity to amend and improve previous transportation policies.

This paper is the first in the Mobility in the Connected City series.

Read the second paper "Effectively Managing Connected Mobility Marketplaces" 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/ash_mobility_goldsmith_gardner_final_.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Effectively Managing Connected Mobility Marketplaces Y1 - 2020 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Mathew Leger AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Matt Leger, February 2020

As new innovations in mobility have entered the marketplace, local government leaders have struggled to adapt their regulatory framework to adequately address new challenges or the needs of the consumers of these new services. The good news is that the technology driving this rapid change also provides the means for regulating it: real-time data. It is the responsibility of cities to establish rules and incentives that ensure proper behavior on the part of mobility providers while steering service delivery towards creating better public outcomes. Cities must use the levers at their disposal to ensure an equitable mobility marketplace and utilize real-time data sharing to enforce compliance. These include investing in and leveraging physical and digital infrastructure, regulating and licensing business conducted in public space, establishing and enforcing rules around public safety, rethinking zoning and land use planning to be transit-oriented, and regulating the digital realm to protect data integrity.

This paper is the second in the Mobility in the Connected City series. 

Read the first paper  "Prioritizing Public Value in the Changing Mobility Landscape"

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/020520_hvd_ash_effectively_managed_connected_mobility_marketplaces_report.pdf ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Insights from Transparency and Accountability Action Plans in Indonesia and Tanzania Y1 - 2020 A1 - Jessica Creighton A1 - Jean Arkedis A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Stephen Kosack A1 - Dan Levy A1 - Courtney Tolmie AB -

Jessica Creighton, Jean Arkedis, Archon Fung, Stephen Kosack, Dan Levy & Courtney Tolmie; January 2020

This paper provides insight into community designed and led actions in Indonesia and Tanzania that were prompted by Transparency for Development (T4D), a six-year research project that explores whether, how, and in what conditions “transparency and accountability” or “social accountability” programs improve maternal and newborn health care.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/293411_hvd_ash_action_plans_v2.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1036.0 Court Reporting in Kentucky (B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Kentucky Video Courts: Kentucky – 1988 Innovations Winner

When a shortage of court reporters threatens to delay trials and back up the appeals process, Kentucky's Administrative Office of the Courts considers new technology as a solution to its problem. Video ”transcripts” of court proceedings hold the potential to sidestep the labor problem plaguing the courts. The use of video cameras to record court proceedings raises questions, however. Would a video record truly provide as useful a product as a written transcript? Would judges – and the courts themselves – accept video as a legal record? Director Don Cetrulo of the Administrative Office of the Courts, intrigued by the promise of video, must ponder both its implications – and the fact that no proven automatic camera technology existed in the mid-1980s that could adapt to the multiplicity of speakers and locations. Before he can reach the point of considering the legal impact of video court reporting, Cetrulo must decide whether to go so far as to award state funds to a local manufacturer who believes he can devise such a system.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1047.1 Solving Seattle’s Solid Waste Crisis (Sequel) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Seattle Recycling Program: Seattle, WA – 1990 Innovations Winner


The closing of two landfill sites creates a municipal crisis in Seattle, forced to find new disposal options for the 2,000 tons of garbage it produces each day. Political concerns over what appears to be the most practical disposal option – construction of a major municipal incinerator – prompts the city’s Solid Waste Utility to undertake an innovative study to examine the extent to which recycling could minimize the city’s trash disposal needs. This case broadly examines the “Recycling Potential and Disposal Options“ study with an eye toward understanding the relationship between the political process and the techniques of public policy analysis. The case is designed to frame questions as to the proper relationship between policy analyst and elected official, and the ways in which analysis is constrained, properly or improperly, by political considerations.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1066.0 Groundwater Regulation in Arizona Y1 - 2020 AB -

Groundwater Management Code: Arizona – 1986 Innovations Winner

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, increasing demands for water threatened to lead to a crisis in Arizona. The growth of the desert state’s cities posed a conflict with its agricultural and mining interests. Its main source of water – groundwater extracted from beneath the arid surface – was threatened with depletion. This case frames the challenge faced by Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt to resolve the conflict in a way satisfactory to all three of the major interests: cities, farmers and mineowners. The case details the history of the Arizona groundwater dispute and the situation faced by Babbitt as he prepares to try to mediate it. The case invites discussion of mediation/negotiation techniques which can be employed by an elected official. In addition, it can be used as a policy exercise calling for proposals to develop an Arizona water policy that both serves and satisfies all players.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1076.0 Ladder and the Scale: Commitment and Accountability at Project Match Y1 - 2020 AB -

Project Match: Illinois – 1988 Innovations Winner

Located in one of the most troubled housing projects in Chicago, the job training program known as Project Match has an unusual approach to the task of bringing welfare recipients into the world of work. Rather than trying to broker a simple job placement, the program tries to encourage long-term change in the habits and living style of its hard-to-place population, in part by creating a social atmosphere in which work and ambition are valued. But because it receives funds from the Illinois Department of Public Aid, Project Match finds itself under pressure to produce job-placement results which demonstrate its success. The program itself urges authorities to find ways to quantify success besides simply finding someone a job – and places a premium on keeping track of those it’s trying to help, long after a first job placement. The case highlights the challenges of social service program evaluation, as well as the problems an innovative agency has explaining itself to traditional bureaucracies with which it must deal.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1193.0 Fighting Graffiti in Philadelphia (B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network: Philadelphia, PA – 1991 Innovations Winner

When Wilson Goode becomes the first African-American mayor of Philadelphia, he must find ways to fulfill a particularly visible campaign pledge: elimination of the graffiti which mar public buildings throughout poorer sections of the city and particularly in the North Philadelphia black wards crucial to Goode’s victory. This tells the story of a series of quite different compliance strategies pursued by a new city agency specifically created to curtail graffiti and housed within the mayor’s office. The anti-graffiti effort first conceives the problem in social terms and initiates a series of efforts to deal with the ”roots” of the graffiti problem, specifically the alienation and joblessness which may affect graffiti writers. Public pressure builds, however, for the city to adopt a more aggressive enforcement posture, viewing graffiti as a criminal act which must be swiftly punished. The case allows for discussion of the nature of public compliance and how it is achieved.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1204.0 Info/California: Where Do Electronic Government Tellers Belong? Y1 - 2020 AB -

Info/California: California – 1993 Innovations Winner

The growth of the kind of new interactive technologies promise to make it more convenient and less expensive for government, like private providers of consumer goods and services, to serve its customers – whether they seek a driver’s license or unemployment compensation. Incorporating such technologies implies change, however, and, as this case makes clear, requires decisions about when and how automated transactions should be the norm. The story of the Info/California decision focuses on competing visions of a new, interactive system which promises to allow Californians to obtain records, licenses and program information of all sorts. For its champion within state government, it makes most sense for a scarce number of interactive terminals to be placed in public areas – supermarkets, malls and the like. He must, however, face a demand by a state agency that a terminal be used to make up for laid-off employees in a place where the public has been accustomed to going for records and licenses. Developed for the Kennedy School’s Program on Strategic Computing, this case allows for discussion of the relationship between mission and technology.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1218.1 Reproducing an Innovation in Tennessee: Dr. Barbara Levin and the Monroe Maternity Center, Inc. (Sequel) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Monroe Maternity Center, Inc.: Monroe County, TN – 1991 Innovations Winner

The combination of East Tennessee poverty and a lack of obstetrical facilities in Monroe County lead a U.S. public health officer, Dr. Barbara Levin, to seek different ways to provide prenatal and delivery services to women of the county. This case tells the story of the slow but successful effort to use nurses and midwives to staff a free-standing ”maternity center” which ultimately led to the maternity center delivering fully a quarter of all the county’s babies. It examines the strategies which Levin employed to build local support, overcome opposition in the medical profession and build a customer base. In addition, it frames a strategic question of whether and how Levin should attempt to transplant her idea to a far different region of the state.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1243.0 Mountaineer Habitat for Humanity and the West Virginia Housing Development Fund: The Prospect of Partnership Y1 - 2020 AB -

Low-Income Assisted Mortgage Program: West Virginia – 1993 Innovations Winner

When a local chapter of the Habitat for Humanity organization learns that a state-chartered development fund might be able to provide it with financial help, the non-profit organization faces a decision. Should it accept funds from a public agency? Would doing so jeopardize its independence and push the organization in directions it might not want to go? So, too, does the Development Fund face decisions as it contemplates aiding the non-profit, which builds small homes for the near-poor, in part through the use of volunteer labor. Should Habitat’s religious affiliation bar the Fund from helping it? Should Habitat be allowed to retain control over who gets to purchase the homes it builds? This case focuses on the intersection of the public and non-profit sectors and raises questions about when they should or shouldn't overlap.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1270.0 Mayor Stephen Goldsmith: Organizing Competition in Indianapolis (B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Competition and Costing: Indianapolis, IN – 1995 Innovations Winner

During his successful 1991 bid for the indianapolis mayoralty, Stephen Goldsmith is clear about his preference for privatizing city services. Once in office, however, Goldsmith decides on a different, more complex approach. The inefficiency of publicly-provided services, he reflects, may not be the result of their being public but rather a reflection of the lack of competition over who will provide them. In that light, Goldsmith undertakes a bold experiment: to force city departments to bid against private providers. This case focuses on the first stages of the Goldsmith experiment, a time in which city public works crews must, for the first time, compete against private firms for a pothole repair contract. The case raises core questions as to how to structure public-private competitions to ensure that valid comparison will be possible, as well as how to determine the exact nature of public costs. In addition, it allows for discussion of more theoretical questions as to whether some functions must always be public, while others should be private and still others privately-provided but publicly-financed.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1355.1 Central Complaint & Info. Service for Louisville: City Call (Epilogue) Y1 - 2020 AB -

CityWork: Louisville, KY – 1995 Innovations Winner

The belief of Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Jerry Abramson in improved service to citizen ”customers” leads to the 1989 establishment of a centralized complaint/information system – a single phone number to which complaints or inquiries about any of the city’s 25 departments can be made. But despite apparent success and a high public profile, managers of the ”CityCALL” system become frustrated with what they view as inefficiencies in their relationships with other city agencies. Some are linked to CityCALL by computer; others show little apparent inclination to cooperate. The case calls for consideration of how CityCALL could be improved through the vehicle of Louisville's ”CityWork” system, in which public employees, in a retreat-style setting, are called upon to offer specific suggestions for change. The case explores the evolution of an innovative program – its unexpected side effects and the sorts of resistance it encounters. It highlights, as well, Mayor Abramson’s contention that a system of cooperative program evaluation – CityWork – can lead to efficiencies which rival public/private competitive bidding and other ”privatization”-style strategies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1385.0 Protecting Pension Benefits: PBGC Meets General Motors (A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Early Warning Program: U.S. Department of the Treasury – 1995 Innovations Winner

In this case, the federal entity responsible for both safeguarding and insuring the private pension systems of the United States (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) must deal with one of the nation’s largest and arguably most troubled corporate pension systems – that of the General Motors Corporation. When GM proposes to sell off its Electronic Data Systems subsidiary, regulators at PBGC face a decision. Should they permit the deal to go forward if GM does not address an estimated $20 billion unfunded pension liability? In considering the question, PBGC must decide the extent, and potential justification, for demonstrating regulatory flexibility. Insisting on the letter of the law might scotch a deal which could lead to a significant contribution to GM’s pension liability. Too great a leniency, however – for instance, by allowing the value of GM’s own stock to be applied against pension liability – might jeopardize the interests of thousands of retired auto workers. The case is meant both to raise the issue of public sector negotiations flexibility and to facilitate discussion of the dynamics of public-private negotiations. See also Part B (1386.0).

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1530.1 Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on crime in New York City (Epilogue) Y1 - 2020 AB -

CompStat: New York, NY – 1996 Innovations Winner

The dramatic reduction in crime in New York City during the 1990s grabbed the attention of the U.S. and the world, seeming to provide evidence that new policy and management approaches could make an enormous difference for the better. This case tells the story of key management decisions that the New York Police Department itself credits with the successful attack on the city's crime rate. Specifically, it describes the approach of Police Chief William Bratton in assembling a core, reform-oriented management team and the development of a computerized crime tracking system used as the foundation for the targeting of police manpower. The epilogue raises the dramatic question of whether the goal of minimizing the misuse of force by police officers is also amenable to the measurement techniques successfully employed to the activity of criminals. This case, in addition to the questions it raises, provides a powerful telling of one of the most successful public sector management initiatives of recent times.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1559.3 The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City (C): Short-Term Outcomes Y1 - 2020 AB -

CompStat: New York, NY – 1996 Innovations Winner

This abridgement is based on the case ”Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City” (1530.0). The abridgement of the case divides the story of the change in the New York Police Department into three, roughly chronological parts – the diagnosis of the crime and organizational problems, the development of a new system of practices and incentives and a description of the variety of impacts which the new ”assertive policing” regime appeared to have. The three parts (1557.3, 1558.3, 1559.3) and Epilogue (1557.1) can be used individually or together. They should not be used along with the full case and sequel (1530.0, 1530.1) but should, instead, be considered a substitute approach.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1904.0 Taking a Therapeutic Approach to Juvenile Offenders: The “Missouri Model” Y1 - 2020 AB -

Division of Youth Services: Missouri – 2008 Innovations Winner

In the early 1970s, the Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS) took its first steps toward radically changing the way it dealt with youthful offenders remanded to its custody. For years, like most states, it had incarcerated juveniles convicted of felony or misdemeanor offenses in large quasi-penal facilities called “training schools.” Instead, DYS began establishing smaller “cottage-style” residential programs that emphasized rehabilitation over punishment and applied a therapeutic approach to its troubled young charges. Over the next three decades, DYS expanded this approach to encompass its entire juvenile offender population. By the mid-2000s, the “Missouri model,” as it became known, was perhaps the most admired – and, many considered, most effective – juvenile corrections system in the U.S.

This case describes the Missouri model – including the population it serves, the educational and therapeutic programs it offers, and the frontline staff of “youth specialists” it employs to work closely with young offenders. The case also provides an overview of Missouri’s impressively low recidivism figures and a brief discussion of the complexities of comparing such figures among states. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges the Missouri DYS has faced in sustaining its highly regarded, but demanding, approach over many years. The case can be used in classes on child welfare policy and criminal justice.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1904.9 Missouri‘s Therapeutic Approach to Juvenile Offenders (DVD Supplement) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Division of Youth Services: Missouri – 2008 Innovations Winner

This 10-minute video is a companion to ”Taking a Therapeutic Approach to Juvenile Offenders: The ‘Missouri Model,’” Kennedy School case number C16-09-1904.0. In it, Tim Decker, the director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services, lays out the philosophy and practice of the therapeutic process used by the department in its treatment of youth offenders. The video shows the young people as they explore the roots of their behavior and develop tools to process trauma, often by articulating and sharing their feelings and concerns in a group setting. The ultimate goal of the program, Decker explains, is to encourage internalized change and foster social competencies. Powerful testimony from some of the youth sheds light on the main challenges they experience as they struggle to rebuild their lives.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1927.0 Bringing Kids Home: The Wraparound Milwaukee Model Y1 - 2020 AB -

Wraparound Milwaukee: Milwaukee County, WI – 2009 Innovations Winner

The Wraparound Milwaukee program was created in 1995 by Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and provides services and treatment to severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and youth. The program utilizes the “wraparound philosophy” to provide the children and youth it serves with a highly individualized, community, and strength-based approach to care. The delivery of services are facilitated by a Care Coordinator who works with the family to choose the right services from Wraparound Milwaukee’s network of individual providers and community based organizations. The program’s funding is pooled from several state and county agencies. Wraparound Milwaukee’s innovative approach to care has brought considerable savings to the county $3,878 per month per child for Wraparound Milwaukee versus $8,000-$10,000 per month per child that the county paid for residential placement. Wraparound Milwaukee has seen positive outcomes in the youth it serves after disenrollment in terms of clinical health indicators as well as other indicators.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2010.0 Rebuilding Aceh: Indonesia Y1 - 2020 AB - The December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami caused tremendous damage and suffering on several continents, with Indonesia’s Aceh Province (located on the far northern tip of Sumatra Island) experiencing the very worst. In the tsunami’s wake – and with offers of billions of dollars of aid coming from all corners of the globe – the Indonesian government faced the daunting task of implementing a massive recovery effort that could meet the expectations of donors and survivors alike. With this in mind, Indonesia’s president established in April 2005 a national-level, ad hoc agency – known by its acronym, BRR – to coordinate reconstruction activities across the province. This case examines some of the core challenges BRR’s leaders encountered as they moved to set up the agency and then proceeded to coordinate and execute a recovery process involving hundreds of domestic and international partner organizations and thousands of independent reconstruction projects. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2016.0 Inundation: The Slow-Moving Crisis of Pakistan Y1 - 2020 AB - Throughout August 2010, flooding continued to spread across Pakistan, eventually overtaking large portions of the southern part of the country. With Case A providing background and recounting early response efforts, Case B explores how the crisis worsened and the response intensified throughout the second half of August, highlighting actions taken at the federal level, as well as by the United States and other foreign governments. It also explores efforts by the United Nations, on behalf of the international humanitarian community, to support flood relief. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2025.0 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools’ Response to the July 2012 Movie Y1 - 2020 AB - The case prompts students to consider what community recovery entails, especially vis-à-vis mental health issues and resiliency; the role of different institutions therein; and how to accommodate a range of public views on these topics. It also explores broader issues in local government, most notably coordination within and across agencies as well as between the public and private sectors.   ER - TY - CASE T1 - 719.0 Financing Indonesia's Roads Y1 - 2020 AB - In the fall of 1986, the World Bank offered the government of Indonesia a loan of approximately US $200-250 million for highway construction in the capital city of Jakarta and the country's other four largest urban centers. It was an attractive proposal: plummeting world oil prices had squeezed the national treasury, which had derived about 60 percent of its revenues from Indonesian oil profits. But for much the same reason, Indonesia's Ministry of Finance felt compelled to find new revenue sources to repay the loan.  ER - TY - CASE T1 - 856.9 Finding Black Parents: Video Exhibit Y1 - 2020 AB -

One Church/One Child Minority Adoption Campaign: Illinois – 1986 Innovations Winner

In 1980, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faced a crisis. Over 700 black children in cook County, including 69 infants, waited for adoption while the agency was unable to find black parents. A supplement to the case (856.0), this video exhibit brings to life the successful strategy of the One Church, One Child program, focusing on a presentation in a black church designed to encourage adoptions. In addition, the video includes retrospective comments from the program's administrators and vignettes of families who have adopted children as a result of the program. This case will challenge students to examine the assumptions that limit bureaucracies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 875.0 Taking Charge: Rose Washington and Spofford Juvenile Detention Center Y1 - 2020 AB -

Case Management for At-Risk Children in Detention: New York, NY – 1986 Innovations Winner

The latest in a long string of directors of New York City’s toughest juvenile detention facility confronts a staff which is both demoralized and resentful of authority. As the jail’s first black director, she must cope with a predominantly black staff long accustomed to ”getting over” – giving less than full effort and rationalizing its attitude in terms of the perceived indifference of a ”downtown” white power structure. Battles over child abuse, insubordination and union power ensue.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Science, Technology, & Democracy: Building a Modern Congressional Technology Assessment Office Y1 - 2020 A1 - Zach Graves A1 - Daniel Schuman AB -

Zach Graves and Daniel Schuman, January 2020

This paper offers recommendations and a road map for the future success of a restarted technology assessment office in Congress. We look at three potential approaches: (1) Building up the Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s OTA-like capacity in its newly created Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics (STAA) team, and giving it greater resources and structural autonomy; (2) Reviving OTA but updating its procedures and statutory authority; and (3) A hybrid approach wherein both GAO and a new OTA develop different capacities and specializations. (Spoiler: we favor the third approach.)
 
The next section of this paper reviews what OTA was and how it functioned. The third section discusses the history of and rationale for the defunding of OTA, other cuts to Congress’s S&T capacity, and why this congressional capacity and expertise matter for democracy. The fourth section reviews efforts to revive OTA and other efforts to build new congressional S&T capacity. The fifth section discusses the political landscape for building S&T capacity, including the legislative branch appropriations process and the different political constituencies for S&T. The final section offers a detailed discussion of various structural recommendations for a new congressional technology assessment office, including an expanded STAA unit in GAO, and a new OTA.
 
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/293408_hvd_ash_sciecne_tech_and_democracy_report.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Hidden Face of Rights Y1 - 2020 A1 - Kathryn Sikkink AB -

Kathryn Sikkink, Yale University Press, January 2020 

When we debate questions in international law, politics, and justice, we often use the language of rights—and far less often the language of responsibilities. Human rights scholars and activists talk about state responsibility for rights, but they do not articulate clear norms about other actors’ obligations. In this book, Kathryn Sikkink argues that we cannot truly implement human rights unless we also recognize and practice the corresponding human responsibilities.
 
Focusing on five areas—climate change, voting, digital privacy, freedom of speech, and sexual assault—and providing many examples of on-the-ground initiatives where people choose to embrace a close relationship between rights and responsibilities, Sikkink argues for the importance of responsibilities to any comprehensive understanding of political ethics and human rights.

UR - https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300233292/hidden-face-rights ER - TY - Generic T1 - A Fair and Feasible Formula for the Allocation of CARES Act COVID‐19 Relief Funds to American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Governments Y1 - 2020 A1 - Randall K.Q. Akee A1 - Eric C. Henson A1 - Joseph Kalt A1 - Miriam R. Jorgensen AB -

Randall K.Q. Akee, Eric C. Henson, Miriam R. Jorgensen, and Joseph P. Kalt; May 2020 

Title V of the CARES Act requires that the Act’s funds earmarked for tribal governments be released immediately and that they be used for actions taken to respond to the COVID‐19 pandemic. These may include costs incurred by tribal governments to respond directly to the crisis, such as medical or public health expenditures by tribal health departments. Eligible costs may also include burdens associated with what the U.S. Treasury Department calls “second‐order effects,” such as having to provide economic support to those suffering from employment or business interruptions due to pandemic‐driven business closures. Determining eligible costs is problematic.

Title V of the CARES Act instructs that the costs to be covered are those incurred between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020. Not only does this create the need for some means of approximating expenditures that are not yet incurred or known, but the Act’s emphasis on the rapid release of funds to tribes also makes it imperative that a fair and feasible formula be devised to allocate the funds across 574 tribes without imposing undue delay and costs on either the federal government or the tribes.

Recognizing the need for reasonable estimation of the burdens of the pandemic on tribes, the authors of this report propose an allocation formula that uses data‐ready drivers of those burdens.  Specifically, they propose a three‐part formula that puts 60% weight on each tribe’s population of enrolled citizens, 20% weight on each tribe’s total of tribal government and tribal enterprise employees, and 20% weight on each tribe’s background rate of coronavirus infections (as predicted by available, peer‐reviewed incidence models for Indian Country).

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/harvard-nni_proposed_formula_for_cares_act_allocations_05-22-2020_vfin_for_dist.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2016.1 Inundation: The Slow-Moving Crisis of Pakistan Y1 - 2020 AB - By August 2011, one year after the apex of Pakistan’s 2010 flooding crisis, recovery efforts had progressed substantially – but many Pakistanis still needed assistance. This epilogue highlights key accomplishments as well as some of the remaining challenges associated with the recovery, while also exploring actions taken by the national government to address problems experienced during the 2010 response. It closes by exploring how Pakistan and the international humanitarian community dealt with yet another round of severe flooding that occurred in late summer 2011. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1907.0 Buying Property in a Hot Market: NYC Creates a Fund to Keep Affordable Housing Developers in Play Y1 - 2020 AB -

New York Acquisition Fund: New York, NY – 2008 Innovations Winner

This three-part case study presents the initial problem, the thinking, the politics, and the design negotiations that produced New York City’s “NYC Acquisition Fund” in August 2006. The case concludes with a brief round-up of performance data and commentary from the Fund’s first two and a half years of operation.

The NYC Acquisition Fund was created to deliver loans to small and nonprofit affordable housing developers, allowing them to compete with market-rate developers to buy property in New York City on the open market at a time of rampant speculation, rapidly rising prices, and fierce competition. It represented a groundbreaking effort to use public sector funds and authority, together with foundation capital, to leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in loan capital from private lenders. In September 2008, the Fund was named a winner of the annual Innovations in American Government competition, sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, which declared it a “national model.”

The case is divided in three parts in the interest of maximum teaching flexibility. Teachers may want to assign their students to read one, two, or all three parts, depending on the nature of the class. Although the case includes finance concepts and terms, they are presented clearly and simply for the benefit of lay readers. Part One: Birth & Launch of an Idea, pp. 1-16, describes the intellectual and political history of the Fund – how City Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan came up with the idea, and how he and his allies made it a reality. Part Two: Portrait of the New York City Acquisition Fund LLC, pp. 17-26, describes the structure and principles of the Fund and details the six toughest design questions, negotiated among the Fund’s partners over a 14-month period: what kinds of projects would be eligible? how firm a commitment would the City make to funding each project upfront? when and how would loan underwriting be delegated? how, exactly, would risk be allocated among the lenders, foundations, and City? and what loan terms would be available to borrowers? Part Three: Fund Performance, August 2006 to March 2009, pp. 27-29, briefly sketches the Fund’s performance in its first two-and-a-half years. The case includes 11 exhibits, pp. 30-58.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1929.0 Aruna Roy and the Birth of a People Y1 - 2020 AB -

In 2005, the Parliament of India enacted the Right to Information Act, giving citizens of India a right to access the records of official acts by any public authority. Many individuals and organizations were involved in the lengthy and difficult struggle to get this legislation enacted. This case focuses on one of these individuals, Aruna Roy, regarded by many observers as a key player in empowering citizens to exercise the democratic right to make their government transparent and accountable. It traces the trajectory of her career as she searched for an effective platform for political and social change, to improve the lives of the poor and socially marginalized while adhering firmly to her commitment to lead an ethical life.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1037.0 Court Reporting in Kentucky (C) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Kentucky Video Courts: Kentucky – 1988 Innovations Winner

When a shortage of court reporters threatens to delay trials and back up the appeals process, Kentucky's Administrative Office of the Courts considers new technology as a solution to its problem. Video ”transcripts” of court proceedings hold the potential to sidestep the labor problem plaguing the courts. The use of video cameras to record court proceedings raises questions, however. Would a video record truly provide as useful a product as a written transcript? Would judges – and the courts themselves – accept video as a legal record? Director Don Cetrulo of the Administrative Office of the Courts, intrigued by the promise of video, must ponder both its implications – and the fact that no proven automatic camera technology existed in the mid-1980s that could adapt to the multiplicity of speakers and locations. Before he can reach the point of considering the legal impact of video court reporting, Cetrulo must decide whether to go so far as to award state funds to a local manufacturer who believes he can devise such a system.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1237.1 Reorganizing the Defense Logistics Agency (Sequel) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Move Information, Not Property: U.S. Department of Defense – 1999 Innovations Finalist

This government re-engineering case focuses on the agency responsible for procuring goods and services (other than weapons) for the Department of Defense. New leadership at the DLA must deal with a sharply changed system. Rather than receiving an annual appropriation, the mammoth agency must bill its multitude of customers – the various military services – for performing procurement tasks. In trying to make itself a customer-focused operation, DLA considers changing both the management structure of its headquarters and the relationship between its headquarters and field offices.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 877.0 Integration Incentives in Suburban Cleveland Y1 - 2020 AB -

Racial Integration Incentives: Cleveland, OH – 1998 Innovations Winner

Should an Ohio state agency provide low-interest loans to home buyers moving into areas in which they are ”racially under-represented” – even if they are whites in affluent suburbs moving into neighborhoods which might otherwise ”tip” to become all-black? The Ohio Housing Finance Agency confronts the questions of whether racial underrepresentation should be defined in percentage terms – and whether racial integration per se represents progress for black homebuyers. The case explores the history of efforts to manage racial integration in suburban Cleveland and highlights competing philosophies regarding the role of government in influencing residential racial patterns. It allows for discussion of ways in which public values evolve through the policymaking process.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1557.3 The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City (A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

CompStat: New York, NY – 1996 Innovations Winner

This abridgement is based on the case ”Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City” (1530.0). The abridgement of the case divides the story of the change in the New York Police Department into three, roughly chronological parts – the diagnosis of the crime and organizational problems, the development of a new system of practices and incentives and a description of the variety of impacts which the new ”assertive policing” regime appeared to have. The three parts (1557.3, 1558.3, 1559.3) and Epilogue (1557.1) can be used individually or together. They should not be used along with the full case and sequel (1530.0, 1530.1) but should, instead, be considered a substitute approach.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1270.1 Mayor Stephen Goldsmith: Organizing Competition in Indianapolis (Sequel) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Competition and Costing: Indianapolis, IN – 1995 Innovations Winner

During his successful 1991 bid for the indianapolis mayoralty, Stephen Goldsmith is clear about his preference for privatizing city services. Once in office, however, Goldsmith decides on a different, more complex approach. The inefficiency of publicly-provided services, he reflects, may not be the result of their being public but rather a reflection of the lack of competition over who will provide them. In that light, Goldsmith undertakes a bold experiment: to force city departments to bid against private providers. This case focuses on the first stages of the Goldsmith experiment, a time in which city public works crews must, for the first time, compete against private firms for a pothole repair contract. The case raises core questions as to how to structure public-private competitions to ensure that valid comparison will be possible, as well as how to determine the exact nature of public costs. In addition, it allows for discussion of more theoretical questions as to whether some functions must always be public, while others should be private and still others privately-provided but publicly-financed.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1371.0 Regulatory Reform at OSHA (A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Maine Top 200 Experimental Targeting Program: U.S. Department of Labor – 1995 Innovations Winner

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop – and with dwindling manpower and other resources – OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state’s most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has – and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government ”reinvention” programs it can widely replicate. This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program ”to scale.”

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1372.0 Regulatory Reform at OSHA (B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Maine Top 200 Experimental Targeting Program: U.S. Department of Labor – 1995 Innovations Winner

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop – and with dwindling manpower and other resources – OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state’s most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has – and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government ”reinvention” programs it can widely replicate. This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program ”to scale.”

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1386.0 Protecting Pension Benefits: PBGC Meets General Motors (B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Early Warning Program: U.S. Department of the Treasury – 1995 Innovations Winner

In this case, the federal entity responsible for both safeguarding and insuring the private pension systems of the United States (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) must deal with one of the nation’s largest and arguably most troubled corporate pension systems – that of the General Motors Corporation. When GM proposes to sell off its Electronic Data Systems subsidiary, regulators at PBGC face a decision. Should they permit the deal to go forward if GM does not address an estimated $20 billion unfunded pension liability? In considering the question, PBGC must decide the extent, and potential justification, for demonstrating regulatory flexibility. Insisting on the letter of the law might scotch a deal which could lead to a significant contribution to GM’s pension liability. Too great a leniency, however – for instance, by allowing the value of GM’s own stock to be applied against pension liability – might jeopardize the interests of thousands of retired auto workers. The case is meant both to raise the issue of public sector negotiations flexibility and to facilitate discussion of the dynamics of public-private negotiations.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1204.1 Info/California: Where Do Electronic Government Tellers Belong? (Epilogue) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Info/California: California – 1993 Innovations Winner

The growth of the kind of new interactive technologies promise to make it more convenient and less expensive for government, like private providers of consumer goods and services, to serve its customers – whether they seek a driver’s license or unemployment compensation. Incorporating such technologies implies change, however, and, as this case makes clear, requires decisions about when and how automated transactions should be the norm. The story of the Info/California decision focuses on competing visions of a new, interactive system which promises to allow Californians to obtain records, licenses and program information of all sorts. For its champion within state government, it makes most sense for a scarce number of interactive terminals to be placed in public areas – supermarkets, malls and the like. He must, however, face a demand by a state agency that a terminal be used to make up for laid-off employees in a place where the public has been accustomed to going for records and licenses. Developed for the Kennedy School’s Program on Strategic Computing, this case allows for discussion of the relationship between mission and technology.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1158.0 Wichita Confronts Contamination: Seeking Alternatives to Superfund (Part B) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Environmental Cleanup Program: Wichita, KS – 1992 Innovations Winner

Long-undetected groundwater contamination, discovered in 1990, by the Kansas Department of Health and Environmental Protection, has a potentially catastrophic economic impact on downtown Wichita, Kansas. The four-mile long, one-and-a-half-mile wide site centered at the corners of Gilbert and Mosley Streets lies in the heart of Wichita’s central business district. Although it did not provoke health concerns, the newly discovered contamination prompted lenders to cease making any financial commitments in the district. This case focuses on the strategic approach to this crisis taken by Wichita's city manager. Initially faced with two bad alternatives – forcing hundreds of businesses to share in the clean-up cost, or face designation of the area as a federal Superfund site, portending perhaps a decade of legal wrangling – Wichita creates a more palatable way out of the crisis. The case can be useful both for discussions of constituency-building and political strategy, and for discussions of U.S. federalism.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1228.0: Community Voice Mail for the “Phoneless”: Starting Up in Seattle and Minnesota Y1 - 2020 AB -

Community Voice Mail: Seattle, WA – 1993 Innovations Winner

The staff of a Seattle non-profit employment and training agency come to a sudden realization in late 1990: the homeless with whom they deal are handicapped not only by a lack of a permanent residence but their lack of a phone. They lack the means to receive calls, schedule interviews and, ultimately, obtain employment. The insight leads the Seattle Worker Center to seek state and, over time, private funds which permit it to set up a successful “community voice mail“ system, through which the “phoneless“ can store and send messages. The case is designed for students of social policy and allows for examination of those factors which led outside funders and, ultimately, the community at large, to embrace the voice mail idea. Additional description of an attempt to replicate the program in Minnesota portrays a less immediately hospitable situation which a non-profit leader must negotiate.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1317.0 Washington State Workers’ Compensation Administration (A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Washington State Workers’ Compensation: Washington – 1992 Innovations Winner

Like many such systems, the Washington State Workers’ Compensation Administration was, in the mid 1980s, in deep financial distress. Worse still, its fiscal problems were matched by deep problems of efficiency and morale, particularly in its crucial Claims Administration Unit, which called into question the agency’s ability to put its house in order. Under intense public and political pressure, a new team of administrators buys time through stopgap financial steps, before turning to the daunting task of internal structural reform, focused on the claims unit. The case provides rich detail of both the political and production operation issues which administrators confronted, including its strategy of breaking a claims log-jam by terminating a long-established ”assembly-line” claims process. Adopted in its place is a new structure which encouraged employees to take holistic responsibility for compensation claims and worker rehabilitation. The case raises the complications of worker morale, union relations and political and business pressures with which administrators coped, knowing that the possibility of privatization was a real alternative. They struggled both to put the department on its feet and to demonstrate a raison d’etre for a public system. Ultimately, their efforts were recognized by an Innovations in American Government program award.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1157.0 Wichita Confronts Contamination: Seeking Alternatives to Superfund (Part A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Environmental Cleanup Program: Wichita, KS – 1992 Innovations Winner

Long-undetected groundwater contamination, discovered in 1990, by the Kansas Department of Health and Environmental Protection, has a potentially catastrophic economic impact on downtown Wichita, Kansas. The four-mile long, one-and-a-half-mile wide site centered at the corners of Gilbert and Mosley Streets lies in the heart of Wichita’s central business district. Although it did not provoke health concerns, the newly discovered contamination prompted lenders to cease making any financial commitments in the district. This case focuses on the strategic approach to this crisis taken by Wichita's city manager. Initially faced with two bad alternatives – forcing hundreds of businesses to share in the clean-up cost, or face designation of the area as a federal Superfund site, portending perhaps a decade of legal wrangling – Wichita creates a more palatable way out of the crisis. The case can be useful both for discussions of constituency-building and political strategy, and for discussions of U.S. federalism.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1221.0 Friends of the Family: Public/Private/Community Broker Y1 - 2020 AB -

Friends of the Family, Inc.: Maryland – 1991 Innovations Winner

It has become standard practice for major social service agencies to contract with non-profit organizations to deliver tax-supported services. In Maryland, however, the state Department of Human Resources went a step further. It believed in the need for a program, statewide, to provide support for low-income parents with children under three. To get such programs going, however, the Department turned to a non-profit group both to establish ”family support centers” and administer grants directed to them. This case allows for discussion of the appropriate role of government and the non-profit sector in administering and delivering human service programs.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1025.1 XPORT: A Public Sector Trading Company Y1 - 2020 AB -

Xport, The Port Authority Trading Company: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – 1990 Innovations Winner

This case takes its place in the ongoing debate over privatization: which functions are best performed by the public sector, which should be reserved to private enterprise? In this instance, a newly-appointed executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey must decide whether or not to continue a fledgling ”public sector trading company” – a program designed to nurture small business exports by identifying overseas customers and acting as middleman in the transaction – all for a fee. Early sales figures are disappointing; organized private opposition has surfaced in the state legislature. But a strong-willed program director is convinced that small exporters are not served by private trading firms and that increasing the volume of small exports will help keep the Port Authority’s facilities busy.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1038.0 Electronic Benefits System in Ramsey County, Minnesota Y1 - 2020 AB -

Electronic Benefit System: Ramsey County, MN – 1990 Innovations Winner

When banks in Ramsey County (Saint Paul), Minnesota decide to stop cashing welfare checks, the county faces a crisis. It must continue to provide a way for welfare recipients to receive their benefits. Yet it has exhausted the standard means of doing so. This Innovations in State and Local Government case follows the course of Ramsey County’s decision to adopt a radically different benefits delivery system – the use of an ATM (automatic teller machine) card which will allow welfare recipients to draw down their account at a variety of locations, at their own convenience. Officials in the Community Human Services Department gain acceptance of this idea, however, not because of its innovative quality but because they convince county officials it will provide the service at no increase in cost. This case provides a vehicle for discussion of the nature of public sector innovation and the forces that drive or constrain it. It raises the following question, as well: At a time when information technologies are making everything from mail orders to credit card replacement ”user friendly,” will government find ways to adapt these technologies to aid in delivering its services?

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 870.0 Jean Ekins and the Family Learning Center (A) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Family Learning Center: Ingham County, MI – 1988 Innovations Winner

During the 1978-79 school year, the state of Michigan turned down Jean Ekins’ application for model-site designation of her Leslie, Michigan Family Learning Center. Ekins had started the program four years earlier within the Leslie public school system to provide an appropriate high school setting for teen-aged parents. Designation carried a $60,000 grant, about twice the center's current annual budget. Ekins believed the money as well as the designation would have lent legitimacy to the center's existence, which the conservative community of Leslie frequently questioned on practical and moral grounds. At the time of Ekins’ application, the center provided services to about 20 students, but many more young parents were on the waiting list, denied services because of a lack of funds. It had become clear to Ekins that, without more money, the center would remain a small, relatively ineffective weapon in the fight to provide educational services to Leslie-area school-aged parents. The case describes Ekins’ efforts to establish the program and focuses on the issues confronting the administrator of a small, financially strapped program on the frontiers of service delivery. The case also addresses the question of how best to expand a successful but limited program: how to gauge degrees of support and opposition; how to balance demands for resources; and where and how to look for potential allies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 928.0 Building the Baltic Y1 - 2020 AB -

Single Room Occupancy Resident Hotel Program: San Diego, CA – 1988 Innovations Winner

When the destruction or conversion of single-room occupancy hotels, or SROs, in San Diego’s downtown seemed to lead to an increase in homelessness, a private real estate developer argued that he could build profitable new SROs if the city would waive or modify key safety and construction standards. In the ensuing debate over the first such SRO, the Baltic Inn, core public housing issues came to the fore: whether regulation was effective and equitable, whether deregulation would serve the poor, and what minimum quality of life society should demand for even the poorest housing consumers. For a different treatment of this issue, see Housing’s Bottom Rung: Single Room Occupancy Hotels in San Diego (C18-95-1293.0 and 1294.0). Housing’s Bottom Rung, the abridged version of Building the Baltic (C16-89-928.0), leaves the dilemma of how best to solve the city’s housing problems to students, rather than describing the route which San Diego actually pursued, as is done in the original case. It describes the decline in single room occupancy hotels for poor single people and early proposals for a preservation ordinance to halt their demolition. The use of the A case first in class, followed by the handout of B, is meant to prompt the realization that careful and imaginative policy analysis can lead in politically unanticipated directions.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 996.2 St. Louis County Police Department (TN) Y1 - 2020 AB -

Computer Assisted Report Entry: St Louis, MO – 1988 Innovations Winner

This case examines a specific technological innovation and tracks its effect on the procedures of an organization. The Computer Assisted Report Entry (CARE) system adopted by the St. Louis County Police Department is designed to replace what is viewed as a cumbersome, if vital, procedure: the filing of written reports by individual police officers involved in responses to calls and in arrests. CARE replaces what the department believes to be an inefficient system of written reports with a system of telephone reporting. Although viewed positively in the text, the case also invites scrutiny of the long-term, perhaps unforeseen, consequences of such a technological change.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 856.1 Finding Black Parents (Epilogue) Y1 - 2020 AB -

One Church/One Child Minority Adoption Campaign: Illinois – 1986 Innovations Winner

In 1980, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faced a crisis. Over 700 black children in cook County, including 69 infants, waited for adoption while the agency was unable to find black parents. Director Gregory L. Color, with his deputy gordon Johnson, approached Father George Clements, a black activist Chicago priest in the Baptist community. From those meetings came One Church, One Child, a plan to use pastors of the black churches as spokesmen to reach the community. Coler and Johnson faced several hurdles as they asked a private religious institution to help solve a public agency’s problem. They had to change negative attitudes both in the black community; which had grown to distrust the state agency, and among a staff suspicious of change who would implement the black adoption program. They had to revamp state laws that inhibited the adoption process. And they had to change bureaucratic procedures that had proven ineffective. The accompanying video exhibit brings to life the successful strategy of the One Church, One Child program, focusing on a presentation in a black church designed to encourage adoptions. In addition, the video includes retrospective comments from the program's administrators and vignettes of families who have adopted children as a result of the program. This case will challenge students to examine the assumptions that limit bureaucracies. Available in Spanish translation.

ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Hong Kong: The Rise and Fall of “One Country, Two Systems” Y1 - 2019 A1 - William H. Overholt AB -

William H. Overholt, December 2019

This is an extensively edited, updated and expanded text of a lecture given for the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School on October 31, 2019. From the origination of “one country, two systems” in 1979 to today, this paper analyzes the history of the unique relationship between Hong Kong, Beijing, and the world.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/overholt_hong_kong_paper_final.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Legitimacy: The Right to Rule in a Wanton World Y1 - 2019 A1 - Arthur Isak Applbaum AB -

Arthur Applbaum, Harvard University Press, November 2019 

What makes a government legitimate? The dominant view is that public officials have the right to rule us, even if they are unfair or unfit, as long as they gain power through procedures traceable to the consent of the governed. In this rigorous and timely study, Arthur Isak Applbaum argues that adherence to procedure is not enough: even a properly chosen government does not rule legitimately if it fails to protect basic rights, to treat its citizens as political equals, or to act coherently.

PB - Harvard University Press UR - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983465 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Playbook: Government as Platform Y1 - 2019 A1 - Richard Pope AB -

Richard Pope, November 2019

Looking around the world, we can see a different approach to digital government. One of cross-government platforms that are beginning to break down organizational silos, save money and change the types of services that can be delivered to the public. This playbook is written for practitioners, from public sector product managers to chief digital officers, looking for approaches to implementing platforms in government. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/293091_hvd_ash_gvmnt_as_platform_v2.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - An Analysis of the Council of Arab Economic Unity’s Arab Digital Economy Strategy Y1 - 2019 ED - David Eaves AB -

Edited by David Eaves, October 2019

In this report, experts analyze the Council of Arab Economic Unity's comprehensive digital strategy for the Arab region. While some countries have individually launched digital economy roadmaps in recent years, the Arab Digital Economy Strategy offers a new opportunity to consider the benefits and challenges of digital cooperation across countries. Specifically, this report details areas of concern and explores some potential resolutions to these challenges.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/293091_hvd_ash_paper_arab_economic-f.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission: One State's Model for Reform Y1 - 2019 A1 - Colleen Mathis A1 - Daniel Moskowitz A1 - Benjamin Schneer AB -

Colleen Mathis, Daniel Moskowitz, and Benjamin Schneer; September 2019 

In most states, redistricting, the process by which electoral district boundaries are drawn, is an overtly partisan exercise controlled by state legislatures. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019 decision Rucho v. Common Cause held that federal courts cannot review allegations of partisan gerrymandering. Independent redistricting in practice has proven remarkably successful along several dimensions. This policy brief outlines key lessons learned from redistricting in Arizona, a state with a five-person independent redistricting commission.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/az_redistricting_policy_brief.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Valuing U.S. National Parks and Programs: America’s Best Investment Y1 - 2019 A1 - Linda J. Bilmes A1 - John B. Loomis AB -

Linda J. Bilmes and John B. Loomis, Routledge, August 2019 

This book provides the first comprehensive economic valuation of US National Parks (including Monuments, Seashores, Lakeshores, Recreation Areas, Historic sites) and National Park Service (NPS) Programs.

PB - Routledge UR - https://www.routledge.com/Valuing-US-National-Parks-and-Programs-Americas-Best-Investment/Bilmes-Loomis/p/book/9781138483125 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Can Transparency and Accountability Programs Improve Health? Experimental Evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania Y1 - 2019 A1 - Transparency for Development Team AB -

Transparency for Development Team, June 2019 

This paper assess the impact of a transparency and accountability program designed to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes in Indonesia and Tanzania. Co-designed with local partner organizations to be community-led and non-prescriptive, the program sought to encourage community participation to address local barriers in access to high quality care for pregnant women and infants. This paper evaluates the impact of this program through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving 100 treatment and 100 control communities in each country, and finds that on average, this program did not have a statistically significant impact on the use or content of maternal and newborn health services, nor the sense of civic efficacy or civic participation among recent mothers in the communities who were offered it.

UR - https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/can-transparency-and-accountability-programs-improve-health-experimental-evidence ER - TY - Generic T1 - Civic Responsibility: The Power of Companies to Increase Voter Turnout Y1 - 2019 A1 - Sofia Gross A1 - Ashley Spillane AB -

Sofia Gross and Ashley Spillane, June 2019 

This case study provides an analysis and evaluation of the implementation of civic participation programs by companies aimed at increasing voter turnout. The United States consistently lags behind the majority of developed democratic nations in voter turnout, averaging less than half of the eligible voter population participating in midterm elections. The U.S. ranks 26th out of 32 developed democracies in percentage of eligible voters who participate in elections. Today, many companies have dedicated resources for corporate social responsibility projects aimed at strengthening society and building goodwill among employees, consumers, and the public. Voter participation initiatives align with the goals of social responsibility projects, as they address a critical societal problem (lack of engagement), while building goodwill with key stakeholders. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/harvard-casestudy-report-digital_copy.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Europe Is Us: Brexit Will Not Take Place Y1 - 2019 A1 - Muriel Rouyer AB -

Muriel Rouyer, May 2019 

The saga of Brexit, an elusive public policy with shifting objectives but devastating costs, confirms an unpleasant reality: economic interdependence keeps majoritarian will, even that of a sovereign people, in check. Brexit raises the question, fundamental in democracy, of political freedom, which itself calls into question the political community within which freely agreed-upon choices are made.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/291634_hvd_ash_paper_muriel_rouyer_updated.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Engaging Patients for Research That Matters: IBD Partners Y1 - 2019 A1 - Fagotto, Elena AB -

Elena Fagotto, Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health, March 2019

The Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health was established to conduct comparative case studies on platforms that empower patients through information to provide an inventory and typology of initiatives. This case study takes a look at IBD Partners, a research network connecting nearly 15,500 IBD patients with over 300 researchers. Patients can contribute their self-reported health data for research by filling out surveys on their health twice a year. This way, patient-generated data feeds into an extensive database that can be accessed by researchers to conduct longitudinal studies, to connect with patients for clinical trials and for prospective studies. Patients can also use the platform to suggest research questions and vote for the most interesting ideas, generating a truly patient-driven research agenda.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/290699_hvd_ash_paper_lot_2_updated.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Exchanging Information to Create a Learning Health System: The ImproveCareNow Approach to Engagement Y1 - 2019 A1 - Fagotto, Elena AB -

Elena Fagotto, Transparency and Technology for Better Health, March 2019

The Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health was established to conduct comparative case studies on platforms that empower patients through information to provide an inventory and typology of initiatives. This case study details ImproveCareNow (ICN), a network of clinicians, medical centers, patients, families and researchers working together to improve the lives of children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/291687_hvd_ash_paper_v2_queries_01.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Power of Peer-to-Peer Connections: Breast Cancer Straight Talk Support Facebook Community Y1 - 2019 A1 - Fagotto, Elena AB -

Elena Fagotto, Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health, March 2019

The Project on Transparency and Technology for Better Health was established to conduct comparative case studies on platforms that empower patients through information to provide an inventory and typology of initiatives. This case study takes a look at Breast Cancer Straight Talk Support, a closed Facebook community for women dealing with breast cancer and survivors. With hundreds of posts every day, the group is a safe space where women can vent about feeling scared, depressed, or lonely and receive support from women who “get them.” For many members, the group is a window into other women’s cancer journeys, which gives them perspective and a more proactive attitude to fight the disease. The community is also an important resource to ask questions on treatments, side effects, surgery and more.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/290699_hvd_ash_paper_lot_2_updated.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2151.2 Bipartisanship in the U.S. Congress: The Water for the World Act of 2014 Y1 - 2019 A1 - Legislative Negotiation Project AB -

Legislative Negotiation Project, February 2019 

This multimedia case, a product of the Legislative Negotion Project, focuses on the key decision points leading up to the unlikely passage in 2014 of the bipartisan Water for the World Act in the U.S. Congress. It features interviews with members of the House and the Senate, Congressional staffers, advocates and lobbyists. Through seven short videos to be played in class, faculty and students can explore the challenges of bipartisan negotiation in a highly polarized legislative environment, and of strategies to increase the chance for success when the only way to pass legislation is through bipartisanship.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/legislative-negotiation-project/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism Y1 - 2019 A1 - Pippa Norris A1 - Ronald Inglehart AB -

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Cambridge University Press, February 2019

Authoritarian populist parties have advanced in many countries, and entered government in states as diverse as Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland. Even small parties can still shift the policy agenda, as demonstrated by UKIP's role in catalyzing Brexit. Drawing on new evidence, this book advances a general theory why the silent revolution in values triggered a backlash fuelling support for Authoritarian-Populist parties and leaders in the US and Europe. The conclusion highlights the dangers of this development and what could be done to mitigate the risks to liberal democracy.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/cultural-backlash-trump-brexit-and-authoritarian-populism?format=PB ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Public Value: Deepening, Enriching, and Broadening the Theory and Practice Y1 - 2019 A1 - Adam Lindgreen A1 - Nicole Koenig-Lewis A1 - Martin Kitchener A1 - John D. Brewer A1 - Mark H. Moore A1 - Timo Meynhardt AB -

Adam Lindgreen, Nicole Koenig-Lewis, Martin Kitchener, John D. Brewer, Mark H. Moore, and Timo Meynhardt, Routledge, 2019 

Over the last 10 years, the concept of value has emerged in both business and public life as part of an important process of measuring, benchmarking, and assuring the resources we invest and the outcomes we generate from our activities. In the context of public life, value is an important measure on the contribution to business and social good of activities for which strict financial measures are either inappropriate or fundamentally unsound.

PB - Routledge UR - https://www.routledge.com/Public-Value-Deepening-Enriching-and-Broadening-the-Theory-and-Practice/Lindgreen-Koenig-Lewis-Kitchener-Brewer-Moore-Meynhardt/p/book/9781138059665 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2142.4 Oregon Tackles Equal Pay... And Wrestles with Bipartisan Compromise Y1 - 2019 A1 - Legislative Negotiation Project AB -

Legislative Negotiation Project, January 2019 

This multimedia case, a product of the Legislative Negotiation Project, provides a lively portrait—from multiple points of view—of the creative bipartisan negotiations in both the Oregon House and Senate that ultimately led to passage of the 2017 Equal Pay Act. The case helps participants gain insights on the benefits and risks of bipartisanship, how a culture of bipartisanship is created, and strategies to resolve thorny issues and maintain support from political allies.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/legislative-negotiation-project/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Alan Brinkley: A Life in History Y1 - 2019 A1 - David Greenberg A1 - Moshik Temkin A1 - Mason B. Williams AB -

David Greenberg, Moshik Temkin, and Mason B. Williams; Columbia University Press; January 2019

Few American historians of his generation have had as much influence in both the academic and popular realms as Alan Brinkley. His debut work, the National Book Award–winning Voices of Protest, launched a storied career that considered the full spectrum of American political life. His books give serious and original treatments of populist dissent, the role of mass media, the struggles of liberalism and conservatism, and the powers and limits of the presidency. A longtime professor at Harvard University and Columbia University, Brinkley has shaped the field of U.S. history for generations of students through his textbooks and his mentorship of some of today’s foremost historians. Alan Brinkley: A Life in History brings together essays on his major works and ideas, as well as personal reminiscences from leading historians and thinkers beyond the academy whom Brinkley collaborated with, befriended, and influenced. 

UR - https://cup.columbia.edu/book/alan-brinkley/9780231187244 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Change at the Speed of Trust: Advancing Educational Opportunity Through Cross-Sector Collaboration in Louisville Y1 - 2019 A1 - Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative AB -

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, January 2019

This Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative teaching case covers City of Louisville's effort to increase students’ college and career readiness. On the morning of June 4, 2018, members of Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s Louisville Promise Cabinet assembled around a U-shaped table in a downtown office building. 

UR - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5984acf0893fc0dc4b2fe0cf/t/5c3b886e4d7a9c2781801944/1547405427190/01_Change_at_the_Speed_of_Trust_CASE.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - Change at the Speed of Trust: Advancing Educational Opportunity through Cross-Sector Collaboration in Louisville Y1 - 2019 A1 - Gaylen Moore A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Paul Reville A1 - Lynne Sacks A1 - Anna Burgess AB -

Gaylen Moore, Jorrit de Jong, Paul Revilla, Lynne Sacks, and Anna Burgess, January 2019 

At the turn of the 21st century, Louisville, Kentucky, found itself in the middle to the back of the pack among peer cities along a number of key measures of prosperity and quality of life. Since then, two consecutive mayors have advanced collaborative efforts across sectors to increase students’ college and career readiness and address the city’s significant achievement gap. This case tells the story of how that effort evolved under the leadership of Mayor Greg Fischer into an effort to effect system change in education from “cradle to career” through wraparound services and scholarship guarantees for graduating high school students.

The case explores cross-sector collaboration and governance in a city-wide context from the mayor’s point of view, centering the question of whether the process is moving too fast or too slow. It also supports learning about the design and management of cross-sector collaborations, including common challenges and success factors. An accompanying teaching note includes theory and conceptual frameworks to lead classroom discussion on the case.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reforming Mobility Management: Rethinking the Regulatory Framework Y1 - 2019 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith AB -

Stephen Goldsmith, January 2019

More people than ever live in cities, where the dominant mode of transportation continues to be single-occupant personal vehicles. This has created unprecedented burdens on city infrastructure and increased congestion on roads in urban centers. Increased congestion has resulted in greater greenhouse gas emissions, lower reliability of public transit systems, longer commutes, and an overall lower quality of living for citizens.

These challenges have created fertile ground for private-sector innovation within the mobility ecosystem. Thus far, the most significant private sector innovation in urban mobility has been ridesharing. Conventional wisdom attributes the birth of rideshare to the proliferation of smartphones and improvements in wireless connectivity and location data in cities. However, the ridesharing industry also relies on dependability and reliability of free public roads, which were a critical component in the development of the modern car-friendly city. Unfortunately, these same public roads lack the infrastructure to coordinate and interact with digital-first services as effectively as they coordinate the physical movement of people and goods.
 
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/290071_hvd_ash_policy_goldsmith_final.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Replicating Urban Analytics Use Cases Y1 - 2019 A1 - Craig Campbell AB -

Craig Campbell, January 2019

At a 2016 meeting of leading municipal analytics practitioners and experts at the Harvard Kennedy School, Johns Hopkins GovEx’s then-director of advanced analytics, Carter Hewgley, assessed the opportunities for analytics replication: “The good news is that problems and opportunities in U.S. cities are similar, meaning there is unending replication potential,” he said. The bad news was that lack of good protocols for use case discovery, challenges accessing and standardizing data, and uneven investment in data-literate human capital make analytics use cases difficult to generalize and import into different cities. At a time when the value of predictive analytics is widely recognized as a tool for better decision making and “chief data officer” is an increas- ingly common title in municipal government, cities still face the same challenges adopting analytical models into routine operations they have faced for decades.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/290042_hvd_ash_policy_campbell_v2.pdf ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Transparency for Development: PreAnalysis Plan Y1 - 2018 A1 - Matthew Bombyk A1 - Jessica Creighton A1 - Akshay Dixit A1 - Dan Levy A1 - Lindsey Roots AB -

Matthew Bombyk, Jessica Creighton, Akshay Dixit, Dan Levy, Lindsey Roots; April 2018 

The goal of the analysis described here is to identify the effects of the Transparency for Development program intervention on a range of maternal health and community participation outcomes as well as intermediate or process outcomes. The plan pre-specifies the analysis that will be conducted, before comparing outcomes between treatment and control groups. It outlines the intervention, evaluation design, data sources, hypotheses and outcomes of interest, and the impact estimation strategy. By committing to pre-specified analysis plans we hope to minimize issues of data mining and specification searching. The pre-analysis plan serves the dual purpose of ensuring the endline data collection tools are sufficient for the planned analysis. This plan was written and submitted after baseline data collection and the implementation of the intervention, but prior to the start of endline data collection.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/transparency_for_development_pre-analysis_plan.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2127.0 Negotiating a Coalition of the Willing: Curt Bramble and the Utah Immigration Fight Y1 - 2018 A1 - Legislative Negotiation Project AB -

Legislative Negotiation Project, May 2018 

The case, a product of the Legislative Negotiation Project, describes how state legislators in Utah, a very conservative state, assembled a “Coalition of the Willing”— Republican and Democratic representatives alongside religious, civic and business leaders—to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to address the emotionally-charged issue of immigration reform in 2010-2011. The case illuminates issues such as: diagnosing the barriers to agreement; understanding the role of the Utah Compact in shaping the negotiation strategy and trajectory of the 2010-2011 legislation; showing how a focus on problem framing brings more people to the table and creates the conditions for buy-in of an acceptable compromise solution.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/legislative-negotiation-project/ ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2125.0 A Cascade of Emergencies (B): Responding to Superstorm Sandy in New York City Y1 - 2018 AB - On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sandy’s massive size, coupled with an unusual combination of meteorological conditions, fueled an especially powerful and destructive storm surge, which caused unprecedented damage in and around New York City, the country’s most populous metropolitan area, as well as on Long Island and along the Jersey Shore. This two-part case study focuses on how New York City prepared for the storm’s arrival and then responded to the cascading series of emergencies – from fires, to flooding, to power failures – that played out as it bore down on the city. Profiling actions taken at the local level by emergency response agencies like the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the case also explores how the city coordinated with state and federal partners – including both the state National Guard and federal military components – and illustrates both the advantages and complications of using military assets for domestic emergency response operations.

Part B of the case highlights, among other things, the experience of Staten Island, which experienced the worst of Sandy’s wrath. In the storm’s wake, frustration over the speed of the response triggered withering public criticism from borough officials, leading to concerns that a political crisis was about to overwhelm the still unfolding relief effort. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Vietnam's Crisis of Success in Electricity: Options for Successful Clean Energy Mix Y1 - 2018 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, December 2018

As Vietnam looks to the future planning for energy production and use, careful analysis of the cost of the variety of power generation systems that can contribute to a successful energy mix is key. This paper is designed to assist in that effort and in providing information for the research for Power Development Plan 8.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/1.4.19_english_david_dapice_electricity_paper.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - 2125.0 A Cascade of Emergencies (B): Responding to Superstorm Sandy in New York City Y1 - 2018 A1 - David W. Giles A1 - Arnold M. Howitt AB -

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sandy’s massive size, coupled with an unusual combination of meteorological conditions, fueled an especially powerful and destructive storm surge, which caused unprecedented damage in and around New York City, the country’s most populous metropolitan area, as well as on Long Island and along the Jersey Shore. This two-part case study focuses on how New York City prepared for the storm’s arrival and then responded to the cascading series of emergencies – from fires, to flooding, to power failures – that played out as it bore down on the city. Profiling actions taken at the local level by emergency response agencies like the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the case also explores how the city coordinated with state and federal partners – including both the state National Guard and federal military components – and illustrates both the advantages and complications of using military assets for domestic emergency response operations.

Part B of the case highlights, among other things, the experience of Staten Island, which experienced the worst of Sandy’s wrath. In the storm’s wake, frustration over the speed of the response triggered withering public criticism from borough officials, leading to concerns that a political crisis was about to overwhelm the still unfolding relief effort.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Local Governance and Access to Urban Services in Asia Y1 - 2018 A1 - Shabbir Cheema AB -

Shabbir Cheema, November 2018

This policy brief explores how democratic processes in local governance affect access to urban services in Asian cities, especially for marginalized groups. It is based on research conducted by a group of national research and training institutions in nine cities in five Asian countries as well as regional dialogue hosted and facilitated by East-West Center with the support of the Swedish International Center for Local Democracy (ICLD). Governance process variables investigated were local government resources and capacity; mechanisms for local participation, accountability, and coordination; use of information and communications technology (ICT); implementation and replication of good practices; and management of peri-urbanization. This brief outlines research findings that are applicable across countries at the city level.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/283332_hvd_ash_cheema1_copy.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Playing by the Informal Rules Y1 - 2018 A1 - Yao Li AB -

Yao Li, Cambridge University Press, November 2018  

Growing protests in non-democratic countries are often seen as signals of regime decline. China, however, has remained stable amid surging protests. Playing by the Informal Rules highlights the importance of informal norms in structuring state-protester interactions, mitigating conflict, and explaining regime resilience. Drawing on a nationwide dataset of protest and multi-sited ethnographic research, this book presents a bird's-eye view of Chinese contentious politics and illustrates the uneven application of informal norms across regions, social groups, and time. Through examinations of protests and their distinct implications for regime stability, Li offers a novel theoretical framework suitable for monitoring the trajectory of political contention in China and beyond. Overall, this study sheds new light on political mobilization and authoritarian resilience and provides fresh perspectives on power, rules, legitimacy, and resistance in modern societies.

 

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/playing-by-the-informal-rules/E4465D7F99218A5524A3D1355B1B5792#fndtn-information ER - TY - Generic T1 - Cooperative Procurement: Today’s Contracting Tool, Tomorrow’s Contracting Strategy Y1 - 2018 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Scott Becker AB -

Scott Becker and Stephen Goldsmith, October 2018 

Increasingly, governments across the country are turning to cooperative procurement for greater value. Joining with other entities can significantly reduce administrative costs and leverage the benefits of economies of scale. In recent years, cooperatives have evolved to provide a wider variety of benefits to procurement officials and vendors, offering increasingly complex services adaptable to a growing participant pool. Expansion of offerings and targeted attention to best-in-class contracts have furthered their value proposition. This paper intends to provide insight into today’s cooperative procurement market, evaluate value propositions and challenges, and present strategies for success. 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/cooperative-procurement.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - American Democracy: For Whom Does the Death Knell Toll? Y1 - 2018 A1 - Muriel Rouyer AB -

Muriel Rouyer, August 2018 

American liberal democracy, once a model throughout the world, is in crisis. The most obvious symptom of this malaise is a paradoxical attitude that pervades an underprivileged section of the population that, against its own interests, supports the ruling plutocrats. How can we explain this?

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/282309_hvd_ash_paper_v2.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Analytics in City Government Y1 - 2018 A1 - Jessica A. Gover AB -

Jessica A. Gover, July 2018 

How the Civic Analytics Network Cities Are Using Data to Support Public Safety, Housing, Public Health, and Transportation 

From remediating blight to optimizing restaurant inspections and pest control, cities across the country are using analytics to help improve municipal policy and performance. The continued adoption of analytics in city governments shows no sign of slowing, and as even more sophisticated tools such as machine learning and artificial intelligence are deployed, there is a critical need for research on how these practices are reshaping urban policy. By examining and capturing lessons learned from city-level analytics projects, practitioners and theorists alike can better understand how data- and tech-enabled innovations are affecting municipal governance. This report seeks to contribute to that developing field.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/281995_hvd_ash_paper_v4.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Something Has Cracked: Post-Truth Politics and Richard Rorty’s Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism Y1 - 2018 A1 - Joshua Forstenzer AB -

Joshua Forstenzer, July 2018 

Just days after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, specific passages from American philosopher Richard Rorty’s 1998 book Achieving Our Country were shared thousands of times on social media. Both The New York Times and The Guardian wrote about Rorty’s prophecy and its apparent realization, as within the haze that followed this unexpected victory, Rorty seemed to offer a presciently trenchant analysis of what led to the rise of “strong man” Trump. However, in this paper, Forstenzer points to Rorty’s own potential intellectual responsibility in the unfolding crisis of liberal democracy.

This paper seeks to elucidate the relationship between Rorty’s liberal ironism and contemporary post-truth politics. While the paper ultimately concludes that Rorty is not causally responsible and thus not complicit with the rise of post-truth politics, it contends that Rorty’s philosophical project bears some intellectual responsibility for the onset of post-truth politics insofar as it took a complacent attitude towards the dangers associated with over-affirming the contingency of our epistemic practices in public debate. In the last instance, this paper argues that Rorty’s complacency is a pragmatic failure and thus cuts to the heart of his pragmatism.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/post-truth-politics-rorty.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2124.0 A Cascade of Emergencies (A): Responding to Superstorm Sandy in New York City Y1 - 2018 AB -

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sandy’s massive size, coupled with an unusual combination of meteorological conditions, fueled an especially powerful and destructive storm surge, which caused unprecedented damage in and around New York City, the country’s most populous metropolitan area, as well as on Long Island and along the Jersey Shore. This two-part case study focuses on how New York City prepared for the storm’s arrival and then responded to the cascading series of emergencies – from fires, to flooding, to power failures – that played out as it bore down on the city. Profiling actions taken at the local level by emergency response agencies like the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the case also explores how the city coordinated with state and federal partners – including both the state National Guard and federal military components – and illustrates both the advantages and complications of using military assets for domestic emergency response operations.

ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics Y1 - 2018 A1 - Avidit Acharya A1 - Matthew Blackwell A1 - Maya Sen AB -

Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell & Maya Sen, Princeton University Press, 2018 

Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. Why haven't these sentiments evolved or changed? Deep Roots shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery—compared to areas that were not—are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress. 

Highlighting the connection between historical institutions and contemporary political attitudes, the authors explore the period following the Civil War when elite whites in former bastions of slavery had political and economic incentives to encourage the development of anti-black laws and practices. Deep Roots shows that these forces created a local political culture steeped in racial prejudice, and that these viewpoints have been passed down over generations, from parents to children and via communities, through a process called behavioral path dependence. While legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act made huge strides in increasing economic opportunity and reducing educational disparities, southern slavery has had a profound, lasting, and self-reinforcing influence on regional and national politics that can still be felt today.

A groundbreaking look at the ways institutions of the past continue to sway attitudes of the present, Deep Roots demonstrates how social beliefs persist long after the formal policies that created those beliefs have been eradicated.

PB - Princeton University Press UR - https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691176741/deep-roots ER - TY - Generic T1 - Proceedings -- Getting to Eighty Percent: A Symposium Advancing Voter Participation Y1 - 2018 AB -

May 2018 

At the core of the work of the Ash Center and the Kennedy School is the effort to understand how citizens and institutions come together to make democracy work, and rarely before has the importance of this effort been more evident. Underlying the deceptively simple idea of making democracy work are a number of large themes: protecting the fundamental norms of democracy and democratic processes from challenges both in the United States and internationally; encouraging innovation in governance and public accountability; preventing the massive inequalities of our economic system from permeating our democracy and threatening its existence.

Indeed, one essential element of “making democracy work” in the United States is to have as close to full and inclusive participation of the people who comprise our democracy as we possibly can. The name of our May 3rd symposium, “Getting to 80
percent,” was chosen with intent; while a goal of 80 percent participation is achievable, it will require a real stretch—not tinkering around the edges of the current system, but instead pursuing a major set of innovative ideas and practices.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/getting_to_80_conference_proceedings_final.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Technology and Governance in Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative Y1 - 2018 A1 - Jun Jie Woo AB -

Jun Jie Woo, May 2018 

Decades of rapid economic growth and urbanization in Singapore have given rise to new and increasingly complex policy problems. Singapore’s policymakers have sought to address these problems by leveraging emerging technological solutions such as data analytics. This has culminated in the “Smart Nation” initiative, a nationwide and whole-of-government effort to digitize Singapore’s policy processes and urban environment. More importantly, the initiative has given rise to administrative reorganization and increased state-citizen engagement. These changes portend more fundamental shifts in Singapore’s governing milieu.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/282181_hvd_ash_paper_jj_woo.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2116.1 Into Local Streets: Maryland National Guard and the Baltimore Riots Epilogue Y1 - 2018 AB -

On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray, a young African American male, died while in the custody of the Baltimore Police. In response to his death, which occurred less than a year after a similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri, protestors mobilized daily in Baltimore to vocalize their frustrations, including what they saw as law enforcement’s long-standing mistreatment of the African American community. Then, on April 27, following Gray’s funeral, riots and acts of vandalism broke out across the city. Overwhelmed by the unrest, the Baltimore police requested assistance from other police forces. Later that evening, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the Maryland National Guard. At the local level, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a nightly curfew beginning Tuesday evening.

“Into Local Streets” focuses on the role of the National Guard in the response to the protests and violence following Gray’s death, vividly depicting the actions and decision-making processes of the Guard’s senior-most leaders. In particular, it highlights the experience of the state’s Adjutant General, Linda Singh, who soon found herself navigating a complicated web of officials and agencies from both state and local government – and their different perspectives on how to bring an end to the crisis.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2116.0 Into Local Streets: Maryland National Guard and the Baltimore Riots Y1 - 2018 AB -

On April 19, 2015, Freddie Gray, a young African American male, died while in the custody of the Baltimore Police. In response to his death, which occurred less than a year after a similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri, protestors mobilized daily in Baltimore to vocalize their frustrations, including what they saw as law enforcement’s long-standing mistreatment of the African American community. Then, on April 27, following Gray’s funeral, riots and acts of vandalism broke out across the city. Overwhelmed by the unrest, the Baltimore police requested assistance from other police forces. Later that evening, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the Maryland National Guard. At the local level, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a nightly curfew beginning Tuesday evening.

“Into Local Streets” focuses on the role of the National Guard in the response to the protests and violence following Gray’s death, vividly depicting the actions and decision-making processes of the Guard’s senior-most leaders. In particular, it highlights the experience of the state’s Adjutant General, Linda Singh, who soon found herself navigating a complicated web of officials and agencies from both state and local government – and their different perspectives on how to bring an end to the crisis.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2107.0 Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia Y1 - 2018 AB - In summer and fall of 2014, thousands of individuals in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea contracted the Ebola virus. This outbreak of the deadly disease, which until then had been highly uncommon in West Africa, prompted a major (albeit delayed) public health response on the part of the international community, including an unprecedented commitment made by the United States, which sent almost 3,000 active military soldiers to Liberia. “Mission in Flux” focuses on the US military’s role in the Ebola response, emphasizing the Michigan National Guard’s eventual involvement. In particular, it provides readers with a first-hand account of the challenges the Michigan Guard faced as it prepared for and then deployed to Liberia, just as the crisis had begun to abate and federal officials in Washington began considering how to redefine the mission and footprint of Ebola-relief in West Africa.   ER - TY - CASE T1 - Mission in Flux: Michigan National Guard in Liberia Epilogue Y1 - 2018 AB - In summer and fall of 2014, thousands of individuals in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea contracted the Ebola virus. This outbreak of the deadly disease, which until then had been highly uncommon in West Africa, prompted a major (albeit delayed) public health response on the part of the international community, including an unprecedented commitment made by the United States, which sent almost 3,000 active military soldiers to Liberia. “Mission in Flux” focuses on the US military’s role in the Ebola response, emphasizing the Michigan National Guard’s eventual involvement. In particular, it provides readers with a first-hand account of the challenges the Michigan Guard faced as it prepared for and then deployed to Liberia, just as the crisis had begun to abate and federal officials in Washington began considering how to redefine the mission and footprint of Ebola-relief in West Africa. ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Party Systems in Latin America: Institutionalization, Decay, and Collapse Y1 - 2018 A1 - Scott Mainwaring AB -

Scott Mainwaring, Cambridge University Press, February 2018

Based on contributions from leading scholars, this study generates a wealth of new empirical information about Latin American party systems. It also contributes richly to major theoretical and comparative debates about the effects of party systems on democratic politics, and about why some party systems are much more stable and predictable than others. Party Systems in Latin America builds on, challenges, and updates Mainwaring and Timothy Scully's seminal Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (1995), which re-oriented the study of democratic party systems in the developing world. It is essential reading for scholars and students of comparative party systems, democracy, and Latin American politics. It shows that a stable and predictable party system facilitates important democratic processes and outcomes, but that building and maintaining such a party system has been the exception rather than the norm in contemporary Latin America.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/party-systems-in-latin-america/A62FA6AE29245CAB328B2AEB45DD4D1A ER - TY - RPRT T1 - An Approach to Small-Scale Mixed-Methods Experimentation Transparency for Development, Phase 2 Y1 - 2017 A1 - Stephen Kosack A1 - Jessica Creighton A1 - Courtney Tolmie AB -

Stephen Kosack, Jessica Creighton, and Courtney Tolmie; April 2017 

Faced with a promising but complex intervention, how can further refinement be evaluated? The typical approach is experimentation. Rigorously evaluated experimentation, for several centuries the province mostly of medicine and related research, is today a reality in a variety of fields of social science and practice. Its primary form, the randomized controlled trial (RCT), stems from its medical roots. By design, RCTs are a highly specialized instrument of inquiry: they seek reliability by focusing on a simple, singular causal relationship. Their relevance typically depends on the relevance of this causal relationship and whether it can be accurately represented and measured in one treatment or in a handful of modifications (or “arms”). But the growth of experimentation has brought randomized controlled trials into evaluations of complex interventions in policy areas like health care, education, water, or sanitation, which often occur at the group or society level, at a large scale, and the implementation of which can take myriad forms. For precisely evaluating the benefits of complex programs, RCTs remain the gold standard, frequently used when, for example, a health or education program is under consideration for scaling, is already being done at large scale but is of uncertain benefit, or is almost perfected save for a very specific design question. But often large-scale randomized controlled trials of complex interventions are inappropriate. For an intervention whose benefit is already widely accepted, they may be too expensive; for one whose benefit is uncertain, they may be too large-scale. When, for whatever reason, evaluation of a complex intervention is important but small-scale experimentation is more appropriate than a full randomized controlled trial, how might further refinement of that intervention be most rigorously and reliably evaluated?

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/t4d_phase_2_evaluation_design_working_paper.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Counting all of the Costs: Choosing the Right Mix of Electricity Sources in Vietnam to 2025 Y1 - 2017 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, November 2017

How rapidly will or could demand for power grow in Vietnam? What will interest rates be? Will the cost of generating plants go up or down, and by how much? What will the cost of each fuel be? Will the cost of carbon or other pollution begin to enter into investment decisions?

This paper will examine these questions. It will begin by looking at demand projections and investments in efficiency – getting more output per kilowatt hour used. It will then try to estimate the costs of building and running various types of generating plants in Vietnam over time. It will also use various costs of carbon to see if including these both as a source of global warming and as an indicator of local pollution changes the calculation. Changes in the domestic supply of gas will also influence the set of potential solutions, as will the declining costs of solar electricity and battery storage. In all of this it is the system or mix of investments that need to work, not any single investment.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/choosing_the_right_mix_of_electricity_sources_in_vietnam_to_2025_11-3-20171.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance Y1 - 2017 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Neil Kleiman AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Neil Kleiman, Brookings, November 2017

At a time when trust is dropping precipitously and American government at the national level has fallen into a state of long-term, partisan-based gridlock, local government can still be effective—indeed more effective and even more responsive to the needs of its citizens. Based on decades of direct experience and years studying successful models around the world, the authors of this intriguing book propose a new operating system (O/S) for cities. Former mayor and Harvard professor Stephen Goldsmith and New York University professor Neil Kleiman suggest building on the giant leaps that have been made in technology, social engagement, and big data.

Calling their approach “distributed governance,” Goldsmith and Kleiman offer a model that allows public officials to mobilize new resources, surface ideas from unconventional sources, and arm employees with the information they need to become pre-emptive problem solvers. This book highlights lessons from the many innovations taking place in today’s cities to show how a new O/S can create systemic transformation.

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PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/a-new-city-os/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Cold War: A World History Y1 - 2017 A1 - Odd Arne Westad AB -

Odd Arne Westad, Basic Books, September 2017

In this major new work, Bancroft Prize-winning scholar Odd Arne Westad argues that the Cold War must be understood as a global ideological confrontation, with early roots in the Industrial Revolution and ongoing repercussions around the world.

In The Cold War, Westad offers a new perspective on a century when great power rivalry and ideological battle transformed every corner of our globe. From Soweto to Hollywood, Hanoi, and Hamburg, young men and women felt they were fighting for the future of the world. The Cold War may have begun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had its deepest reverberations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where nearly every community had to choose sides. And these choices continue to define economies and regimes across the world.

 

 

PB - Basic Books UR - http://www.basicbooks.com/full-details?isbn=9780465093137 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - 3-in-1: Governing a Global Financial Centre Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jun Jie Woo AB -

Jun Jie Woo, World Scientific Publishing, August 2017

3-in-1: Governing a Global Financial Centre provides a comprehensive understanding of Singapore's past development and future success as a global financial centre. It focuses on three transformational processes that have determined the city-state's financial sector development and governance — globalisation, financialisation, and centralisation — and their impacts across three areas: the economy, governance, and technology. More importantly, this book takes a multidimensional approach by considering the inter-related and interdependent nature of these three transformational processes. Just like the 3-in-1 coffee mix that is such an ubiquitous feature of everyday life in Singapore, the individual ingredients of Singapore's success as a global financial centre do not act alone, but as an integrated whole that manifests itself in one final product: the global financial centre.

PB - World Scientific Publishing UR - http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10479 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services and Government Y1 - 2017 A1 - Hila Mehr AB -

Hila Mehr, August 2017

From online services like Netflix and Facebook, to chatbots on our phones and in our homes like Siri and Alexa, we are beginning to interact with artificial intelligence (AI) on a near daily basis. AI is the programming or training of a computer to do tasks typically reserved for human intelligence, whether it is recommending which movie to watch next or answering technical questions. Soon, AI will permeate the ways we interact with our government, too. From small cities in the US to countries like Japan, government agencies are looking to AI to improve citizen services. This paper explores the various types of AI applications, and current and future uses of AI in government delivery of citizen services, with a focus on citizen inquiries and information. It also offers strategies for governments as they consider implementing AI.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/artificial_intelligence_for_citizen_services.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - Atlanta’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Waste & Efficiency in Government Report Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, August 2017

This Operational Excellence in Government case study describes how Atlanta identified $92 million in one-time savings and $25 million in annual savings by improving the efficiency of its operations. The Atlanta government efficiency report that identified these savings is highlighted by the Operational Excellence in Government Project for its excellence among existing efficiency studies, for the rigor of the process that created it, and for the strength of results achieved. This report stands out among others of this type for its reliance on data as a key component of the process and for its level of implementation detail.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case-study-atlanta-commission-waste-efficiency-government-report1.pdf?m=1637495086 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Citizen Voices, Community Solutions: Designing Better Transparency and Accountability Approaches to Improve Health Y1 - 2017 A1 - Transparency for Development Team AB -

 Transparency for Development Team, August 2017

The Transparency for Development (T4D) study was designed to answer the question of whether a community-led transparency and accountability program can improve health outcomes and community empowerment, and, if so, how and in what contexts. To answer this question, researchers and civil society organization partners began by co-designing a program that would activate community participation to address myriad barriers to proper maternal and newborn care, with the ultimate goal of improving maternal and newborn health outcomes. This report presents the design of the program that was then implemented in 200 villages in Tanzania and Indonesia and studied using a mixed methods impact evaluation. In addition to detailing the program, this report outlines how the project team got there—describing a number of principles that informed some distinguishing features of the program, as well as an iterative design process that defined other features through trial and error.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/citizen_voices_community_solutions.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Like a Fish in Water: An Essay on the Benefits of Government That Nobody Notices Y1 - 2017 A1 - Steve Kelman AB -

Steve Kelman, August 2017

In this paper Kelman discusses the role and importance of government in our society today. Debates over the role of government — often phrased as “big government” vs. “limited government” — are at the center of our political life. We debate the government’s role in health care and in regulating the environment. We debate levels of taxation. Yet there are crucial benefits of government that should be appreciated whether you are a person who thinks of yourself as liking government or not. These benefits come about because government has created an environment where we can in our everyday lives normally take the reliability and trustworthiness of others for granted. We flag down a taxi on the street, get into the driver’s car, and don’t worry this stranger might kidnap us. We walk on a sidewalk, and do not worry it will buckle beneath us. We drive a car, and do not worry the brakes won’t work. These are the unnoticed benefits of government, which we notice no more than a fish notices it is swimming in water.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/kelmanlikeafishinwater.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - New York City Office Space Optimization, An Operational Excellence in Government Success Story Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, August 2017

This Operational Excellence in Government case study describes, for the first time, efforts by New York City's deputy mayor for operations and his team to optimize the city’s real estate portfolio. New York City government employees occupy 300 million square feet of offices, schools, police and fire stations, warehouses, and the like. There had never before been an effort to view the entirety of the space as an asset that could be allocated more efficiently. Rather, over case study: New York City Office Space Optimization 4 time, individual departments had independently acquired or leased the space they needed, predominantly with their own usage standards.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case-study-new-york-city-office-space-optimization.pdf?m=1637494968 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Performance Management and Lean Process Improvement - Results Washington, An Operational Excellence in Government Success Story Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, August 2017

This Operational Excellence in Government Project case study describes how the state of Washington implemented two key operational efficiency strategies for government — performance management and employee-driven process improvement. The effort, called Results Washington, sets priorities and then focuses on delivery to achieve results that make a difference in the lives of Washingtonians. Results Washington was launched in 2013 by Governor Jay Inslee. He established five top-priority statewide goals and challenged state government leaders to track their progress against these goals and to apply Lean thinking and tools to improve their processes.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case-study-results-washington-performance-management-lean.pdf?m=1618343041 ER - TY - Generic T1 - What Does General Secretary Xi Jinping Dream About? Y1 - 2017 A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, August 2017

This analysis argues that the period of easy reforms in China has ended, and the time of difficult reforms that touch core political interests has begun. The resulting challenges facing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping when he is confirmed for another five-year-term span political, economic, and international spheres. This leadership must both maintain a domestic focus to strengthen economic growth and avoid the “middle-income trap,” while also engaging in a host of regional and global actions to cement China’s position on the world stage.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/what_does_xi_jinping_dream_about.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Gender and Political Mobilization Online: Participation and Policy Success on a Global Petitioning Platform Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jonathan Mellon A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman A1 - Fredrik M. Sjoberg A1 - Tiago Peixoto AB -

Jonathan Mellon, Hollie Russon Gilman, Fredrik M. Sjoberg, and Tiago Peixoto; July 2017

As political life moves online, it is important to know whether online political participation excludes certain groups. Using a dataset of 3.9 million signers of online petitions in 132 countries, this paper examines the descriptive success (number of successful petitions) and substantive success (topic of successful petitions) of women and men. Women’s participation is higher than expected in the ‘thin’ action of petition signing, but consistently lower in the ‘thick’ action of petition creation. This paper does not find a link between lower female thick participation and female descriptive success. In terms of substantive success, the paper finds successful petitions reflect female users’ priorities more closely than men’s, independent of the petition initiator’s gender. These results hold both platform-wide and within most countries in the dataset. This paper shows that these results occur due to the low level of petition success (1.2%) on the platform, which increases the importance of thin forms of participation.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/gender_and_political_mobilization_online.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - A Task Force with Teeth? Driving City Performance in Lawrence, Mass. Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Lisa Cox A1 - Alex Green AB -

Jorrit de Jong, Lisa Cox, and Alex Green; June 2017 

 

After taking office, Mayor Daniel Rivera creates a new task force to combat blight in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Although blight was not on Rivera’s campaign agenda, he soon realizes that the issue is worth his attention. The issue of blight and distressed properties is complex and far-reaching, having to do with his city’s public health and safety, inequality, and real estate prices. Although Rivera feels he has little flexibility to change staffing levels on a short-term basis, he endeavors to motivate the team members he has. But creating a task force from entrenched groups poses challenges. Effecting change is slow, and Rivera often feels the task force is not making a dent in the problem. The case describes a data tracker for collecting information on distressed properties from disparate sources, and the tracker includes over 40 input fields.

This case allows participants to understand how such a tool is developed, but pushes them even further to understand how to use data to address pressing problems once the data is collected. An accompanying teaching note includes theory and conceptual frameworks to lead classroom discussion on the case.

 

ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Can China Reduce Entrenched Poverty in Remote Ethnic Minority Regions? Y1 - 2017 A1 - Arthur N. Holcombe AB -

Arthur N. Holcombe, June 2017

In this paper Holcombe discusses lessons from successful poverty alleviation in Tibetan areas of China during 1998–2016. In the period between 1978 and 2015, the World Bank estimates that over 700 million people have been raised out of poverty based on a poverty line of $1.50 per capita. It also estimates that about 48 percent of residual poverty in China is located in ethnic minority areas where top-down macroeconomic policies to reduce poverty have been least effective and where strategies to target poor ethnic minority households with additional financial, technical, and other support were not successful in overcom- ing cultural and other barriers to greater income and food security.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/271837ash_tibetv4.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Fissured Workplace Y1 - 2017 A1 - David Weil AB -

David Weil, Harvard University Press, May 2017

For much of the twentieth century, large companies employing many workers formed the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Today, on the list of big business’s priorities, sustaining the employer-worker relationship ranks far below building a devoted customer base and delivering value to investors. As David Weil’s groundbreaking analysis shows, large corporations have shed their role as direct employers of the people responsible for their products, in favor of outsourcing work to small companies that compete fiercely with one another. Weil proposes ways to modernize regulatory policies and laws so that employers can meet their obligations to workers while allowing companies to keep the beneficial aspects of this innovative business strategy.

PB - Harvard University Press UR - http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674975446&content=reviews ER - TY - Generic T1 - Rakhine State: Dangers and Opportunities Y1 - 2017 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, May 2017 

The paper provides an updated assessment of the danger that the Rakhine state conflict poses to all of Myanmar in terms of cost in lives, international reputation, depressed FDI, ongoing violence and sectarian conflict. The author makes the case that settling the issue will require a strategy that extends beyond restoring security, one that offers a real possibility of success at a political and economic level. He offers that the path forward lies in enabling moderate local and central leaders to bring about a new idea of citizenship, enhancing local socio-economic prospects by investing in roads, power and irrigation, as well as by restricting illegal foreign fishing off the cost of Rakhine, and by extending health and education services throughout the province to all residents.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/rakhine_state_-_dangers_and_opportunities_5-1-2017.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Values and Vision: Perspectives on Philanthropy in 21st Century China Y1 - 2017 A1 - Anthony Saich A1 - Paula D. Johnson AB -

Anthony Saich & Paula D. Johnson, May 2017

Values and Vision: Perspectives on Philanthropy in 21st Century China is an exploratory study of philanthropic giving among China’s very wealthy citizens. Recognizing the increasing number of successful entrepreneurs engaged in philanthropic activity in China, the study explores the economic and policy contexts in which this philanthropy is evolving; the philanthropic motivations, aspirations and priorities of some of the country’s most engaged philanthropists; and the challenges and opportunities for increasing philanthropic engagement and impact in China.

Chinese (traditional) translation available here

Chinese (simplified) translation available here 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/valuesandvision_perspectivesonphilanthropyin21stcenturychina_english.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Rakhine State: In Need of Fundamental Solutions Y1 - 2017 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, February 2017, revised April 2017

In this paper, David Dapice, considers the factors that are at the heart of the instability in Rakhine state and suggests options for approaching citizenship and mobility issues and for overcoming the constraints on implementing development in the state.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/rakhine_state_-_in_need_of_fundamental_solutions_4-24-17_final.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2089.0 Defending the Homeland: The Massachusetts National Guard Responds to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings Y1 - 2017 A1 - David W. Giles AB - On April 15, 2013, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev placed and detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three bystanders and injuring more than two hundred others. This case profiles the role the Massachusetts National Guard played in the complex, multi-agency response that unfolded in the minutes, hours, and days following the bombings, exploring how its soldiers and airmen helped support efforts on multiple fronts – from performing life-saving actions in the immediate aftermath of the attack to providing security on the region’s mass transit system and participating in the search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev several days later. It also depicts how the Guard’s senior officers helped manage the overall response in partnership with their local, state, and federal counterparts. The case reveals both the emergent and centralized elements of the Guard’s efforts, explores the debate over whether or not Guard members should have been armed in the aftermath of the bombings, and highlights an array of unique assets and capabilities that the Guard was able to provide in support of the response. UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/defending-the-homeland-the-massachusetts-national-guard-responds-to-the-2013-boston-marathon-bombings/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Accelerating Success for Operational Excellence in Government Project Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, March 2017

This paper describes findings and recommendations from 30 existing studies of government efficiency. The reports catalog a staggering number of recommendations, 2,021 in total, to improve the operations of government. Of the 30 studies, 23 include specific dollar-savings amounts that could be achieved as a result of implementing the recommendations. Annual dollar savings identified in the reports range from $18 million in Albany County, New York, to $7.3 billion in California. The total amount of savings identified in these 23 studies is nearly $17 billion in yearly value to the taxpayers of those cities and states. We estimate that if recommendations such as these were implemented across state and local government, a total of $30 billion in value could be returned to taxpayers each year.

UR - https://datasmart.ash.harvard.edu/opex/research/accelerating-success-operational-excellence-government-project-narrative-framework ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Presidents’ Secrets: The Use and Abuse of Hidden Power Y1 - 2017 A1 - Mary Graham AB -

Mary Graham, Yale University Press, February 2017

Ever since the nation’s most important secret meeting—the Constitutional Convention—presidents have struggled to balance open, accountable government with necessary secrecy in military affairs and negotiations. For the first one hundred  and twenty years, a culture of open government persisted, but new threats and technology have long since shattered the old bargains. Today, presidents neither protect vital information nor provide the open debate Americans expect.
 
Mary Graham tracks the rise in governmental secrecy that began with surveillance and loyalty programs during Woodrow Wilson’s administration, explores how it developed during the Cold War, and analyzes efforts to reform the secrecy apparatus and restore oversight in the 1970s. Chronicling the expansion of presidential secrecy in the Bush years, Graham explains what presidents and the American people can learn from earlier crises, why the attempts of Congress to rein in stealth activities don’t work, and why presidents cannot hide actions that affect citizens’ rights and values.

PB - Yale University Press UR - https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300223743/presidents-secrets ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Public Health Preparedness: Case Studies in Policy and Management Y1 - 2017 A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard A1 - David W. Giles AB -

Arnold M. Howitt, Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, and David W. Giles, American Public Health Association, February 2017

Containing 15 Harvard Kennedy School case studies on public health emergency preparedness and response, this book provides detailed accounts of a range of natural disasters, infectious diseases, and bio-terrorism. With chapters on Superstorm Sandy, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2001 anthrax attacks, and evacuations from Gulf Coast hurricanes, the book covers major areas in public health preparedness, portraying the varied and complex challenges the public health community faces when confronting disaster.

PB - American Public Health Association UR - http://secure.apha.org/imis/ItemDetail?iProductCode=9780875532837&CATEGORY=BK ER - TY - Generic T1 - Lessons from Leading CDOs: A Framework for Better Civic Analytics Y1 - 2017 A1 - Jane Wiseman AB -

Jane Wiseman, February 2017 

A Chief Data Officer (CDO) can lead a city or state toward greater data-driven government. Data-driven executive leadership in government is relatively new, with just over a dozen cities and a handful of states having named a CDO as of late 2016. Leveraging data enables more responsive and rational allocation of government resources to address priority public needs. There is growing momentum and increasingly frequent news of the next government CDO appointment. While there is a growing proliferation of CDOs in government, there are few resources that describe the landscape, either for the benefit of the chief executive appointing a CDO or the new CDO taking office. This paper intends to help new entrants by documenting selected current practices, including advice shared by existing government CDOs, observations by the author, and analysis from government technology and analytics experts.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/leasons_from_leading_cdos.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Barbershops and Preventative Health: A Case of Embedded Education Y1 - 2017 A1 - Deloris Wilson A1 - Linda Kaboolian A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guy Stuart AB -

Deloris Wilson, Linda Kaboolian, Jorrit de Jong, and Guy Stuart, January 2017   

This is a case study of the Colorado Black Health Collaborative (CBHC) Barbershop/Salon Health Outreach Program, a community-based initiative that targeted disproportionate rates of hypertension and other health problems within the African American community. 

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case_study_barbershop.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Health Education in China's Factories: A Case of Embedded Education Y1 - 2017 A1 - Siwen Zhang A1 - Hua Chen A1 - Songyu Zhu A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guy Stuart AB -

Siwen Zhang, Hua Chen, Songyu Zhu, Jorrit de Jong, and Guy Stuart, January 2017 

This case study focuses on HERhealth, the health education program within the HERproject as it was implemented in China from 2007 onwards . Based on reports supplied by BSR this case study documents the health education and its effects on the behavior of women who received the education in terms of improved reproductive health, personal hygiene, and safe sex practices.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case_study_bsr.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - HIV/AIDS Prevention on Southern China's Road Projects: A Case of Embedded Education Y1 - 2017 A1 - Siwen Zhang A1 - Hua Chen A1 - Songyu Zhu A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Guy Stuart AB -

Siwen Zhang, Hua Chen, Songyu Zhu, Jorrit de Jong, and Guy Stuart, January 2017  

This is a case study of the Asia Development Bank (ADB)-sponsored HIV/AIDS prevention program implemented at expressway construction sites in Guangxi province from 2008 to 2015 . The program delivered HIV/AIDS prevention education to migrant workers working at the sites, as well as to members of the communities near the sites.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/case_study_road_construction.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Social Policy Expansion in Latin America Y1 - 2017 A1 - Candelaria Garay AB -

Candelaria Garay, Cambridge University Press, January 2017 

 

Throughout the twentieth century, much of the population in Latin America lacked access to social protection. Since the 1990s, however, social policy for millions of outsiders - rural, informal, and unemployed workers and dependents - has been expanded dramatically. Social Policy Expansion in Latin America shows that the critical factors driving expansion are electoral competition for the vote of outsiders and social mobilization for policy change. The balance of partisan power and the involvement of social movements in policy design explain cross-national variation in policy models, in terms of benefit levels, coverage, and civil society participation in implementation. The book draws on in-depth case studies of policy making in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico over several administrations and across three policy areas: health care, pensions, and income support. Secondary case studies illustrate how the theory applies to other developing countries.

 

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/social-policy-expansion-in-latin-america/D929804F948D68EC38E1083691EAB400 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Tapping Private Financing and Delivery to Modernize America’s Federal Water Resources Y1 - 2017 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith AB -

Stephen Goldsmith, January 2017  

This report discusses how the private sector should be deployed to help deliver and maintain the United State's crucial water infrastructure in a timelier and more cost-effective manner. To achieve this end, it is imperative to remove deep-seated obstacles and biases at the federal level that impede the use of private financing modalities, such as P3s. As discussed in this report, policies and legislative barriers need to be thoughtfully modernized and amended in order to enable the Nation to transfer risk, accelerate delivery, and secure life-cycle efficiency in the delivery of critical water resource infrastructure. 

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/hks_ashcenter_federal_water_resources_report_web.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Internal and External Challenges to Unity in Myanmar Y1 - 2016 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, December 2016 

A year after the election that gave an historical victory to the National League for Democracy, Myanmar faces a critical juncture. Ethnic war and religious strife stubbornly remain, democratic gains remain fragile and major challenges, from mineral and hydroelectric revenues, to land insecurity, to illicit drug production and use have yet to be tackled meaningfully. In foreign policy, a resurgent China has indicated that it intends to play an active role in settling conflicts along its border and perhaps further afield. Meanwhile, an expectant public looks for signs of progress from a new government that is still finding its way. This paper argues that the internal and external challenges faced by Myanmar are linked, and suggests that economic progress, unity and effective independence will remain elusive (or could decline) unless the leadership explores pragmatic solutions to ethnic and religious grievances and produces economic growth that is high, sustainable, and widely shared. Click here to read in Burmese version

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/20161122_internal_and_external_challenges_to_unity_in_myanmar_eng.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - A Grand Bargain: What It Is and Why It Is Needed Y1 - 2016 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, October 2016 

Achieving sustainable peace in Myanmar requires a comprehensive effort which involves real negotiations between the army, government and remaining non-signatory armed ethnic groups. This paper makes the case that the resulting Grand Bargain will have to involve some degree of limited autonomy of states and natural resource revenue sharing. It will provide a basis for compensating armed groups on both sides for lost revenue, bringing revenues to Kachin state for development, and facilitating the NLD government’s investment in development spending for the rest of Myanmar in line with its priorities. Given the sizeable estimated total value of jade sales and the fact that, in the author’s estimate, official government collections for jade now amount to only 3% of sales, the paper examines possible modalities for taxing jade at a reasonable level and sharing these revenues in ways that makes durable progress possible. Several other key challenges to national unity are briefly addressed as well. Click here to read in Burmese version
 

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/20160815_a_grand_bargain_eng_oct_24.2016.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2068.0 The National Guard’s Response to the 2010 Pakistan Floods Y1 - 2016 AB - Throughout the summer of 2010, Pakistan experienced severe flooding that overtook a large portion of the country, displacing millions of people, causing extensive physical damage, and resulting in significant economic losses. This case focuses on the role of the National Guard (and of the U.S. military, more broadly) in the international relief effort that unfolded alongside that of Pakistan’s government and military. In particular it highlights how various Guard and U.S. military assets that had been deployed to Afghanistan as part of the war there were reassigned to support the U.S.’s flood relief efforts in Pakistan, revealing the successes and challenges of transitioning from a war-footing to disaster response. In exploring how Guard leaders partnered with counterparts from other components of the U.S. government, Pakistani officials, and members of the international humanitarian community, the case also examines how they navigated a set of difficult civilian-military dynamics during a particularly tense period in U.S.-Pakistan relations. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Growing Apart? Challenges to High-Quality Local Governance and Public Service Provision on China’s Ethnic Periphery Y1 - 2016 A1 - Sara Newland AB -

Sara Newland, July 2016 

Often assumed to be an ethnically homogenous country, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in fact has a substantial minority population with 54 officially recognized ethnic groups that comprise close to 10 percent of the population. Integrating these diverse groups, many of which have a centuries-long history of conflict with the Han Chinese, into a unified Chinese nation-state has been a core policy challenge for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1949.1 At first, these challenges were largely political and ideological. The CCP struggled to integrate minority elites, many of whom did not share a common language or culture with the overwhelmingly Han leaders of the CCP, into the party. They also sought to create political institutions that both respected local cultural practices and combined these diverse regions under a single, unified state, a challenge that the Soviet Union also had to confront.

 

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/growing_apart.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Assembling China’s Carbon Markets: The Carbons, the Business, and the Marginalized Y1 - 2016 A1 - John Chung-En Liu AB -

John Chung-En Liu, June 2016 

China is in the process to establish its national cap and trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Besides the top-tier market design (cap-setting, auction rules, etc.), Chinese policymakers need to pay attention to how the new carbon market embed in the larger social contexts.This brief highlights that the Chinese government needs to engage seriously with three less-concerned actors—the carbons, the business, and the marginalized—to realize the full potential of the carbon market.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/assembling_chinas_carbon_markets.pdf?m=1466106853 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Building a Democracy Machine: Toward an Integrated and Empowered Form of Civic Engagement Y1 - 2016 A1 - John Gastil AB -

John Gastil, June 2016 

In this paper, John Gastil calls for designers, reformers, and government sponsors to join together to build an integrated online commons, which links together the best existing tools by making them components in a larger “Democracy Machine.” Gastil sketches out design principles and features that would enable this platform to draw new people into the civic sphere, encourage more sustained and deliberative engagement, and send ongoing feedback to both government and citizens to improve how the public interfaces with the public sector.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/democracy_machine.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in America Y1 - 2016 A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman AB -

Hollie Russon Gilman, Brookings, 2016 

Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called “revolutionary civics in action” by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009.  Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds.

PB - Brookings UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2015/democracy-reinvented ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Fed’s Tapering Talk: A Short Statement’s Long Impact on Indonesia Y1 - 2016 A1 - Muhamad Chatib Basri AB -

Muhamad Chatib Basri, June 2016

In this paper, Dr. Muhamad Chatib Basri, who was Indonesia’s Minister of Finance during the Taper Tantrum (TT) period, analyzes the response to the TT of the five hardest-hit countries, dubbed the “Fragile Five” (Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey), and describes how Indonesia was able to mitigate the negative effects of the TT so quickly and effectively. Dr. Basri’s account provides many insights in the realm of macroeconomic management amidst external shocks that should be quite useful to emerging markets as the Fed now contemplates raising interest rates, which could have the same impact as the TT. Dr. Basri wrote this paper while a Senior Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and is now in the Department of Economics at the University of Indonesia. 

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/taper_tantrum.pdf?m=1466604066 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Incentivized Development in China: Leaders, Governance, and Growth in China's Counties Y1 - 2016 A1 - David J. Bulman AB -

David J. Bulman, Cambridge University Press, 2016

China's economy, as a whole, has developed rapidly over the past 35 years, and yet its richest county is over 100 times richer in per capita terms than its poorest county. To explain this vast variation in development, David J. Bulman investigates the political foundations of local economic growth in China, focusing on the institutional and economic roles of county-level leaders and the career incentives that shape their behaviour. Through a close examination of six counties complemented by unique nation-wide data, he presents and explores two related questions: what is the role of County Party Secretaries in determining local governance and growth outcomes? And why do County Party Secretaries emphasize particular developmental priorities? Suitable for scholars of political economy, development economics, and comparative politics, this original study analyzes the relationship between political institutions, local governance, and leadership roles within Chinese government to explain the growing divergence in economic development between counties.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/east-asian-government-politics-and-policy/incentivized-development-china-leaders-governance-and-growth-chinas-counties?format=HB ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2064.0 Surviving the Surge: New York City Hospitals Respond to Superstorm Sandy Y1 - 2016 AB - This case explores the experiences of three Manhattan-based hospitals during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Beginning with an overview of how the hospitals prepared in the months and days leading up to the storm, it focuses primarily on decisions made by each institution, as Sandy approached, about whether to shelter-in-place or evacuate hundreds of medically fragile patients -- the former strategy running the risk of exposing individuals to dangerous and life-threatening conditions, the latter being an especially complex and difficult process, not without its own dangers. Ultimately, each of the three hospitals profiled in the case took a different approach, informed by their differing perceptions of risk and other unique circumstances. The case illustrates the very difficult trade-offs hospital administrators and local and state public health authorities grappled with as Sandy bore down on New York and vividly depicts the ramifications of these decisions, with the storm ultimately inflicting serious damage on Manhattan and across much of the surrounding region. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Kachin State Development Prospects and Priorities Y1 - 2016 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, May 2016  

Kachin has just over 3% of Myanmar’s population but a much larger share of its natural resource wealth, notably in the form of large jade deposits and significant hydropower potential. Research findings indicate that currently most of that wealth is going to private and foreign interests, depriving both Kachin state and the nation of resources they need and should have. The author argues that if Myanmar is to remain united, grow stronger and richer, and attract the states so they wish to belong in the Union, it will be necessary to capture a fair share of this wealth and use it for nation-building purposes, especially in Kachin state. Options for sensible approaches to hydropower, jade revenue sharing, and the state’s development more generally are discussed.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/kachin_state_development_prospects_and_priorities_5-13-16.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2055.0 Fears and Realities: Managing Ebola in Dallas Y1 - 2016 AB - In September 2014, as several West African countries continued to battle a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus, Dallas, Texas, emerged as ground zero for the disease in the U.S. This case recounts how, over the course of three days, Thomas Eric Duncan, who had recently arrived in the city from Liberia, reported twice to Dallas Presbyterian Hospital exhibiting signs of illness. Having sent him home after his first visit, the hospital admitted him after his second; and with his symptoms worsening rapidly, tests soon revealed everyone’s worst fear: he had Ebola. “Fears and Realities” describes how local, state, and federal public health authorities, along with elected officials and hospital administrators, responded to the alarming news – a hugely difficult task made all the more challenging by confusion over Duncan’s background and travel history, and, eventually, by the intense focus and considerable concern on the part of the media and public at large. Efforts to curtail the spread of the disease were further complicated when two nurses who had cared for Duncan also tested positive for Ebola, even though they apparently had followed CDC protocols when interacting with him. With three confirmed cases of the disease in Dallas – each patient with their own network of contacts – authorities scrambled to understand what was happening and to figure out a way to bring the crisis to an end before more people were exposed to the highly virulent disease. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2055.1 Fears and Realities: Managing Ebola in Dallas Epilogue Y1 - 2016 AB - This epilogue accompanies case number 2055.0. In September 2014, as several West African countries continued to battle a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus, Dallas, Texas, emerged as ground zero for the disease in the U.S. This case recounts how, over the course of three days, Thomas Eric Duncan, who had recently arrived in the city from Liberia, reported twice to Dallas Presbyterian Hospital exhibiting signs of illness. Having sent him home after his first visit, the hospital admitted him after his second; and with his symptoms worsening rapidly, tests soon revealed everyone’s worst fear: he had Ebola. “Fears and Realities” describes how local, state, and federal public health authorities, along with elected officials and hospital administrators, responded to the alarming news – a hugely difficult task made all the more challenging by confusion over Duncan’s background and travel history, and, eventually, by the intense focus and considerable concern on the part of the media and public at large. Efforts to curtail the spread of the disease were further complicated when two nurses who had cared for Duncan also tested positive for Ebola, even though they apparently had followed CDC protocols when interacting with him. With three confirmed cases of the disease in Dallas – each patient with their own network of contacts – authorities scrambled to understand what was happening and to figure out a way to bring the crisis to an end before more people were exposed to the highly virulent disease. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Governing for Growth and the Resilience of the Chinese Communist Party Y1 - 2016 A1 - David J. Bulman AB -

David J. Bulman, April 2016 

Meritocratic promotions based on local economic achievements have enabled the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to achieve not only economic growth, but also improvements in local governance, as local governments have implemented institutional reforms in pursuit of GDP growth. However, not all regions of the country have adopted GDP growth as the key priority; those that have instead prioritized social stability have experienced not only slower growth, but also worse local governance outcomes. These findings have important implications for the adaptability and resilience of the CCP.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/261226_ash_bulman_web.pdf?m=1461352909 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Urban Champions or Rich Peripheries? China’s Spatial Development Dilemmas Y1 - 2016 A1 - Kyle A. Jaros AB -

Kyle A. Jaros, April 2016 

Amid booming urban growth in China, leaders have weighed the goal of building globally competitive metropolises against concerns about sustainable and inclusive development. This brief looks at the experience of similar Chinese provinces that have pursued different spatial development models, highlighting the hard choices policymakers face and the political conflicts that unfold.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/261226_ash_jaros_web.pdf?m=1461696669 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2053.0 Ready in Advance: The City of Tuscaloosa's Response to the 4/27/11 Tornado Y1 - 2016 AB - “Ready in Advance” prompts students to consider what pre-event preparedness measures allowed officials in Tuscaloosa, AL to respond to a major tornado in 2011. Among other things, it illustrates the usefulness of group training initiatives, dedicated political leadership, and organizational frameworks that enable coordination across functions and sectors. The case demonstrates how taking advance action can lead to effective in-the-moment response, ultimately minimizing disaster risk and damage. UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/ready-in-advance-the-city-of-tuscaloosas-response-to-the-4-27-11-tornado/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - To Build or Not to Build: Designing Sustainable Hydro Projects in Myanmar Y1 - 2016 A1 - David Dapice AB - Over 40 hydropower projects are under consideration in Myanmar. While past hydro investments score poorly on environmental impact mitigation and locally shared economic benefit, this paper argues that the country’s domestic electricity demand cannot be met adequately by other renewable energy sources alone. The paper makes the case that emphasis should be placed on developing a transparent, productive and meaningful review process which embeds mechanisms for balancing national and local interests and for securing appropriate expertise to ensure comprehensive assessments. The issue of weighing domestic need versus export markets is also considered. Click to read the Burmese version UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/20160219_to_build_or_not_to_build_designing_sustainable_hydro_projects_in_myanmar_eng.pdf?m=1456347698 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Dealing with Dysfunction: Innovative Problem Solving in the Public Sector Y1 - 2016 A1 - Jorrit de Jong AB -

Jorrit de Jong, Brookings Institution Press, 2016

How can we intervene in the systemic bureaucratic dysfunction that beleaguers the public sector? De Jong examines the roots of this dysfunction and presents a novel approach  to solving it. Drawing from academic literature on bureaucracy and problem solving in the public sector, and the clinical work of the Kafka Brigade — a social enterprise based in the Netherlands dedicated to diagnosing and remedying bureaucratic dysfunction in practice, this study reveals the shortcomings of conventional approaches to bureaucratic reform. The usual methods have failed to diagnose problems, distinguish symptoms, or identify root causes in a comprehensive or satisfactory way. They have also failed to engage clients, professionals, and midlevel managers in understanding and addressing the dysfunction that plagues them. This book offers conceptual frameworks, theoretical insights, and practical lessons for dealing with the problem. It sets a course for rigorous public problem solving to create governments that can be more effective, efficient, equitable, and responsive to social concerns.

PB - Brookings UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/dealing-with-dysfunction/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Engaging Citizens: Participatory Budgeting and the Inclusive Governance Movement within the United States Y1 - 2016 A1 - Hollie Russon Gilman AB -

Hollie Russon Gilman, January 2016 

This paper provides a brief overview of the genesis of participatory budgeting and its current incarnations in the United States. It situates the participatory budgeting process within a larger context of civic innovation strategies occurring across America. The paper outlines the institutional challenges and proposes assessment criteria to be considered when implementing civic and social innovations such as participatory budgeting.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/participatory-budgeting-paper.pdf?m=1455295224 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Rakhine State Policies: Considerations for the New State Government Y1 - 2016 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, October 2016

Religious conflict in Rakhine state threatens the development of Rakhine state and even the stability of Myanmar. In the paper, the author reviews recent 2014 census results and other data that show no long-term increase in the modest share of Muslims in the population, debunking the arguments of some extremist groups. The paper makes the case that a focused development program including investment in village scale irrigation, improved farm and financial services, better infrastructure and labor mobility is needed to improve living conditions for all groups and to provide an environment in which mutual trust can gradually be reestablished. Click here to read in Burmese version.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/20161025_rakhine_state_policies_for_the_new_state_government_eng.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Case Study of 21st Century Civic Engagement: Code for America and the City of Boulder, CO Partnership Y1 - 2015 A1 - Debs Schrimmer AB - The City of Boulder and Code for America partnered on “Housing Boulder,” the community engagement process that would inform Boulder’s 2015/2016 Housing Action Plan. While this case study documents our work on a housing-related project, we believe our engagement tactics are relevant to a much broader audience. As a result, this case study also offers a series of recommendations to help governments begin using 21st-century civic engagement strategies that creatively combine in-person and digital channels. UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/boulder.pdf?m=1450378046 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Case Study of 21st Century Civic Engagement: Code for America and the City of Boulder, CO Partnership Y1 - 2015 A1 - Debs Schrimmer AB - The City of Boulder and Code for America partnered on “Housing Boulder,” the community engagement process that would inform Boulder’s 2015/2016 Housing Action Plan. While this case study documents our work on a housing-related project, we believe our engagement tactics are relevant to a much broader audience. As a result, this case study also offers a series of recommendations to help governments begin using 21st-century civic engagement strategies that creatively combine in-person and digital channels. UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/boulder.pdf?m=1450378046 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Hydropower in Myanmar: Moving Electricity Contracts from Colonial to Commercial Y1 - 2015 A1 - David Dapice AB - Myanmar has less electricity per capita than Bangladesh and only a third of its population is connected to grid electricity. Although Myanmar has huge reserves of potential hydroelectricity, this paper argues that more is at stake than electricity supply, and that the political implications of hydro development are crucial to a peaceful and united future for Myanmar. It cautions that hydroelectric projects undertaken in the past decade had exceedingly disadvantageous terms that serve Myanmar poorly, and that if a stable political framework that promotes national unity is going to be realized, how hydroelectricity projects are approved and developed, and how the revenue benefits are distributed are as important as the electricity itself. Click to read the Burmese version UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/hydropower_in_myanmar_-moving_from_colonial_to_commercial_dec_16_2015.pdf?m=1450363888 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Transforming the T: How MBTA Reform Can Right Our Broken Transportation System Y1 - 2015 A1 - Charles Chieppo AB - In this report, Innovations in American Government Fellow Charles Chieppo outlines a number of reforms intended to put the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) fiscal house in order.  Specifically, Chieppo notes that the MBTA Fiscal Management and Control Board found that the T is looking at a $170 million shortfall for the current fiscal year, which is projected to grow to $427 million by fiscal year 2020. With increases in expenses far outpacing revenue growth, absent reform, the T’s financial problems will continue to compound in future years leading to deteriorating infrastructure and faltering service levels.  UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/transforming_the_t.pdf?m=1450302299 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The National People’s Congress: Functions and Membership Y1 - 2015 A1 - Tony Saich AB - From time to time, the attention of the media in the United States and around world turns to China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), typically around the time the NPC meets in March.  This paper is intended to provide an overview of the NPC's role in China's governmental hierarchy, its functions, and its membership. UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/the_national_peoples_congress.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2041.0 Operation Rollback Water: The National Guard's Response to the 2009 North Dakota Floods Case A Y1 - 2015 AB - In spring 2009, North Dakota experienced some of the worst flooding in state history. This case describes how the state's National Guard responded by mobilizing thousands of its troops and working in concert with personnel and equipment from six other states as well as an array of federal, state, and local stakeholders. Specifically, after providing background on the North Dakota National Guard and the state's susceptibility to flooding, the case captures how Guard officials developed and practiced a plan ("Operation Rollback Water") to respond to the floods and how they then had to adapt that plan as the crisis escalated and conditions changed. In particular, the Guard had to work with a large amount of federal resources that arrived amid the crisis, it had to respond to demands for extensive and rapid assistance from a range of municipalities, and it had to endure a prolonged event that taxed Guard members in the field and the operations and management team that supported them. The case concludes with an epilogue that describes how the Guard applied the lessons it learned from the 2009 floods in response to a similar disaster in 2011. ER - TY - Generic T1 - 2042.1 Operation Rollback Water: The National Guard's Response to the 2009 North Dakota Floods Epilogue Y1 - 2015 AB - In spring 2009, North Dakota experienced some of the worst flooding in state history. This case describes how the state's National Guard responded by mobilizing thousands of its troops and working in concert with personnel and equipment from six other states as well as an array of federal, state, and local stakeholders. Specifically, after providing background on the North Dakota National Guard and the state's susceptibility to flooding, the case captures how Guard officials developed and practiced a plan ("Operation Rollback Water") to respond to the floods and how they then had to adapt that plan as the crisis escalated and conditions changed. In particular, the Guard had to work with a large amount of federal resources that arrived amid the crisis, it had to respond to demands for extensive and rapid assistance from a range of municipalities, and it had to endure a prolonged event that taxed Guard members in the field and the operations and management team that supported them. The case concludes with an epilogue that describes how the Guard applied the lessons it learned from the 2009 floods in response to a similar disaster in 2011. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2042.0 Operation Rollback Water: The National Guard's Response to the 2009 North Dakota Floods Case B Y1 - 2015 AB -

In spring 2009, North Dakota experienced some of the worst flooding in state history. This case describes how the state's National Guard responded by mobilizing thousands of its troops and working in concert with personnel and equipment from six other states as well as an array of federal, state, and local stakeholders. Specifically, after providing background on the North Dakota National Guard and the state's susceptibility to flooding, the case captures how Guard officials developed and practiced a plan ("Operation Rollback Water") to respond to the floods and how they then had to adapt that plan as the crisis escalated and conditions changed. In particular, the Guard had to work with a large amount of federal resources that arrived amid the crisis, it had to respond to demands for extensive and rapid assistance from a range of municipalities, and it had to endure a prolonged event that taxed Guard members in the field and the operations and management team that supported them. The case concludes with an epilogue that describes how the Guard applied the lessons it learned from the 2009 floods in response to a similar disaster in 2011.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - A Fatal Distraction from Federalism – Religious Conflict in Rakhine Y1 - 2015 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, June, 2015

The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the current socioeconomic conditions in Myanmar's Rakhine State and to evaluate the prospects of accelerating economic development as a way of reducing tensions between Muslim and Buddhist groups. There has been significant conflict in recent years which has continued sporadically into 2014, resulting in severe hardship for approximately 140,000 Muslim refugees and significant damage to the local economy. The tensions also weaken the country by presenting a challenge to a potential framework for federalism by undermining stability and thus the confidence of potential investors. They also risk drawing in Muslim extremists outside the country. Drawing on historical information and on conversations conducted with a variety of Rakhine (Buddhist) business, civil society, political and government people, this study reviews the demographic trends affecting the state to separate fact from fiction and sheds light on the impact of current policies on the state's potential for economic development. Areas for working toward reconciliation are explored, and options such as promoting shared stakes in local resources and governance are discussed.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/a_fatal_distraction_from_federalism_religious_conflict_in_rakhine_10-20-2014_rev_6-26-15.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Transforming the BUMN into an Indonesian State Holding Company Y1 - 2015 A1 - Karen Agustiawan AB - This report argues for a state holding company structure to hold all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), in a drastic revamp of the Badan Usaha Milik Negara (BUMN). UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/transforming_the_bumn_pages.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Arab Spring Y1 - 2015 A1 - Jason Brownlee A1 - Tarek Masoud A1 - Andrew Reynolds AB - Several years after the Arab Spring began, democracy remains elusive in the Middle East. The Arab Spring that resides in the popular imagination is one in which a wave of mass mobilization swept the broader Middle East, toppled dictators, and cleared the way for democracy. The reality is that few Arab countries have experienced anything of the sort. While Tunisia made progress towards some type of constitutionally entrenched participatory rule, the other countries that overthrew their rulers, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya remain mired in authoritarianism and instability. Elsewhere in the Arab world uprisings were suppressed, subsided, or never materialized. The Arab Spring's modest harvest cries out for explanation. Why did regime change take place in only four Arab countries and why has democratic change proved so elusive in the countries that made attempts? This book attempts to answer those questions. First, by accounting for the full range of variance: from the absence or failure of uprisings in such places as Algeria and Saudi Arabia at one end, to Tunisia's rocky but hopeful transition at the other. Second, by examining the deep historical and structure variables that determined the balance of power between incumbents and opposition. Brownlee, Masoud, and Reynolds find that the success of domestic uprisings depended on the absence of a hereditary executive and a dearth of oil rents. Structural factors also cast a shadow over the transition process. Even when opposition forces toppled dictators, prior levels of socioeconomic development and state strength shaped whether nascent democracy, resurgent authoritarianism, or unbridled civil war would follow. PB - Oxford University Press UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-arab-spring-9780199660063?cc=us&lang=en& ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Economics of the Public Sector Y1 - 2015 A1 - Joseph E Stiglitz A1 - Jay Rosengard AB - What should be the role of government in society? How should it design its programs? How should tax systems be designed to promote both efficiency and fairness? Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and new co-author Jay Rosengard use their first-hand policy-advising experience to address these key issues of public-sector economics in this modern and accessible Fourth Edition.
  PB - W.W. Norton & Company UR - https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393925227 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Ethics in Public Life: Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia Y1 - 2015 AB - The topic of moral competence is generally neglected in the study of public management and policy, yet it is critical to any hope we might have for strengthening the quality of governance and professional practice. What does moral competence consist of? How is it developed and sustained? These questions are addressed in this book through close examination of selected practitioners in Asian countries making life-defining decisions in their work. The protagonists include a doctor in Singapore, a political activist in India, a mid-level bureaucrat in central Asia, a religious missionary in China, and a journalist in Cambodia – each struggling with ethical challenges that shed light on what it takes to act effectively and well in public life. Together they bear witness to the ideal of public service, exercising their personal gifts for the well-being of others and demonstrating that, even in difficult circumstances, the reflective practitioner can be a force for good. PB - Palgrave Macmillan UR - https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137492043 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Governance and Politics of China Y1 - 2015 A1 - Tony Saich AB - This systematically revised fourth edition of the leading text on Chinese politics covers the major changes under Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang and their predecessors, and the recent attempts to restore Chinese Communist Party prestige and strengthen the role of the market in economic reforms whilst managing urbanization and addressing corruption. PB - Palgrave Macmillan UR - http://www.bookdepository.com/Governance-Politics-China-Tony-Saich/9781137445278 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Institutional Reform: From Vision to Reality Y1 - 2015 A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - Laura Chirot A1 - David Dapice A1 - Huynh The Du A1 - Pham Duy Nghia A1 - Dwight Perkins A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh AB - This paper is intended to provide context for the policy discussions that will take place during the fifth Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP). Over the course of the week-long VELP 2015, it is hoped that the arguments and ideas presented in this paper will be discussed, debated, and challenged, and that the paper will contribute constructively to the debate around critical questions facing the Vietnamese leadership and Vietnamese society more broadly today. UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2015.04.05-velp_2015_framework_paper-e.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Institutional Reform: From Vision to Reality Y1 - 2015 A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - Laura Chirot A1 - David Dapice A1 - Huynh The Du A1 - Pham Duy Nghia A1 - Dwight Perkins A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh AB - This paper is intended to provide context for the policy discussions that will take place during the fifth Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP). Over the course of the week-long VELP 2015, it is hoped that the arguments and ideas presented in this paper will be discussed, debated, and challenged, and that the paper will contribute constructively to the debate around critical questions facing the Vietnamese leadership and Vietnamese society more broadly today. UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2015.04.05-velp_2015_framework_paper-e.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Political Governance In China Y1 - 2015 A1 - Anthony J. Saich AB - Including key research articles from specialists in the field, this volume provides an introduction and critical insights into the most important debates surrounding the governance of contemporary China. The material will enable readers to understand how China is ruled, how participation and protest are regulated by the authorities, and the relationship between the Central state and its local agencies. Spanning the most important areas of the subject, the chosen articles explore the study of Chinese politics, the nature of the Chinese political system, the policy-making process, the nature of the local state, participation and protest, and authoritarian resilience or democratization. Professor Saich’s collection brings together essential reading for students of China, those who are interested in comparative politics, and the general reader who wants a coherent introduction about how China is ruled. PB - Edward Elgar Publishing UR - https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/political-governance-in-china?___website=us_warehouse ER - TY - Generic T1 - China's Most Generous Y1 - 2015 A1 - Edward Cunningham AB -

Edward Cunningham, January 2015 

The growth of new wealth is one of the most important, far-reaching, and captivating aspects of change in modern China. Traditions of benevolent societies, clan-based giving, temple association support, and voluntarism have long been present in Chinese society, and coexisted alongside state-affiliated social welfare institutions throughout its dynastic, Republican, and Communist periods. Rapid economic expansion over the past 35 years has resulted in a generation of highly concentrated wealth holders who are now grappling with familiar questions of any gilded age: How should I give back to my community? Which causes are the most in need? How can I create meaningful change and have a lasting impact? Chinese philanthropy has also begun to branch into international networks of giving. This project seeks to complement existing studies and sources of data to highlight China’s top 100 donors in 2015, their giving patterns, and perhaps shift the focus away from wealth creation towards generosity in such a rapidly changing social, political, and economic context.

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/china_philanthropy_report_final.pdf?m=1453851156 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Natural Disaster Management in the Asia-Pacific Y1 - 2015 A1 - Caroline Brassard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - David W. Giles AB -

Caroline Brassard, Arnold M. Howitt, and David W. Giles, Springer, 2015

The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable to a variety of natural and manmade hazards. This edited book productively brings together scholars and senior public officials having direct experience in dealing with or researching on recent major natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific. The chapters focus on disaster preparedness and management, including pre-event planning and mitigation, crisis leadership and emergency response, and disaster recovery. Specific events discussed in this book include a broad spectrum of disasters such as tropical storms and typhoons in the Philippines; earthquakes in China; tsunamis in Indonesia, Japan, and Maldives; and bushfires in Australia. The book aims to generate discussions about improved risk reduction strategies throughout the region. It seeks to provide a comparative perspective across countries to draw lessons from three perspectives: public policy, humanitarian systems, and community engagement.

PB - Springer UR - http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/natural+hazards/book/978-4-431-55156-0 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Electricity Supply, Demand and Prices in Myanmar – How to Close the Gap? Y1 - 2014 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, December 2014

Myanmar has much less electricity per person than most Asian nations and also has a lower share of households getting grid power than its neighbors. While the supply of electricity has begun to rise in recent years, the hydro capacity and natural gas expected to be available from 2014-2019 will be insufficient to meet demand in the near future. This paper explores constraints to scaling up capacity and offers suggestions of medium term and long term steps to boost energy supply for Myanmar. (Click to read the English version.) (Click to read the Burmese version.)

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/electricity_supply_and_demand_how_to_close_the_gap_12-04-2014.pdf?m=1456348424 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Electricity Supply, Demand and Prices in Myanmar – How to Close the Gap? Y1 - 2014 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, December 2014

Myanmar has much less electricity per person than most Asian nations and also has a lower share of households getting grid power than its neighbors. While the supply of electricity has begun to rise in recent years, the hydro capacity and natural gas expected to be available from 2014-2019 will be insufficient to meet demand in the near future. This paper explores constraints to scaling up capacity and offers suggestions of medium term and long term steps to boost energy supply for Myanmar.

Click to read the Burmese version

UR - http://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/electricity_supply_and_demand_how_to_close_the_gap_12-04-2014.pdf?m=1456348424 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reflections on a Survey of Global Perceptions of International Leaders and World Powers Y1 - 2014 AB -

Tony Saich, December, 2014

A recent survey asks citizens from 30 countries for their views on 10 influential national leaders who have a global impact (see Appendix). There are many rich findings among the data. However, two general trends stand out. The first is that the responses are influenced by geopolitics. Differences between nations and national leaders are clearly reflected in the attitudes of their own citizens. Thus, it is plain that the tensions between China and Japan result in very poor evaluations of China and its leader by Japanese citizens and vice versa. Second, there is a correlation in responses between the nature of the political system and citizen opinions of their own nation’s leader. On the whole, in multiparty systems or genuine two-party systems such as in Europe and the U.S., citizens are more critical of their national leaders and policies than is the case in those nations where politics is less contested.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/survey-global-perceptions-international-leaders-world-powers.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reflections on a Survey of Global Perceptions of International Leaders and World Powers Y1 - 2014 A1 - Anthony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, December 2014 

A recent survey asks citizens from 30 countries for their views on 10 influential national leaders who have a global impact (see Appendix). There are many rich findings among the data. However, two general trends stand out. The first is that the responses are influenced by geopolitics. Differences between nations and national leaders are clearly reflected in the attitudes of their own citizens. Thus, it is plain that the tensions between China and Japan result in very poor evaluations of China and its leader by Japanese citizens and vice versa. Second, there is a correlation in responses between the nature of the political system and citizen opinions of their own nation’s leader. On the whole, in multiparty systems or genuine two-party systems such as in Europe and the U.S., citizens are more critical of their national leaders and policies than is the case in those nations where politics is less contested.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/survey-global-perceptions-international-leaders-world-powers_0.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Choosing Survival: Finding a Way to Overcome Current Economic and Political Quagmires in Myanmar Y1 - 2014 AB -

David Dapice and Tom Vallely, December 2013 (Revised October 2014)

Despite the encouraging developments of the past two years, Myanmar faces an uncertain future fraught with very difficult political, economic, and social challenges. This paper examines where Myanmar has been, where it is, and what kinds of changes are needed to create conditions for unity, peace, and inclusive and sustainable development. While the analysis in this paper is cautionary and often negative, its purpose is to solve problems, not complain. Creating a coalition for nation building will be easier if the poor current situation is better understood. Achieving the desired goals will not be easy and will likely take longer than many understand or imagine. Avoiding narrow coalitions that would continue current extractive policies is necessary to move forward. However, a feasible path exists and many current government policies are meant to put the nation on that path. This paper aims to contribute to those efforts and build on the progress already made.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/choosing_survival.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - “I Won't Back Down“?: Complexity and Courage in U.S. Federal Executive Decision-Making Y1 - 2014 A1 - Steve Kelman A1 - Ronald Sanders A1 - Gayatri Pandit A1 - Sarah Taylor AB -

Steve Kelman, Ronald Sanders, Gayatri Pandit, and Sarah Taylor, August 2014

Senior government executives make many decisions, not-infrequently difficult ones. Cognitive limitations and biases preclude individuals from making fully value-maximizing choices. And the “groupthink“ tradition has highlighted ways group-aided decision-making can fail to live up to its potential. Out of this literature has emerged a prescriptive paradigm Janis calls “vigilant decision-making.“ For this paper, we interviewed twenty heads of subcabinet-level organizations in the U.S. federal government, asking each questions about how they made important decisions. Ten were nominated by “good-government“ experts as ones doing an outstanding job improving the organization's performance, ten chosen at random. The vigilant decision-making approach is designed for difficult decisions, presumed to be informationally, technically, or politically complex. However, we found that when we asked these executives to discuss their most difficult decision, most identified decisions that were not informationally complex but instead mainly required courage to make. In this context, the vigilant decision-making paradigm might be more problematic than the literature suggests. We discuss here the different demands for decisions involving complexity and those involving courage, and suggest a contingency model of good decision-making processes that requires executives and advisors to be ambidextrous in their approaches.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/kelman_sanders_pandit_taylor_i_wont_back_down.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The PerformanceStat Potential Y1 - 2014 A1 - Robert Behn AB -

Robert Behn, Brookings, 2014

It started two decades ago with CompStat in the New York City Police Department, but quickly jumped to other public agencies in New York and to police agencies internationally. Baltimore created CitiStat – the first application of this leadership strategy to an entire jurisdiction. Today, governments at all levels employ PerformanceStat: a focused effort to exploit the power of purpose and motivation, responsibility and discretion, data and meetings, analysis and learning, feedback and follow-up – all to improve government’s performance. Robert Behn analyzes the leadership behaviors at the core of PerformanceStat to identify how they work to produce results.

PB - Brookings UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2014/the-performancestat-potential ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Persistence of Innovation in Government Y1 - 2014 A1 - Sandford Borins AB -

Sandford Borins, Brookings, 2014

In The Persistence of Innovation in Government, Sandford Borins maps the changing landscape of American public sector innovation in the twenty-first century, largely addressing three key questions: Who innovates? When, why, and how do they do it? What are the persistent obstacles and the proven methods for overcoming them? Probing both the process and the content of innovation in the public sector, Borins identifies major shifts and important continuities. His examination of public innovation combines several elements: his analysis of the Harvard Kennedy School's Innovations in American Government Awards program; significant new research on government performance; and a fresh look at the findings of his earlier, highly praised book Innovating with Integrity: How Local Heros Are Transforming American Government.

PB - Brookings UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2014/thepersistenceofinnovationsingovernment ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance Y1 - 2014 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Susan Crawford AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Susan Crawford, Wiley, 2014

The Responsive City is a compelling guide to civic engagement and governance in the digital age that will help municipal leaders link important breakthroughs in technology and data analytics with age-old lessons of small-group community input to create more agile, competitive, and economically resilient cities. The book is co-authored by Professor Stephen Goldsmith, director of Data-Smart City Solutions at Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor Susan Crawford, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

PB - Wiley UR - http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118910907.html?utm_source=Data-Smart%20Subscribers&utm_campaign=c33df04340-August_Newsletter_Book_Launch8_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4305c9dae7-c33df04340-78047129 ER - TY - Generic T1 - “Tell It Like It Is“: Groupthink, Decisiveness, and Decision-making Among U.S. Federal Subcabinet Executives Y1 - 2014 A1 - Steve Kelman A1 - Ronald Sanders A1 - Gayatri Pandit A1 - Sarah Taylor AB -

Steve Kelman, Ronald Sanders, Gayatri Pandit, and Sarah Taylor, August 2014

Senior government executives make many decisions, not-infrequently difficult ones. Cognitive limitations and biases preclude individuals from making fully value-maximizing choices. It has been suggested that, done properly, involving advisors or other outside information sources can compensate for individual-level limitations. However, the “groupthink“ tradition has highlighted ways group-aided decision-making can fail to live up to its potential. Out of this literature has emerged a paradigm Janis calls “vigilant problem-solving.“ For this paper, we interviewed twenty heads of subcabinet-level organizations in the U.S. federal government, asking each questions about how they made important decisions. Ten were nominated by “good-government“ experts as ones doing an outstanding job improving the organization's performance, ten chosen at random. Our research question was to see whether there were significant differences in how members of those two groups made decisions, specifically, to what extent executives in the two categories used a “vigilant“ decision-making process. We found, however, that similarities between the two groups of executives overwhelmed differences: at least as best as we were able to measure it, decision-making by U.S. subcabinet executives tracks vigilant decision-making recommendations fairly closely. The similarity suggests a common style of senior-level decision-making in the U.S. federal government, which we suggest grows out of a government bureaucracy's methodical culture. We did, however, develop evidence for a difference between outstanding executives and others on another dimension of decision-making style. Outstanding executives valued decisiveness in decision-making – a “bias for action“ – more than controls. Perhaps, then, what distinguishes outstanding executives from others is not vigilance but decisiveness. Contrary to the implications of the groupthink literature, the danger in government may be “paralysis by analysis“ as much or more than groupthink.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/kelman_sanders_pandit_taylor_tell_it_like_it_is.pdf ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Why Was Boston Strong? Y1 - 2014 A1 - Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard A1 - Christine M.Cole A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - Philip B. Heymann AB -

Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard, Christine M.Cole, Arnold M. Howitt, and Philip B. Heymann, April 2014

On April 15, 2013, at 2:49 pm, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people died, and more than 260 others needed hospital care, many having lost limbs or suffered horrific wounds. Those explosions began about 100 hours of intense drama that riveted the attention of the nation. The response by emergency medical, emergency management, and law enforcement agencies and by the public at large has now become known colloquially as ”Boston Strong.” This report, through analysis of selected aspects of the Marathon events, seeks lessons that can help response organizations in Boston and other locales improve preparation both for emergencies that may occur at ”fixed” events like the Marathon and for ”no notice” events like those that began with the murder of Officer Collier at MIT and concluded the next day with the apprehension of the alleged perpetrators in Watertown.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/why_was_boston_strong.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2015.0 Inundation: The Slow-Moving Crisis of Pakistan Y1 - 2014 AB - In summer 2010, unusually intense monsoon rains in Pakistan triggered slow-moving floods that inundated a fifth of the country and displaced millions of people. This three-part case series describes how Pakistan’s government responded to the disaster and highlights the performance of the country’s nascent emergency management agency, the National Disaster Management Authority. It also explores the integration of international assistance, with a particular focus on aid from the international humanitarian community and the U.S. military. Case A provides background on the political situation in Pakistan at the time of the floods, as well as on the country’s water management policies and its newly formed emergency management system. It also recounts initial efforts to respond to the disaster. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 2024.0 Recovery in Aurora: The Public Schools’ Response to the July 2012 Movie Y1 - 2014 AB - In July 2012, a gunman entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire, killing 12 people, injuring 58 others, and traumatizing a community. Case A provides background on Aurora, describes the shooting, and recounts the emergency response that unfolded in its aftermath. The case then focuses more specifically on the role of the Aurora Public Schools, which under the leadership of Superintendent John L. Barry drew on years of emergency management training to play a substantial role in the response and the early community recovery efforts that took place over the ensuing days. ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt Y1 - 2014 A1 - Tarek Masoud AB -

Tarek Masoud, Cambridge University Press, 2014

Why does Islam seem to dominate Egyptian politics, especially when the country's endemic poverty and deep economic inequality would seem to render it promising terrain for a politics of radical redistribution rather than one of religious conservativism? This book argues that the answer lies not in the political unsophistication of voters, the subordination of economic interests to spiritual ones, or the ineptitude of secular and leftist politicians, but in organizational and social factors that shape the opportunities of parties in authoritarian and democratizing systems to reach potential voters. Tracing the performance of Islamists and their rivals in Egyptian elections over the course of almost forty years, this book not only explains why Islamists win elections, but illuminates the possibilities for the emergence in Egypt of the kind of political pluralism that is at the heart of what we expect from democracy.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/counting-islam-religion-class-and-elections-egypt ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt Y1 - 2014 A1 - Tarek Masoud AB -

Tarek Masoud, Cambridge University Press, 2014

Why does Islam seem to dominate Egyptian politics, especially when the country's endemic poverty and deep economic inequality would seem to render it promising terrain for a politics of radical redistribution rather than one of religious conservativism? This book argues that the answer lies not in the political unsophistication of voters, the subordination of economic interests to spiritual ones, or the ineptitude of secular and leftist politicians, but in organizational and social factors that shape the opportunities of parties in authoritarian and democratizing systems to reach potential voters. Tracing the performance of Islamists and their rivals in Egyptian elections over the course of almost forty years, this book not only explains why Islamists win elections, but illuminates the possibilities for the emergence in Egypt of the kind of political pluralism that is at the heart of what we expect from democracy.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/counting-islam-religion-class-and-elections-egypt ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Philanthropy for Health in China Y1 - 2014 ED - Jennifer Ryan ED - Lincoln C. Chen ED - Tony Saich AB -

Jennifer Ryan, Lincoln C. Chen, and Tony Saich, editors, Indiana University Press, 2014

Drawing on the expertise of Chinese and Western academics and practitioners, the contributors to this volume aim to advance the understanding of philanthropy for health in China in the 20th century and to identify future challenges and opportunities. Considering government, NGO leaders, domestic philanthropists, and foreign foundations, the volume examines the historical roots and distinct stages of philanthropy and charity in China, the health challenges philanthropy must address, and the role of the Chinese government, including its support for Government Organized Non-Governmental Organizations (GONGOs). The editors discuss strategies and practices of international philanthropy for health; the role of philanthropy in China's evolving health system; and the prospects for philanthropy in a country beginning to engage with civil society.

PB - Indiana University Press UR - http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=807330 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Persistence of Innovation in Government Y1 - 2014 A1 - Sandford Borins AB -

Sandford Borins, Brookings, 2014

In The Persistence of Innovation in Government, Sandford Borins maps the changing landscape of American public sector innovation in the twenty-first century, largely addressing three key questions: Who innovates? When, why, and how do they do it? What are the persistent obstacles and the proven methods for overcoming them? Probing both the process and the content of innovation in the public sector, Borins identifies major shifts and important continuities. His examination of public innovation combines several elements: his analysis of the Harvard Kennedy School's Innovations in American Government Awards program; significant new research on government performance; and a fresh look at the findings of his earlier, highly praised book Innovating with Integrity: How Local Heros Are Transforming American Government.

PB - Brookings ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Persistence of Innovation in Government: A Guide for Innovative Public Servants Y1 - 2014 A1 - Sanford Borins AB -

Sandford Borins, 2014

With this report, Professor Borins continues two decades of research analyzing winners of and applicants to the Harvard University Kennedy School’s Innovations in American Government Awards. This report presents a comparison of the applications received by the program in the 1990s (1990 to 1994) with those received in 2010. In 2001, the IBM Center for The Business of Government published The Challenge of Innovating in Government, Professor Borins’ report on his 1990s research on innovation.

Professor Borins has found that innovation is alive and well and persisting at all levels of government in the United States, with both shifts and continuities from the 1990s to 2010. One of the most significant findings by Professor Borins is the increasing proportion of innovation initiatives involving collaboration. In 2010, 65 percent of the innovation applicants reported external collaboration as a project component—more than double the 28 percent reported in the 1990s. Nearly 60 percent of the applicants also reported collaboration within government. Significantly, award semifinalists in 2010 reported an even higher incidence of collaboration, with over 80 percent of the semifinalists reporting external collaboration and collaboration within government.

The important trend toward external collaboration and collaboration within government has also been reflected in the increased number of IBM Center reports focusing on “collaborating across boundaries.” In 2013, the IBM Center published seven reports on collaboration, including Implementing Cross-Agency Collaboration: A Guide for Federal Managers, by Jane Fountain; and Collaboration Between Government and Outreach Organizations: A Case Study of the Department of Veterans Affairs, by Lael Keiser and Susan Miller.

Professor Borins concludes his report—which is a companion to his book, The Persistence of Innovation in Government, published concurrently by Brookings—by emphasizing the importance of partnerships among awards programs, academics, and practitioners as key to spurring future innovations. Moreover, the report calls for continued research on innovation in government. Professor Borins argues that it is crucial to understand trends in innovation more deeply and to identify jurisdictions or organizations that support and encourage multiple innovations over time. We strongly support this call for more research on innovation.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/3252703.pdf?m=1618344609 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Improving the Local Landscape for Innovation Part 3: Assessment and Implementation Y1 - 2013 A1 - Gigi Georges A1 - Tim Glynn-Burke A1 - Andrea McGrath AB -

Gigi Georges, Tim Glynn-Burke, and Andrea McGrath, June 2013. 

This paper is the third in a miniseries that explores emerging strategies to strengthen the civic, institutional, and political building blocks that are critical to developing novel solutions to public problems — what the authors call the “innovation landscape.” The miniseries builds on past research addressing social innovation and on The Power of Social Innovation (2010) by HKS Professor Stephen Goldsmith.

In this paper the authors focus on implementation of their framework’s strategies, primarily through the introduction of a unique assessment tool that includes key objectives and suggested indicators for each component of the framework. This final paper also includes a brief case study on New York City’s Center for Economic Opportunity, an award-winning government innovation team, to demonstrate and test the validity of the assessment tool and framework. The paper addresses some likely challenges to implementation and concludes with an invitation to readers to help further refine the framework and to launch a conversation among cities that will help improve their local landscapes for innovation.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/improving_landscape_part_3.pdf?m=1634905534 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Creating a Future: Using Natural Resources for New Federalism and Unity Y1 - 2013 A1 - David Dapice A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh AB -

David Dapice and Nguyen Xuan Thanh, July 2013

Myanmar is a very poor country with some promising political developments but up to now limited economic reform. The historically low growth and high poverty rates have fed social tensions, most evident in the current Buddhist-Muslim violence. The continuing military pressure on ethnic states that do not effectively surrender to the Myanmar Army represents an old extractive almost feudal approach that forgoes real political negotiation in favor of occupation and exploitation of resource-rich areas. However, there are tentative signs of changes by the government. This paper proposes a set of policies to transform the current situation by combining greater tax revenues from mineral resources with better governance to create political unity and market-based economic progress.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/creating.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reforming China's Monopolies Y1 - 2013 A1 - Peijun Duan A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Peijun Duan and Tony Saich, August 2013

This working paper focuses on an aspect of governance that is crucial to the next phase of China’s development: reducing state monopolies in order to enhance economic efficiency and promote more equitable growth. It is important to note that monopoly control in the Chinese political economy is not simply an economic phenomenon but also a phenomenon deeply embedded in a comprehensive system of power. Monopolies in the economic sphere (resources, prices, markets, and assets) are serious, but they are derived from the legacy of the centrally planned economy. They are also rooted in the traditional structure of Chinese society and its culture. In this paper, we will present a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of monopoly control in the Chinese system.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/rcm-2014.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Unplugging Institutional Bottlenecks to Restore Growth: A Policy Discussion Paper Prepared for the 2013 Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP) Y1 - 2013 A1 - Pham Duy Nghia A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh A1 - Huynh The Du A1 - Do Thien Anh Tuan A1 - Ben Wilkinson A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - Dwight Perkins A1 - David Da AB -

Pham Duy Nghia, Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Huynh The Du, Do Thien Anh Tuan, Ben Wilkinson, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, Dwight Perkins, and David Dapice, August 2013

This paper was prepared for the fourth annual Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP), held at the Harvard Kennedy School from August 26 to 30, 2013. The paper aimed to provide participants, including Vietnamese government officials, scholars, and corporate executives, with a concise assessment of some of the key public policy challenges confronting Vietnam today. This paper is by no means comprehensive; it is not possible to offer an exhaustive analysis of every policy area in a brief study. In selecting which issues to address, the authors were guided by the priorities articulated by the Vietnamese government in policy statements promulgated over the past year. By design, the paper was delivered as a work in progress, which the authors encouraged the participants to challenge and strengthen through rigorous debate over the five days of VELP. It is hoped that the paper also will serve as a catalyst for informed discussion and debate among the larger policy community in Vietnam.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/velp.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Improving the Local Landscape for Innovation Part 1: Mechanics, Partners, and Clusters Y1 - 2013 A1 - Gigi Georges A1 - Tim Glynn-Burke A1 - Andrea McGrath AB -

Gigi Georges, Tim Glynn-Burke, and Andrea McGrath, June 2013 

This paper is the first in a miniseries that explores emerging strategies to strengthen the civic, institutional, and political building blocks that are critical to developing novel solutions to public problems — what the authors call the “innovation landscape.” The miniseries builds on past research addressing social innovation and on The Power of Social Innovation (2010) by HKS Professor Stephen Goldsmith.

In this first paper, the authors introduce readers to the nature of the work by highlighting current efforts to drive innovation in Boston, Denver, and New York City. They also orient the miniseries within the robust discourse on government innovation.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/improving_landscape_part_1.pdf?m=1634905536 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Reforming China's Monopolies Y1 - 2013 A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Tony Saich, August, 2013

This working paper focuses on an aspect of governance that is crucial to the next phase of China’s development: reducing state monopolies in order to enhance economic efficiency and promote more equitable growth. It is important to note that monopoly control in the Chinese political economy is not simply an economic phenomenon but also a phenomenon deeply embedded in a comprehensive system of power. Monopolies in the economic sphere (resources, prices, markets, and assets) are serious, but they are derived from the legacy of the centrally planned economy. They are also rooted in the traditional structure of Chinese society and its culture. In this paper, we will present a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of monopoly control in the Chinese system.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/reforming_chinas_monopolies.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Improving the Local Landscape for Innovation Part 2: Framework for an Innovative Jurisdiction Y1 - 2013 A1 - Gigi Georges A1 - Tim Glynn-Burke A1 - Andrea McGrath AB -

Gigi Georges, Tim Glynn-Burke, and Andrea McGrath, June 2013 

This paper is the second in a miniseries that explores emerging strategies to strengthen the civic, institutional, and political building blocks that are critical to developing novel solutions to public problems — what the authors call the “innovation landscape.” The miniseries builds on past research addressing social innovation and on The Power of Social Innovation (2010) by HKS Professor Stephen Goldsmith.

In this second paper, the authors introduce a framework for driving local innovation, which includes a set of strategies and practices developed from the Ash Center’s recent work on social innovation, new first-person accounts, in-depth interviews, practitioner surveys, and relevant literature. The authors explore the roots and composition of the core strategies within their framework and provide evidence of its relevance and utility.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/improving_landscape_part_2.pdf?m=1634905539 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Against the Odds: Building a Coalition Y1 - 2013 A1 - David Dapice A1 - Thomas Vallely AB -

Using a New Federalism for Unity and Progress in Myanmar
David Dapice and Thomas Vallely, March 2013

When in 2010, the President of the Union of Myanmar, the Speaker of the Lower House and several ministers decided to push for a rapid political opening, they engineered what could be called a critical juncture. This critical juncture now provides the country with an opportunity to move forward, not only with faster economic growth, but also with better quality growth and political change that will unify the nation and create broad progress. In exploring a possible approach toward unity and progress, this paper uses the framework developed in Why Nations Fail, a recent book on economic and political development and also refers to the idea of “illiberal democracy“ articulated by Fareed Zakaria. The basic idea is that a broad coalition of the incumbent party, the democratic opposition, ethnic groups and the military is needed to fundamentally change Myanmar’s past failed orientation. This broad coalition should work for a new federalism in which states (at a minimum) have fairly elected governors and meaningful revenue sources so they can run many of their own affairs. Recognizing that central to real progress is a transition from a repressive, extractive and exclusive political system with crony businesses to a broadly inclusive political system that spreads economic opportunity, the paper argues that broad political and economic change need to go hand in hand.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/against.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation, and Accountability Y1 - 2013 A1 - Sanjeev Khagram A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Paolo de Renzio AB -

Sanjeev Khagram, Archon Fung, and Paolo Renzio, Brookings Institution Press, 2013  

Decisions about “who gets what, when, and how” are perhaps the most important that any government must make. So it should not be remarkable that around the world, public officials responsible for public budgeting are facing demands – from their own citizenry, other government officials, economic actors, and increasingly from international sources – to make their patterns of spending more transparent and their processes more participatory. Surprisingly, rigorous analysis of the causes and consequences of fiscal transparency is thin at best. Open Budgets seeks to fill this gap in existing knowledge.

PB - Brookings Institution Press/Ash Center, UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/open-budgets-the-political-economy-of-transparency-participation-and-accountability/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Rice Policy in Myanmar: It’s Getting Complicated Y1 - 2013 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, April 2013

Exports of rice to China have exploded and are now over half of total exports. Because of high support prices for paddy and thus for rice in China, it is profitable to send rice and even paddy to China from Myanmar, where the imported rice can sometimes get higher local prices. This could draw rice away from “normal“ exports out of Yangon and even raise the price of paddy (and thus rice) in Myanmar to a level above the world price, causing imports to Myanmar. Imports to Myanmar would keep the price of rice lower than if the China price set Myanmar’s price. The major point for Myanmar is to use this as an opportunity for farmers to get higher prices and to produce more, but this will take different credit and input policies. This is a limited opportunity, for China may prefer to import rice officially by sea rather than informally through Yunnan. Indeed, border checks intensified in March 2013, reducing flows.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ricepolicy.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1982.0 The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: The Politics of Crisis Response (B) Y1 - 2013 AB - As the second case in the two-part Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill case study, Case B builds upon Case A’s overview of the disaster and early response of the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in late April 2010, by focusing on the challenges the National Incident Command encountered as it sought to engage with state and local actors – an effort that would grow increasingly complicated as the crisis deepened throughout the spring and summer of 2010. ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Recognizing Public Value Y1 - 2013 A1 - Mark H. Moore AB -

Mark H. Moore, Harvard University Press, 2013

Mark H. Moore's now classic Creating Public Value offered advice to public managers about how to create public value. But that book left a key question unresolved: how could one recognize (in an accounting sense) when public value had been created? Here, Moore closes the gap by setting forth a philosophy of performance measurement that will help public managers name, observe, and sometimes count the value they produce, whether in education, public health, safety, crime prevention, housing, or other areas. Blending case studies with theory, he argues that private sector models built on customer satisfaction and the bottom line cannot be transferred to government agencies.

PB - Harvard University Press UR - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066953 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts: Doubling Shared Prosperity in Indonesia Through Local and Global Integration Y1 - 2013 A1 - Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program AB -

Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program, 2013 

Published in 2013, a new book from the Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program builds on findings of the 2010 report, From Reformasi to Institutional Transformation: A Strategic Assessment of Indonesia's Prospects for Growth, Equity, and Democratic GovernanceView the virtual book tour from the HKS Library.

PB - The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/thesumisgreaterthantheparts.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1981.0 The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: The Politics of Crisis Response (A) Y1 - 2013 AB -

Following the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in late April 2010, the Obama administration organized a massive response operation to contain the enormous amount of oil spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. Attracting intense public attention and, eventually, widespread criticism, the response adhered to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, a federal law that the crisis would soon reveal was not well understood – or even accepted – by all relevant parties. This two-part case profiles the efforts of senior officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as they struggled to coordinate the actions of a myriad of actors, ranging from numerous federal partners (including key members of the Obama White House); the political leadership of the affected Gulf States and sub-state jurisdictions; and the private sector. Case A provides an overview of the disaster and early response; discusses the formation of the National Incident Command (NIC), which had responsibility for directing response activities; and explores the NIC’s efforts to coordinate the actions of various federal entities.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen: Modeling the Selection Process for the Innovations in American Government Awards Y1 - 2012 A1 - Sandford Borins A1 - Richard Walker AB -

Sandford Borins and Richard Walker, December 2012 

The adoption of new services and practices is widespread in public organizations as they respond to demands in the external environment and internal aspirations. In order to recognize these activities and disseminate good practices, awards programs have proliferated around the globe. Given the limited empirical analysis of the characteristics of innovation award winners, this article examines the 2010 Innovations in American Government Awards (IAGA) program.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/many_are_called.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Educating for Moral Competence (for Philip Selznick) Y1 - 2012 A1 - Kenneth Winston AB -

Kenneth Winston, December 2012

The curricula of schools of public policy and management cover three broad areas: policy analysis, strategic management, and politics. The mission is not only to educate professionals in these areas but to enable them to integrate the three in depth. What kind of professional can do this, and are there generic skills and capacities that this person must possess? This essay explores a core dimension of professional skill that Winston refers to as moral competence – the set of attributes and dispositions that make for good governance. On the assumption that the needed skills and the nature of the polity are inextricably linked, the central question is: What constitutes moral competence for a practitioner of democratic governance? Winston sketches six generic attributes that he regards as constituent components of the good practitioner, and indicates how the case method of teaching helps to cultivate these virtues.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/121102_winston_paper.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1974.0 Confronting a Pandemic in a Home Rule State: The Indiana State Department of Health Responds to H1N1 Y1 - 2012 AB -

When Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Judy Monroe learned of the emergence of H1N1 (commonly referred to as “Swine Flu”) in late April 2009, she had to quickly figure out how to coordinate an effective response within her state’s highly balkanized public health system, in which more than 90 local health departments wielded considerable autonomy. Over the next several months, she would come to rely heavily on relationships she had worked hard to establish with local health officials upon becoming commissioner – but she and her senior advisors would also have to scramble to find new ways to communicate and coordinate with their local partners, who represented jurisdictions that varied considerably in terms of size, population demographics, resources, and public health capacity.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Electricity Demand and Supply in Myanmar Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, December 2012 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently released an excellent report on Myanmar’s energy sector. In it they presented estimates of future demand growth by the Ministry of Electric Power for electricity. They show demand doubling from 12,459 million kWh in 2012-13 to 25,683 million kWh in 2018-19, a compound rate of growth of 13% a year. However, the actual production in 2012 appears to be only 10,000 million kWh, and it is unlikely that moving to 2012-13 will raise the total much beyond 10,500 million kWh. Of this output, about 1700 million kWh will be exported. (Electricity exports exceeded 1700 million kWh in both 2010 and 2011.) So, the likely electricity output in 2012-13 available for domestic use will be 3659 kWh below this year's demand estimate. Production for domestic use would have to jump by 42% to equal the expected demand. This is a massive shortfall and demand grows by over 1500 million kWh in 2013-14. So for 2013-14, supply net of exports would have to grow by nearly 5200 million kWh to account for the existing shortfall and projected growth, or by nearly 60% over 2012-13.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/electricitydemand.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1971.0 New York City Center for Economic Opportunity: An Evidence-Based Approach to Alleviate Poverty Y1 - 2012 AB -

In late 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg created the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO). Born out of recommendations made by the Bloomberg appointed public-private Commission for Economic Opportunity, CEO was designed to be an innovations lab that would test anti-poverty programs by applying a results-based approach. With a budget of $100 million, CEO would closely monitor new programs and hold them accountable for producing measurable results. Uniquely, CEO would cut funding for programs that did not “make the grade.” Bloomberg named Veronica White the Executive Director of CEO. White had decades of experience working in executive positions in several New York City agencies but with CEO she had daunting tasks ahead. She would have to redefine how poverty was measured in the city, facilitate cross agency partnerships, and, most important, develop an effective and achievable evaluation system for all programs. This case traces the CEO team’s challenges in placing program evaluation at the core of their mission. 

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Network Structure and the Aggregation of Information: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia Y1 - 2012 A1 - Rema Hanna AB -

Rema Hanna, October 2012 

This paper uses a unique data-set from Indonesia on what individuals know about the income distribution in their village to test theories such as Jackson and Rogers (2007) that link information aggregation in networks to the structure of the network. The observed patterns are consistent with a basic diffusion model: more central individuals are better informed, and individuals are able to better evaluate the poverty status of those to whom they are more socially proximate. To understand what the theory predicts for cross-village patterns, this paper estimates a simple diffusion model using within-village variation, simulate network-level diffusion under this model for the over 600 different networks in our data, and use this simulated data to gauge what the simple diffusion model predicts for the cross-village relationship between information diffusion and network characteristics (e.g. clustering, density). The coefficients in these simulated regressions are generally consistent with relationships suggested in previous theoretical work, even though in our setting formal analytical predictions have not been derived. This paper then shows that the qualitative predictions from the simulated model largely match the actual data in the sense that we obtain similar results both when the dependent variable is an empirical measure of the accuracy of a village’s aggregate information and when it is the simulation outcome. Finally, this paper considers a real-world application to community based targeting, where villagers chose which households should receive an anti-poverty program, and show that networks with better diffusive properties (as predicted by our model) differentially benefit from community based targeting policies.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/rwp12-043_hanna.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - China and Yunnan Economic Relations with Myanmar and the Kachin State: Powering the Peace Process Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, September 2012 

Myanmar, long isolated from western economies due to its government, is one of the poorest and worst governed countries in the world. Ruled for many years by a reclusive dictator, senior general Than Shwe, it was dependent on China for diplomatic protection and arms. Trade and investment deals reflected its lack of alternatives. China’s “One nation, two oceans“ policy and Yunnan’s “Bridgehead“ strategy envisioned Myanmar providing access to the sea via gas and oil pipelines, deep sea ports, naval docking facilities and transport for Yunnan. Yunnan through its Southern Grid along with CPI (China Power International) saw Myanmar’s Kachin state as providing ample hydroelectric supplies for the landlocked Chinese province. Deals were signed under General Than Shwe without popular review or consultation with the Kachin whose state had most of the hydroelectric sites.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/chinayunnan.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1966.0 "Miracle on the Hudson” (A): Landing U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Y1 - 2012 AB -

On January 15, 2009, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese. The geese were then sucked into the plane’s twin engines, causing total engine failure and the loss of power. Case A of this three-part series recounts how over the following four minutes, Flight 1549’s Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles grappled with a variety of extreme challenges. Not only did they have to keep the plane under control, but they also had to quickly decide whether they could make an emergency landing at a nearby airport – or find another alternative to get the plane down safely in one of the most crowded regions in the country. Cases B and C then describe how, after the plane landed in the cold waters of the Hudson River, emergency responders from many agencies and private organizations – converging on the scene without a prior action plan for this type of emergency – scrambled to both rescue passengers and crew and stabilize the aircraft as it began to move downstream.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/miracle-on-the-hudson-landing-u-s-airways-flight-1549-a/ ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1967.0 “Miracle on the Hudson“ (B): Rescuing Passengers and Raising the Plane Y1 - 2012 A1 - Jennifer Weeks AB -

On January 15, 2009, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese. The geese were then sucked into the plane’s twin engines, causing total engine failure and the loss of power. Case A of this three-part series recounts how over the following four minutes, Flight 1549’s Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles grappled with a variety of extreme challenges. Not only did they have to keep the plane under control, but they also had to quickly decide whether they could make an emergency landing at a nearby airport – or find another alternative to get the plane down safely in one of the most crowded regions in the country. Cases B and C then describe how, after the plane landed in the cold waters of the Hudson River, emergency responders from many agencies and private organizations – converging on the scene without a prior action plan for this type of emergency – scrambled to both rescue passengers and crew and stabilize the aircraft as it began to move downstream.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/miracle-on-the-hudson-rescuing-passengers-and-raising-the-plane-b/ ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1967.1 “Miracle on the Hudson” (C): Epilogue Y1 - 2012 AB -

This case prompts readers to consider the challenges of responding to a sudden crisis involving intense pressure and significant uncertainty. By highlighting the actions the captain and crew of US Airways Flight 1549 took following the failure of the plane’s two engines. Cases B and C illustrate the complexities of coordinating a multi-organizational response involving actors from a range of public agencies and private sector partners.

UR - https://case.hks.harvard.edu/miracle-on-the-hudson-epilogue/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Education of Nations: How the Political Organization of the Poor, Not Democracy, Led Governments to Invest in Mass Education Y1 - 2012 A1 - Stephen Kosack AB -

Stephen Kosack, Oxford University Press, 2012 

What causes a government to invest – or not invest – in poor citizens, especially mass education? In The Education of Nations, Stephen Kosack focuses on three radically different developing countries whose developmental trajectories bear little resemblance to each other – Brazil, Ghana, and Taiwan – and offers an elegant and pragmatic answer to this crucially important question. Quite simply, the level of investment in mass education is the product of one of two simple conditions, one political and one economic. The first condition is the nature and success of political entrepreneurs at organizing the poor politically; the second is the flexibility of the labor market faced by employers who need skilled workers.

PB - Oxford University Press UR - https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199841653.001.0001/acprof-9780199841653 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1961.0 Moving People Out of Danger (B): Special Needs Evacuations from Gulf Coast Hurricanes Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Giles AB -

This case examines the steps political leaders, emergency management professionals, and public health officials in Louisiana and Texas took to improve their capacity to evacuate, shelter, and repatriate individuals with special needs following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both of which revealed serious shortcomings when it came to the execution of evacuation processes. (In the context of evacuation management, the term “special needs“ generally refers to people requiring assistance to move out of harm’s way, including those with disabilities and medical conditions, the elderly, the institutionalized, the homebound, and people without direct access to their own means of transportation.) The case also looks at how well the states’ revised plans prepared them to manage yet another round of special needs evacuations when, in 2008, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike threatened the New Orleans and Houston metropolitan regions, respectively.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Transit Transparency: Effective Disclosure through Open Data Y1 - 2012 A1 - Francisca M. Rojas AB -

Francisca M. Rojas, June 2012 

The public disclosure of transit information by agencies is a successful case of open data adoption in the United States. Transit transparency offers insights into the elements that enable effective disclosure and delivery of digital information to the public in cases where there is a strong demand for that information, and where the disclosed information is available at the right place and time for users to act upon.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/final_utc_transittransparency_8_28_2012.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Electricity in Myanmar: The Missing Prerequisite for Development Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, May 2012 

Electricity is a fundamental input to every modern economy. Electricity consumption per capita in Myanmar is among the lowest in Asia and had been growing very slowly since the 1980s. It gently grew from 45 kWh per capita in 1987 to 99 kWh in 2008, a 3.8 percent annual growth rate. However, since 2008, the production of electricity has jumped very quickly. This 50 percent jump in three years is about 15 percent per year, far higher than in the past. The CSO does not report any increase in installed capacity since 2009/10, so the existing system is being worked much more intensively. This creates problems, such as the risk of sudden outages from failures in generators. Indeed, there has been an increase in blackouts in the Yangon and Mandalay areas in the last year in spite of higher output; and even during the wet season. With increases in tourism, exports and overall economic activity, electricity demand will continue to soar. Even with 2011/12 output, estimated consumption in Myanmar is only about 160 kWh per capita, compared to 2009 consumption of over 250 kWh per capita in Bangladesh and nearly 600 in Indonesia. Vietnam had over 1000 kWh per capita in 2011.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/electricity.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Myanmar: Negotiating Nation Building, A Path to Unity and Progress Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, May 2012 

There is an immense challenge facing the leadership in Myanmar. They have to negotiate a nation and to reform the basic assumptions and processes that have ruled for the past decades. They need to make the new system more representative, more inclusive, less favorable to a narrow group of businessmen and government or army officials, and more broadly successful. The new system has to give minority groups a reason to want to be part of the new nation. That means not only creating new sources of growth and wealth, but also making rules that ensure the benefits go to many more than the relatively narrow groups who have largely benefitted in the past. The technical adjustments needed in the exchange rate, the financial system, taxing and spending, infrastructure investments, and competition policy will all ultimately be judged on the ability of the policy package to create the conditions for national unity and progress. The government needs to have a vision of this goal and how the pieces fit together. Getting it to work in a shaky world economy with new and still evolving institutions is a huge challenge. But for those who have seen the past clearly for what it was, there can be no doubt that moving forward together is better than going back or staying put.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/nationbuilding.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Industrial Policy Reform in Myanmar Y1 - 2012 A1 - Dwight H. Perkins AB -

Dwight H. Perkins, April 2012 

Myanmar faces fundamental choices about its economic future when the sanctions are lifted, and many of these choices will be present even if some of the sanctions remain. There is no technical reason why Myanmar cannot achieve a GDP growth rate of 8 percent a year or more for several decades. If the country did achieve a growth rate of that magnitude, the standard of living of its people would double over the next decade and increase four-fold over the next two decades. Poverty would fall dramatically, first in the more developed regions and then nationwide. In the most recent two decades, in contrast, Myanmar's electric power consumption suggests that GDP growth per capita has at best been negligible and may even have been negative.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/industrialization.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1976.0 Jakarta’s Transportation Problems Y1 - 2012 AB - In January 2011 senior Indonesian officials were contemplating the results of a new travel survey that showed that the number of trips in the Jakarta metropolitan area was growing steadily while the share of trips made on public transportation was falling rapidly. Jakarta had a reputation as one of the world’s most congested cities, and the situation was getting worse because the population and average incomes in the metropolitan area were growing rapidly. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Adapting to Novelty: Recognizing the Need for Innovation and Leadership Y1 - 2012 A1 - Joseph W. Pfeifer AB -

Joseph W. Pfeifer, January 2012

Repairs to sanitation plows and salt-spreaders usually go unnoticed, but when a truck smashes through a wall and is dangling four stories above the ground, it draws intense media attention. On August 17, 2011, at 0928 hours, a 15.5-ton truck lost control inside the Department of Sanitation's Central Repair Facility in Maspeth, Queens, and plowed through an upper floor wall. When FDNY units arrived, the driver, Robert Legall, 56, was tightly grasping the steering wheel, as three-quarters of his truck hung precariously out a window at a 45-degree angle, some 40 feet above the street. The impact of the truck showered the sidewalk and road with bricks, shattering windshields and crushing roofs of parked cars.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/adapting_to_novelty.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Appraising the Post-Sanctions Prospects for Myanmar's Economy: Choosing the Right Path Y1 - 2012 A1 - David O. Dapice A1 - Michael J. Montesano A1 - Anthony J. Saich A1 - Thomas J. Vallely, AB -

David O. Dapice, Michael J. Montesano, Anthony J. Saich, Thomas J. Vallely, January 2012

This paper is the first iteration in an ongoing effort by the Ash Center and Proximity Designs to describe a growth strategy for Myanmar that takes account of political and economic realities – assuming that sanctions will soon be removed. Myanmar is a country facing a difficult political and economic transition. In spite of the implications of official statistics and recent surveys, it is a very poor country, long mired in conflict and cut off from much of the world. It has an immense struggle ahead, as it tries to create a more modern and capable state apparatus, a competitive private sector and economy, and an economic and political system that reflects popular sentiments. It is not just behind its neighbors; it is starting from a different place altogether.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/appraising.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Exchange Rate in Myanmar: An Update to January 2012 Y1 - 2012 A1 - David Dapice AB -

David Dapice, January 2012

The exchange rate has moved from about 1300 kyat per dollar in 2006-07 to 800 kyat to the dollar in January 2012 while the consumer price index has jumped by over two-thirds. World rice prices in dollars have been generally strong, with Vietnamese five percent broken export prices at $520/ton in December 2011, 78 percent above their 2006/07 average. Wholesale paddy prices in Myanmar have plunged 30 percent in real terms from 2007 to 2012 and 25 percent in just the last year. For a variety of reasons, the paddy price to farmers may have fallen even more. This results in less hiring of landless neighbors, migration out of the village (often to a foreign country), less use of inputs and reduced summer paddy planting. Sharp real price declines in pulses have also been reported, though the exchange rate is only one contributing factor to their low prices. Poor quality pulses due to untimely rains and reduced demand from India also play some role.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/exchangeupdate.pdf ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Structural Reform for Growth, Equity, and National Sovereignty Y1 - 2012 A1 - Jonathan Pincus A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - Pham Duy Nghia A1 - Ben Wilkinson A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh AB -

Jonathan Pincus, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, Pham Duy Nghia, Ben Wilkinson, and Nguyen Xuan Thanh, January 2012

This paper has been prepared for the third annual Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP), to be held at Harvard Kennedy School from February 12 to 17, 2012. The goal of this paper is to provide participants in the VELP forum, including Vietnamese government officials, international scholars, and corporate executives, with an assessment of some of the key public policy challenges confronting Vietnam today. This paper is by no means comprehensive; by necessity, it has not been possible to undertake an exhaustive study of every policy area. In selecting which issues to address, the authors have been guided by the priorities of the Vietnamese government as they have been articulated in policy statements promulgated over the past year.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/structural.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Working Together In Crises Y1 - 2012 A1 - Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt AB -

Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt, January 2012

Severe natural disasters, large-scale industrial accidents or epidemics often expose emergency response organisations and society to previously unseen threats, response demands that exceed available resources, or familiar emergencies in unprecedented combinations or complex layers. Two kinds of leaders are likely to come to the fore: professional emergency response chiefs and political leaders.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/working_together.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Yangon’s Development Challenges Y1 - 2012 A1 - José A. Gómez-Ibáñez A1 - Nguyễn Xuân Thành AB -

José A. Gómez-Ibáñez and Nguyễn Xuân Thành, March 2012

Yangon is an attractive and relatively livable city that is on the brink of dramatic change. If the government of Myanmar continues its recent program of economic and political reform, the economy of the country is likely to take off, and much of the growth will be concentrated in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and commercial capital. This paper argues that Yangon is poorly prepared to cope with the pressures of growth because it has only begun to develop a comprehensive land use and development plan for the city that would guide the location of key activities including export-oriented industries and port terminals. In addition, the city lacks the financial resources to finance the infrastructure and other public services required to serve the existing population, let alone support a population that is larger and better off. Failure to address these challenges will not only make Yangon a less livable city but will also reduce the rate of economic growth for the entire country. Myanmar needs a dynamic and vibrant Yangon to thrive.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/yangon.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Agents of Change: Strategy and Tactics for Social Innovation Y1 - 2012 A1 - Sanderijn Cels A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Frans Nauta AB -

Sanderijn Cels, Jorrit De Jong, Frans Nauta, Brookings Institution Press, 2012

Agents of Change describes imaginative, cross-boundary thinking and transformative change and explains exactly how innovators pull it off. While governments around the world struggle to maintain service levels amid fiscal crises, social innovators are improving social outcomes for citizens by changing the system from within. In Agents of Change, three cutting-edge thinkers and entrepreneurs present case studies of social innovation that have led to significant social change. Drawing on original empirical research in the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, they examine how ordinary people accomplished extraordinary results.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2012/agentsofchange ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Chinese Village, Global Market: New Collectives and Rural Development Y1 - 2012 A1 - Biliang Hu A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Biliang Hu and Tony Saich, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

This book is a story of one village, Yantian, and its remarkable economic and social transformation. The village sits in the Pearl River Delta, the engine of China's emergence as the hub of global manufacturing and production. The village's success relied on the creation of new economic collectives, its ability to leverage networks, and its proximity to Hong Kong to transform forever the formerly sleepy rural area. The result of almost 20 years of field work by the authors, Chinese Village, Global Market shows how outcomes are shaped by a number of factors such as path dependence, social structures, economic resources and local entrepreneurship.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan UR - http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Village-Global-Market-Transformation/dp/1137035145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337611751&sr=8-1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Chinese Village, Global Market: New Collectives and Rural Development Y1 - 2012 A1 - Biliang Hu A1 - Tony Saich AB -

Biliang Hu and Tony Saich, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012 

This book is a story of one village, Yantian, and its remarkable economic and social transformation. The village sits in the Pearl River Delta, the engine of China's emergence as the hub of global manufacturing and production. The village's success relied on the creation of new economic collectives, its ability to leverage networks, and its proximity to Hong Kong to transform forever the formerly sleepy rural area. The result of almost 20 years of field work by the authors, Chinese Village, Global Market shows how outcomes are shaped by a number of factors such as path dependence, social structures, economic resources and local entrepreneurship.

UR - https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137035141 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale Y1 - 2012 A1 - John Parkinson A1 - Jane Mansbridge AB -

John Parkinson and Jane Mansbridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012 

'Deliberative democracy' is often dismissed as a set of small-scale, academic experiments. This volume seeks to demonstrate how the deliberative ideal can work as a theory of democracy on a larger scale. It provides a new way of thinking about democratic engagement across the spectrum of political action, from towns and villages to nation states, and from local networks to transnational, even global, systems. Written by a team of the world's leading deliberative theorists, Deliberative Systems explains the principles of this new approach, which seeks ways of ensuring that a division of deliberative labor in a system nonetheless meets both deliberative and democratic norms.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/deliberative-systems-deliberative-democracy-large-scale?format=HB&isbn=9781107025394 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Disruptive Logic: A New Paradigm For Social Change Y1 - 2011 A1 - Tim Burke A1 - Gigi Georges AB -

Tim Burke and Gigi Georges, December 2011

As the U.S. grapples with fiscal crisis – facing spiraling deficits, dangerous levels of debt, and the worst economic recession in some 70 years – Americans understand that all levels of their government must take action. Calls are growing louder from across the political spectrum for the same spirit of cost-cutting and financial restraint within government that so many families have had to embrace. According to a Pew Research Center poll in early 2011, however, even while Americans increasingly recognize the need to halt increases in spending, many remain reluctant to embrace specific cuts. There is still not one area of domestic federal spending – whether education, veterans' benefits, health care or public safety – that more Americans, when pressed, want to decrease more than they want to increase.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/disruptive_logic.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Squaring the Circle: Politics and Energy Supply in Indonesia Y1 - 2011 A1 - David Dapice A1 - Edward A. Cunningham AB -

By David Dapice and Edward A. Cunningham, December 2011

Ensuring affordable, stable, and accessible energy supply remains one of the most critical functions of government, particularly in the developing world. The creation and expansion of a national energy system presents governments with inherent risks that must be managed if an economy is to be supplied with the energy it requires to grow. Some risks are structural, and inherent to the sector itself. Energy systems are characterized by high levels of capital intensity (e.g. oil refining), long-cycle investments with extended pay-back periods (e.g. oil exploration and production), natural monopolies (e.g. electric grid and gas transmission), and high levels of risk that result from the combination of these attributes. Energy flows may also carry the added complexity of perceived national security externalities, such as supply risk in the form of oil import dependency on one partner.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/squaring.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Myanmar Agriculture in 2011: Old Problems and New Challenges Y1 - 2011 A1 - David O. Dapice A1 - Malcolm McPherson A1 - Michael J. Montesano A1 - Thomas J. Vallely, A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

David O. Dapice, Malcolm McPherson, Michael J. Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, November 2011

In May 2010, a team from the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia at Harvard Kennedy School wrote a report on approaches to the revitalization of Myanmar's agricultural sector for Proximity Designs, a Myanmar (Burma) social entrepreneurship organization. The same Harvard Kennedy School team (with one extra member) visited Myanmar in June 2011 to update and expand upon its 2010 report. Important changes had occurred since May 2010. A new government had assumed control; in an atmosphere of anticipation and some excitement, new and potentially effective policies were being discussed and developed. The drought in the Dry Zone had ended, but unseasonable rains had affected production. Some initiative had been taken to offer more agricultural credit to farmers, an important suggestion of the May 2010 report.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/myanmar1111.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Can We Put an End to Sweatshops? Y1 - 2011 A1 - Dara O’Rourke, Archon Fung, and Charles Sabe AB -

Dara O’Rourke, Archon Fung, and Charles Sabe; Beacon Press, November 2011

Sweatshops The MIT scholar who broke the news about Nike’s sweatshops argues, with two colleagues, that consumer choices can improve workers’ lives globally Seventy-five percent of Americans say they would avoid retailers whom they knew sold goods produced in sweatshops. And almost 90 percent said they would pay at least an extra dollar on a twenty-dollar item if they could be sure it had not been produced by exploited workers. Knowing that information about the conditions of workers around the world can influence what we buy, Dara O’Rourke, Archon Fung, and Charles Sabel argue that making that information widely available is the best way to improve conditions. Although watchdog agencies have tried to monitor working conditions and pressure corporations to adhere to international standards, the authors show how these organizations alone cannot do enough; only consumer action and the threat of falling profits will force corporate owners to care about the conditions of their workers. Respondents include activists, scholars, and officials of the International Labor Organization and World Bank.

PB - Beacon Press UR - http://www.beacon.org/Can-We-Put-An-End-To-Sweatshops-P133.aspx ER - TY - Generic T1 - From Government 2.0 to Society 2.0: Pathways to Engagement, Collaboration, and Transformation Y1 - 2011 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Zachary Tumin AB -

Archon Fung and Zachary Tumin, October 2011

In June 2010, 25 leaders of government and industry convened to Harvard University to assess the move to ”Government 2.0” to date; to share insight to its limits and possibilities, as well as its enablers and obstacles; and to assess the road ahead. This is a report of that meeting, made possible by a grant from Microsoft.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/from_government_2.0.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Preparing in Advance for Disaster Recovery Y1 - 2011 A1 - Douglas Ahlers A1 - Arnold M. Howitt A1 - Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard AB -

Douglas Ahlers, Arnold M. Howitt, and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, October 2011

In the past decade, the world has looked in horror at many heart-wrenching scenes of human suffering and physical devastation in Asia – including the tsunami of 2004, China’s earthquake of 2008, Pakistan’s floods of 2010, and Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident this year. Unfortunately, these will not be the last of such tragic events, given Asia’s significant exposure to natural disasters, increasingly complex and interdependent social and economic systems, intensifying urbanisation in risk-exposed locations, and its vulnerability to the impact of climate change.

UR - http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/centers-programs/programs/crisis-leadership/Advance%20Recovery%20in%20G-I-A%20Dec%202011%20(reduced).pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Myanmar Exchange Rate: A Barrier to National Strength Y1 - 2011 A1 - David O. Dapice A1 - Malcolm McPherson A1 - Michael J. Montesano A1 - Thomas J. Vallely, A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

David O. Dapice, Malcolm McPherson, Michael J. Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, June 2011

The exchange rate is one of the most important tools in economic development. In Myanmar (Burma), an overvalued exchange rate is currently undermining economic activity involving all tradable goods. If this situation persists, the country’s industrial base will shrink, investors will be discouraged, unemployment will rise, poverty will deepen, more people will leave the country, the divide between rich and poor will grow, and national strength and the people’s prosperity will be diminished if not destroyed. Myanmar’s overvalued exchange rate is inconsistent with the development experience throughout Asia since 1945.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/barrier.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - If The Banks Are Doing So Well, Why Can’t I Get A Loan? Regulatory Constraints to Financial Inclusion in Indonesia Y1 - 2011 A1 - Rosengard, Jay K. A1 - Prasetyantoko, A AB -

Rosengard, Jay K.; Prasetyantoko, A.; May, 2011

This article marks a new era of collaboration between the Center’s faculty and their counterparts in Indonesia. Authors Jay Rosengard, lecturer in public policy at HKS, and A. Prasetyantoko, head of the Institute for Research and Social Service at Atma Jaya Catholic University in Jakarta, argue that Indonesia’s financial sector has two paradoxes: 1) Indonesia has been a global leader in microfinance for the past 25 years, but access to microfinance services is declining; and 2) Indonesia’s commercial banks are liquid, solvent, and profitable, and the Indonesian economy has been doing well over the past decade, but small- and medium-sized enterprises are facing a credit crunch. Although Indonesia is underbanked, most commercial banks have been unresponsive to unmet effective demand.

UR - https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8705903 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Park Chung Hee’s International Legacy Y1 - 2011 A1 - William H. Overholt AB -

William H. Overholt, May 2011

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton had an enormously successful campaign slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid.“ Whereas Clinton just saved a campaign with this strategy, Park Jung Hee saved a country.

Park Jung Hee took over the most threatened country in the world in 1961. South Korea had been devastated by the Korean War just a few years earlier. Its economy remained one of the world’s poorest. Its political stability appeared to be among the world’s poorest. It faced a formidable opponent with greater natural resources, superior industrial power, seemingly superior political stability and the backing of Mao Zedong’s unified and determined China.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/parkjunghee.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1943.0 Moving People Out of Danger (A): Special Needs Evacuations from Gulf Coast Hurricanes Y1 - 2011 AB - In late summer 2005, Hurricane Katrina – the worst natural disaster in U.S. history – wreaked havoc along the Gulf Coast, causing massive loss of life and property damage. (Just a few weeks later, Hurricane Rita would inflict even more suffering across much of the same area.) The evacuation of special needs individuals (e.g., the institutionalized, those with medical conditions, people without access to cars, etc.) from New Orleans was especially problematic, not simply in getting people out of the city but also in tracking who had gone where, letting their families know what had happened to them, caring for them properly in receiving areas, and repatriating them to their homes and loved ones. Illustrating the challenges health officials and political leaders faced in evacuating people with special needs during Katrina and Rita, this case prompts readers to consider the complexities of managing a critical public safety function as response plans are upended and capabilities overwhelmed. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1941.0 Tennessee Responds to the 2009 Novel H1N1 Influenza A Pandemic Y1 - 2011 AB - The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic posed enormous challenges for state health departments across the U.S. This case focuses on the experience of Tennessee – which endured an intense resurgence of the disease in late summer and early fall 2009 – and explores, in particular, how state health officials, working with their partners from local government and the private sector, mobilized in advance of this second wave of the disease. An array of preparedness efforts, such as the development of mechanisms for distributing vaccine, ultimately put the state in a strong position to deal with H1N1 come fall, but health officials still experienced considerable difficulty in several areas, including vaccine delivery, communicating with an anxious public, and managing a surge of patients seeking care. The case highlights methods for preparing for a significant public health emergency and explores the difficulties of coordinating a response involving multiple jurisdictions and a mix of actors from both the public and private sectors. ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Ports in a Storm: Public Management in a Turbulent World Y1 - 2011 ED - John D. Donahue ED - Mark H. Moore AB - The 9-11 attacks resulted in heightened security efforts in American ports. Any attack on a seaport would be far more disruptive to the day-to-day functions of the country than even airport closures. Much of the responsibility for increasing port security fell to the U.S. Coast Guard. In this book, Harvard Kennedy School authors focus diverse conceptual lenses on a single high-stakes management challenge – enhancing U.S. port security. The aims are two: to understand how that complex challenge might plausibly be met and to explore the similarities, differences, and complementarities of their alternative approaches to public management. ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Responsive Democracy: Increasing State Accountability in East Asia Y1 - 2011 A1 - Jeeyang Rhee Baum AB -

Jeeyang Rhee Baum, The University of Michigan Press, 2011

Under what conditions is a newly democratic government likely to increase transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to its citizens? What incentives might there be for bureaucrats, including those appointed by a previously authoritarian government, to carry out the wishes of an emerging democratic regime? Responsive Democracy addresses an important problem in democratic transition and consolidation: the ability of the chief executive to control the state bureaucracy. Using three well-chosen case studies – the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan – Jeeyang Rhee Baum explores the causes and consequences of codifying rules and procedures in a newly democratic government.

PB - The University of Michigan Press UR - http://www.press.umich.edu/script/press/1286186 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Responsive Democracy: Increasing State Accountability in East Asia Y1 - 2011 A1 - Jeeyang Rhee Baum AB -

Jeeyang Rhee Baum, The University of Michigan Press, 2011

Under what conditions is a newly democratic government likely to increase transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to its citizens? What incentives might there be for bureaucrats, including those appointed by a previously authoritarian government, to carry out the wishes of an emerging democratic regime? Responsive Democracy addresses an important problem in democratic transition and consolidation: the ability of the chief executive to control the state bureaucracy. Using three well-chosen case studies—the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan—Jeeyang Rhee Baum explores the causes and consequences of codifying rules and procedures in a newly democratic government.

PB - The University of Michigan Press UR - http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=1286186 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Squaring the Circle:
Politics and Energy Supply in Indonesia Y1 - 2011 A1 - David Dapice A1 - Edward Cunningham AB -

David Dapice and Edward Cunningham, December 2011 

In Indonesia, the central government finds itself struggling to choose among such energy governance models, defaulting to a mode of governing that borrows some of the least attractive aspects of the state-led model and of the market-led model. In electricity, the Indonesian system clings to a state ownership model in power generation that lacks the competitive elements of even the state-centric Chinese electricity system has introduced. In coal markets, ownership has been liberalized to allow private and competing companies, and exports have grown rapidly. However, artificially depressed domestic coal prices for power generation have starved the nation of adequate supply. This shortage has resulted in draconian measures such as the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) policy, which holds such coal suppliers hostage to a monopsonist PLN unwilling and unable to pay market rates. Subsidized pricing continues to support the import of expensive diesel fuel and fuel oil, leading to spiraling subsidies. In terms of natural gas, Indonesia remains a major LNG exporter, but low domestic prices make it difficult for domestic consumers to compete with Asian LNG importers such as Japan, who are willing to pay much higher prices.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/squaring.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Revitalizing Agriculture in Myanmar: Breaking Down Barriers, Building a Framework for Growth Y1 - 2010 A1 - David O. Dapice A1 - Mike Montesano A1 - Thomas J. Vallely, A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

David O. Dapice, Mike Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, July 2010

This is a study of the rice economy in Myanmar (Burma). It seeks to identify barriers and bottlenecks that are hindering growth and depressing value in a sector that must play a central role in alleviating the extreme poverty that currently afflicts an expanding proportion of rural households. The issues that this paper addresses are of importance to the entire Myanmar economy and its prospects for achieving a higher level of growth and delivering prosperity to the Myanmar people. This is because many of the barriers to greater productivity in the rice economy are also obstacles to growth of the economy as a whole.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/burma.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Leading in Crises: Observations on the Political and Decision-Making Dimensions of Response Y1 - 2010 A1 - Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard A1 - Arnold M. Howitt AB -

Herman B. ”Dutch” Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt – August 2012 

Emergency response organizations must deal with both ”routine emergencies” (dangerous events, perhaps extremely severe, that are routine because they can be anticipated and prepared for) and ”true crises” (which, because of significant novelty, cannot be dealt with exclusively by pre-determined emergency plans and capabilities). These types of emergencies therefore require emergency response organizations to adopt very different leadership strategies, if they are effectively to cope with the differential demands of these events. This paper develops ideas about leadership under crisis conditions, concentrating on the political leadership and decision making functions that are thrust to the center of concern during such crisis events.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/leadingincrises.pdf?m=1635173426 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Land Policy for Socioeconomic Development in Vietnam Y1 - 2010 A1 - Dang Hoa Ho A1 - Malcolm McPherson AB -

Dang Hoa Ho and Malcolm McPherson, May 2010

This paper is part of a study ”Policy Analysis for the Development of Land Policy for Socio-Economic Development.” Land policy relates to the institutional arrangements through which the Government of Vietnam defines which individuals and groups have access to rights in land and the circumstances that apply to gaining and retaining that access. The overall goal is to ensure that land in Vietnam is used efficiently and equitably so as to achieve the government's objectives of rapid economic growth, poverty reduction, food security, international competitiveness, social harmony, and environmental sustainability.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/vnm_landpolicypaper.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Power of Social Innovation: How Civic Entrepreneurs Ignite Community Networks for Good Y1 - 2010 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Gigi Georges A1 - Tim Glynn Burke AB -

Stephen Goldsmith with Gigi Georges and Tim Glynn Burke, Jossey-Bass, 2010

Civic leaders across the U.S. and throughout the world are discovering creative ways to overcome the obstacles that seal the doors of opportunity for too many. These inspiring individuals believe that within our communities lies the entrepreneurial spirit, compassion, and resources to make progress in such critical areas as education, housing, and economic self-reliance. Real progress requires that we take bold action and leverage our strengths for the greater good. The Power of Social Innovation offers public officials, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and individual citizens the insights and skills to create healthier communities and promote innovative solutions to public and social problems. This seminal work is based on Stephen Goldsmith's decades of experience, extensive ongoing research, and interviews with 100+ top leaders from a wide variety of sectors. Goldsmith shows that everyday citizens can themselves produce extraordinary social change.

Read the first chapter of the book 

PB - Jossey-Bass UR - http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470576847,subjectCd-DS60.html ER - TY - Generic T1 - Innovation as Narrative Y1 - 2010 A1 - Sandford Borins AB -

Sandford Borins, February 2010

This paper begins by outlining a number of key narratological concepts, such as the distinction between narrative – the events represented – and one or more narrators’ presentations of the events, implied author and implied reader, and structural analysis of narrative genres. It then applies these concepts to the three narrations of the 31 finalists of the 2008 and 2009 Innovations in American Government Awards. The paper concludes with suggestions for how public management scholars could incorporate narratological insights into their analysis, how innovation awards could ask applicants to develop more explicit narratives, and how innovators could make more effective use of narrative in communicating their achievements.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/innovationasnarrative_01.pdf?m=1635172500 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Innovations in Post-Conflict Transitions: The United Nations Development Program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Y1 - 2010 A1 - Sarah Dix A1 - Diego Miranda A1 - Charles H. Norchi AB -

Sarah Dix, Diego Miranda, and Charles H. Norchi, February 2010

Between January and September of 2007, a team composed of Dr. Sarah Dix, Mr. Diego Miranda, and Dr. Charles H. Norchi appraised the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) country office programs, procedures, and management as implemented from 2003 to 2007. During the 2003 to 2007 period, the country program cycle focused on promoting good governance, conflict prevention, community recovery, and fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Overall, the office managed more than $500 million for all programs, becoming among the three largest UNDP country operations in the world. This report examines the organizational dimensions of the UNDP office in the DRC, and analyzes its most important program innovations.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/innovations_as_postconflict.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Innovations in Post-Conflict Transitions: The United Nations Development Program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Y1 - 2010 A1 - Sarah Dix A1 - Diego Miranda A1 - Charles H. Norchi AB -

Sarah Dix, Diego Miranda, and Charles H. Norchi, February 2010

Between January and September of 2007, a team composed of Dr. Sarah Dix, Mr. Diego Miranda, and Dr. Charles H. Norchi appraised the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) country office programs, procedures, and management as implemented from 2003 to 2007. During the 2003 to 2007 period, the country program cycle focused on promoting good governance, conflict prevention, community recovery, and fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Overall, the office managed more than $500 million for all programs, becoming among the three largest UNDP country operations in the world. This report examines the organizational dimensions of the UNDP office in the DRC, and analyzes its most important program innovations.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/congo.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Open Government and Open Society Y1 - 2010 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - David Weil AB -

Archon Fung and David Weil, February 2010

Enthusiasts of transparency should be aware of two major pitfalls that may mar this achievement. The first is that government transparency, though driven by progressive impulses, may draw excessive attention to government's mistakes and so have the consequence of reinforcing a conservative image of government as incompetent and corrupt. The second is that all this energy devoted to making open government comes at the expense of leaving the operations of large private sector organizations – banks, manufacturers, health providers, food producers, drug companies, and the like – opaque and secret. In the major industrialized democracies (but not in many developing countries or in authoritarian regimes), these private sector organizations threaten the health and well-being of citizens at least as much as government.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/open_government.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1926.0 Creating and Managing Economic Competitiveness: The Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority Y1 - 2010 AB - The Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) is an agency established in 2000 to improve the business environment and encourage foreign investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This agency was created out of the Kingdom's landmark Foreign Investment Law of 2000 with the mandate to diversify the economy and provide jobs for its burgeoning young population. The fledgling agency was expected to enlist the aid of other government ministries and agencies in reducing barriers to investment – including the politically sensitive “Saudization“ policy, which gave employment preference to Saudis over foreign workers – and in marketing Saudi Arabia as a welcoming location for foreign investors. However, the law that had formed SAGIA gave it few tools to work with. Therefore, it had to find a way to cooperate with the rest of the government to effect change. The case should be used for class discussions of several important themes: the difficulty of collaboration across government bureaucracy with little authority or resources; effecting change in an unfavorable political climate – both external and internal; human capital development with the skill for strategic planning and communications; and the impact of an individual dynamic leader on an organization. ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1940.0 On the Frontlines of a Pandemic: Texas Responds to 2009 Novel H1N1 Influenza A Y1 - 2010 AB - In the spring of 2009, cases of a previously unidentified strain of influenza began appearing in Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Within just a few months, outbreaks of 2009 Novel H1N1 (commonly referred to as Swine Flu) were so widespread that the World Health Organization declared its first influenza pandemic in over 40 years. This case focuses on how state health officials in Texas, which experienced some of the first cases of H1N1, organized a response to the disease in the face of considerable uncertainty regarding its contagiousness, lethality, and geographic spread. The case prompts readers to contemplate the challenges of responding to a rapidly unfolding event featuring a high degree of novelty, the benefits and limitations of pre-event preparedness efforts, and the difficulties of coordinating an effective response among a number of partners and across multiple levels of government. ER - TY - Generic T1 - Beyond the Apex: Toward a System Level Approach to Higher Education Reform in Vietnam Y1 - 2010 AB -

Vietnam Program, July 2010

A broad consensus has emerged in Vietnam that higher education is in need of deep and wide-reaching reform. This consensus extends from students and their families to public intellectuals and educators to policymakers at the highest levels of government. Vietnam‘s national competitiveness increasingly depends on skilled human capital, which its higher education system is not delivering. Ever growing numbers of families are choosing to send their children abroad for undergraduate and even high school education in order for them to acquire the skills and credentials needed to succeed in the global economy.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/beyondtheapex_0.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - From Reformasi to Institutional Transformation: A Strategic Assessment of Indonesia's Prospects for Growth, Equity, and Democratic Governance Y1 - 2010 A1 - Anthony Saich A1 - Tarek Masoud A1 - Thomas Vallely A1 - Ben Wilkinson A1 - Jeffrey Williams AB -

Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, Kompas Gramedia Group, 2010

Rates of economic growth in Indonesia have returned to the levels experienced before the global economic crisis of 2007-08. And yet other countries in Asia, such as China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and The Philippines have been growing even faster. Compared to these countries, Indonesia is quickly being left behind in terms of foreign direct investment, manufacturing growth, infrastructure investments, and educational attainment. Like a marathoner carrying a twenty kilogram pack, Indonesia can see the competition pulling away but is powerless to pick up the pace. Indonesia must engage in a thorough process of institutional transformation if it is to shed the legacy of Guided Democracy and the New Order and learn to compete in an ever globalizing economy.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/1267185.pdf?m=1618946254 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - From the Ground Up: Improving Government Performance with Independent Monitoring Organizations Y1 - 2010 A1 - Charles Griffin A1 - Stephen Kosack A1 - Courtney Tolmie AB -

Charles Griffin, Stephen Kosack, and Courtney Tolmie, Brookings Institution Press, 2010

From the Ground Up proposes that the international community’s efforts to improve public expenditure and budget execution decisions would be more effective if done in collaboration with local independent monitoring organizations. The authors track the work of 16 independent monitoring organizations from across the developing world, demonstrating how these relatively small groups of local researchers produce both thoughtful analysis and workable solutions. They achieve these results because their vantage point allows them to more effectively discern problems with governance and to communicate with their fellow citizens about the ideals and methods of good governance.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2010/fromthegroundup ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Governance and Politics of China Y1 - 2010 A1 - Anthony Saich AB -

Anthony Saich, Third Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Lavish spectacles such as the Beijing Olympics and Expo 2010 have raised China's global profile and echoed predictions of a rise to the position of a major world actor. Yet moves towards a market-based economy, together with the global recession, have exacerbated a number of political and social challenges for the Chinese government. The tensions between communist and capitalist identities continue to divide society. The People's Republic is now over sixty years old – an appropriate juncture at which to reassess the state of contemporary Chinese politics. In this substantially revised third edition, Saich delivers a thorough introduction to all aspects of politics and governance in post-Mao China, taking full account of the changes of the Seventeenth Party Congress and Eleventh National People's Congress.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan, UR - http://www.amazon.com/Governance-Politics-China-Comparative-Government/dp/0230279937 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Prospects for the Professions in China Y1 - 2010 ED - William P Alford ED - William Kirby ED - Kenneth Winston AB -

William P Alford, William Kirby, and Kenneth Winston, editors, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010

Professionals are a growing group in China and increasingly make their presence felt in governance and civil society. At the same time, however, professionals in the West are under increasing pressure from commercialism or scepticism about their ability to rise above self-interest. This book focuses on professionals in China and asks whether developing countries have a fateful choice: to embrace Western models of professional organization as they now exist, or to set off on an independent path, adapting elements of Western practices to their own historical and cultural situation. In doing so, the authors in this volume discuss a wealth of issues, including: the historic antecedents of modern Chinese professionalism; the implications of professionalism as an import in China; the impact of socialism, the developmental state, and rampant commercialism on the professions in China; and the feasibility of liberal professions in an illiberal state.

PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group UR - http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415556392/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - From the Ground Up: Improving Government Performance with Independent Monitoring Organizations Y1 - 2010 A1 - Charles Griffin A1 - Stephen Kosack A1 - Courtney Tolmie AB -

Charles Griffin, Stephen Kosack, and Courtney Tolmie, Brookings Institution Press, 2010

From the Ground Up proposes that the international community's efforts to improve public expenditure and budget execution decisions would be more effective if done in collaboration with local independent monitoring organizations. The authors track the work of 16 independent monitoring organizations from across the developing world, demonstrating how these relatively small groups of local researchers produce both thoughtful analysis and workable solutions. They achieve these results because their vantage point allows them to more effectively discern problems with governance and to communicate with their fellow citizens about the ideals and methods of good governance.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2010/fromthegroundup ER - TY - Generic T1 - Organising Response to Extreme Emergencies: The Victorian Bushfires of 2009 Y1 - 2009 A1 - Leonard, Herman B. A1 - Arnold M. Howitt AB -

Herman B. Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt, September 2010

The horrific events of Black Saturday (February 7, 2009) in Victoria, Australia, constitute an extreme event. In January and February of 2009, Victoria experienced unprecedented climatic conditions of drought and heat that brought the state to a literally explosive fire condition, with tinder-dry fuels across the state needing only a combination of wind and an ignition source to touch off potentially devastating fires. Over the course of January and early February, firefighters responded to literally hundreds of fires. In the first week of February, historically high temperatures prevailed across the state, with new records set in many locations. Melbourne experienced temperatures for three consecutive days above 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit), further exacerbating already historically-threatening fire conditions.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/organising_response.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Intangibles of Excellence: Governance and the Quest to Build a Vietnamese Apex Research University Y1 - 2009 AB -

The New School, June 2009

Knowledge and human capital are now the main drivers of economic development and the key determinants of national competitiveness. The role of research universities in the development process has changed as a result of the emergence of the knowledge economy. Research universities educate a country's most talented students, irrespective of socioeconomic status; their graduates serve society in important ways, as innovators, entrepreneurs, managers, civil servants, and political and civic leaders. In developing countries, apex research universities often play a critical role in adapting advancements in global knowledge to conditions in their own countries. The knowledge generated by research universities contributes to social well being and prosperity. Research universities are increasingly viewed as symbols of national prestige. Having a handful of research universities benefits the entire national education system by producing highly qualified professors and teachers. For all of these reasons, countries have expended vast sums of money in an effort to build world-class research universities. However, the results of these efforts have been mixed.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/apex.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Assessment of the Myanmar Agricultural Economy Y1 - 2009 A1 - Vietnam Program AB -

Vietnam Program, March 2009

During two weeks in January 2009 a team from the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, International Development Enterprises (IDE), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of the Union of Myanmar conducted a humanitarian assessment of food production and the agricultural economy in Myanmar. This report summarizing the team's findings and focuses on paddy production, because rice is the country's staple crop. Based on field work in cyclone-affected areas of the Ayeyarwady River Delta and in Upper Myanmar, the report concludes that paddy output is likely to drop in 2009, potentially creating a food shortage by the third quarter. Estimates are based on imperfect data, and this scenario may not materialize, but the avoidance of a food shortage this year would represent a temporary reprieve, not a recovery.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/myanmar.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Suggestions for Improving Transparency Policies Y1 - 2009 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Mary Graham A1 - David Weil AB -

Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil; March 2009

The authors offer several suggestions for ways that the federal government can improve transparency. The first section describes several general policies to create better disclosure systems; the second section offers some prototype and experimental initiatives that might begin in short order.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/transparencyogdmemo2.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Vietnam’s Industrial Policy: Designing Policies for Sustainable Development Y1 - 2009 A1 - Dwight Perkins A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh AB -

Dwight Perkins and Vu Thanh Tu Anh, March 2009

Vietnam has made a remarkable transition since 1989 from a centrally planned industrial sector dominated by administrative allocation of inputs and outputs to an industrial sector governed mainly by market forces. Furthermore, Vietnam accomplished this transition while avoiding the sharp fall in GDP and industrial output that occurred in so many other centrally planned economies. In the 1980s, Vietnamese exports covered less than half of the country's relatively small import requirements and virtually no Vietnamese industries were capable of selling their products in the demanding markets of Europe and North America. Twenty years later Vietnamese exports are twenty fold what they were in the 1980s and industrial products sold around the world are the largest contributors to these export sales.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/vietnams_industrial_policy.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Vietnam’s Infrastructure Constraints Y1 - 2009 A1 - David Dapice A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh AB -

David Dapice and Nguyen Xuan Thanh, February 2009

Successful countries provide economy and society with infrastructure needed to maintain growth. Development experience suggests that investing 7 percent of GDP in infrastructure is the right order of magnitude for high and sustained growth. Over the last twelve years, the government of Vietnam was able to sustain infrastructure investment at 10 percent of GDP. This remarkably high level of investment has resulted in a rapid expansion of infrastructure stocks and improved access. Despite this achievement, Vietnam is experiencing more and more infrastructure weaknesses that negatively affect its ability to sustain high economic growth in the long term. Transport and electricity – the two most essential infrastructure activities – appear to be the weakest infrastructure sectors in Vietnam with blackouts and traffic jams occurring more and more frequently.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/vietnams_infrastructure_constraints.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Vietnam’s Infrastructure Constraints Y1 - 2009 A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh A1 - David Dapice AB -

Nguyen Xuan Thanh, David Dapice, February 2009

Successful countries provide economy and society with infrastructure needed to maintain growth. Development experience suggests that investing 7 percent of GDP in infrastructure is the right order of magnitude for high and sustained growth. Over the last twelve years, the government of Vietnam was able to sustain infrastructure investment at 10 percent of GDP. This remarkably high level of investment has resulted in a rapid expansion of infrastructure stocks and improved access. Despite this achievement, Vietnam is experiencing more and more infrastructure weaknesses that negatively affect its ability to sustain high economic growth in the long term. Transport and electricity – the two most essential infrastructure activities – appear to be the weakest infrastructure sectors in Vietnam with blackouts and traffic jams occurring more and more frequently.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/653317.pdf?m=1637494726 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1907.9 New York City Acquisition Fund: Interview with Shaun Donovan (DVD Supplement) Y1 - 2009 AB -

New York Acquisition Fund: New York, NY – 2008 Innovations Winner

This 9-minute video is a companion to “Buying Property in a Hot Market: NYC Creates a Fund to Keep Affordable Housing Developers in Play“ (case number 1907.0). In it, Shaun Donovan, the former New York City Housing Commissioner, explains the genesis of the New York City Acquisition Fund, created in 2006 with the goal of delivering timely loans to small and nonprofit affordable housing developers so as to allow them to compete with market-rate developers at a time of rampant speculation, rapidly rising prices, and fierce competition in the New York real estate market. The Fund represented a groundbreaking effort to use public sector funds and authority, together with foundation capital, to leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in loan capital from banks and private lenders.

In this video, Donovan stresses the importance of correctly assessing the scope of a problem, and designing a solution that is “to scale.” He also notes that the creation of the NYC Acquisition Fund relied in part on a critical philanthropic contribution that funded the research and development stage of the initiative.

ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China Rules Y1 - 2009 ED - lan Alon ED - Julian Chang ED - Marc Fetscherin ED - Christoph Latteman ED - John R. McIntyre AB -

Ilan Alon, Julian Chang, Marc Fetscherin, Christoph Latteman, and John R. McIntyre, editors, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

The development of the Chinese multinational is a new feature of globalization. This book deals in the first section with the political economy and governance of China. The contemporary discourse of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises is discussed from different theoretical perspectives and shows how it will reshape global competition, and how the new corporate governance structures impact the long-term performance of state-owned enterprises in China. The second section assesses international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) by Chinese firms and their impact on developed countries. The effects of China's policy and regulatory change on outward FDI are outlined and a Sino-EU Intra-Industry Trade and FDI analysis explores the nature of the challenge facing the EU. Section three describes the developments in certain Chinese industries, such as telecommunications, electronics and automotives, and explains companies and government strategies to gain access to global natural resources.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan UR - http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/china-rules-ilan-alon/?sf1=barcode&st1=9780230576254 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Funding Economic Development: A Comparative Study of Financial Sector Reform in Vietnam and China Y1 - 2009 A1 - Jay Rosengard A1 - Huynh The Du AB -

Jay Rosengard and Huynh The Du, January 2009

Given the importance of financial sector development for sustained economic growth, especially in the context of Vietnam’s own performance since embarking the Đổi Mới economic reforms twenty years ago, the objective of this study is to analyze the financial sector development in Vietnam and China within the framework of financial sector reforms introduced in the two countries. The study assesses the progress to date and future challenges for each country; compares and contrasts financial sector reform strategies and performance; and formulates policy recommendations for further financial sector reform in Vietnam.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/653144.pdf?m=1637494591 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government Y1 - 2009 A1 - William Eggers A1 - John O'Leary AB -

William Eggers and John O'Leary, Harvard Business School Press, 2009

The American people are frustrated with their government — dismayed by a series of high-profile failures (Iraq, Katrina, the financial meltdown). Yet our nation has a proud history of great achievements: victory in World War II, our national highway system, welfare reform, the moon landing. The truth is, we need more successes like these to reclaim government's legacy of competence. In the book If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, William Eggers and John O'Leary explain how to do it. The key? Understand — and avoid — the common pitfalls that trip up public-sector leaders during the journey from idea to results.

PB - Harvard Business School Press UR - http://dupress.com/articles/if-we-can-put-a-man-on-the-moon-getting-things-done-in-government/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Managing Crises: Responses to Large-Scale Emergencies Y1 - 2009 ED - Arnold M. Howitt ED - Leonard, Herman B. ED - David W. Giles AB -

Arnold M. Howitt, Herman B. Leonard, and David W. Giles, editors, CQ Press, 2009

From floods to fires, tornadoes to terrorist attacks, governments must respond to a variety of crises and meet reasonable standards of performance. What accounts for governments’ effective responses to unfolding disasters? How should they organize and plan for significant emergencies? With twelve adapted Kennedy School cases, readers experience first-hand a series of large-scale emergencies and come away with a clear sense of the different types of disaster situations governments confront, with each type requiring different planning, resourcing, skill-building, leadership, and execution.

PB - CQ Press UR - http://www.cqpress.com/product/Managing-Crises-Responses-to-Large.html ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Power and Restraint: A Shared Vision for the U.S.-China Relationship Y1 - 2009 ED - Richard Rosecrance ED - Gu Guoliang AB -

Richard Rosecrance and Gu Guoliang, editors, PublicAffairs, 2009

Over several years, some of the most distinguished Chinese and American scholars have engaged in a major research project, sponsored by the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (USEF), to address the big bilateral and global issues the two countries face. Historically, the ascension of a great power has resulted in armed conflict. This group of scholars – experts in politics, economics, international security, and environmental studies – set out to establish consensus on potentially contentious issues and elaborate areas where the two nations can work together to achieve common goals. Featuring essays on global warming, trade relations, Taiwan, democratization, WMDs, and bilateral humanitarian intervention, Power and Restraint finds that China and the United States can exist side by side and establish mutual understanding to better cope with the common challenges they face. HKS Professors Graham Allison, Joseph Nye, and Anthony Saich contribute chapters. Editor Richard Rosecrance elaborates on the book's findings.

PB - PublicAffairs UR - http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/book/ebook/power-and-restraint/9780786741434 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Public Innovator's Playbook: Nurturing Bold Ideas in Government Y1 - 2009 A1 - William D. Eggers A1 - Shalabh Kumar Singh AB -

William D. Eggers & Shalabh Kumar Singh, Deloitte Research, 2009

The Public Innovator’s Playbook, published by Deloitte Research in the U.S. with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center, describes how governments have the opportunity to help improve the economic environment, create jobs, and more efficiently manage costs. According to the book, governments currently innovate. Moreover, some creative approaches in the private sector come from the public sector. However, few governments take an integrated view of the process or treat it as a discipline – which includes methodical processes, reward systems, and a mission linked to the process and organizational structure.

PB - Deloitte Research UR - http://www.deloitte.com/innovatorsplaybook ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States Y1 - 2009 A1 - Alexander Keyssar AB -

Alexander Keyssar, Basic Books, 2009

Most Americans take for granted their right to vote, whether they choose to exercise it or not. But the history of suffrage in the U.S. is, in fact, the story of a struggle to achieve this right by our society's marginalized groups. In The Right to Vote, HKS historian Alexander Keyssar explores the evolution of suffrage over the course of the nation's history. Examining the many features of the history of the right to vote in the U.S. – class, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, and age – the book explores the conditions under which American democracy has expanded and contracted over the years. Keyssar presents convincing evidence that the history of the right to vote has not been one of a steady history of expansion and increasing inclusion, noting that voting rights contracted substantially in the U.S. between 1850 and 1920. Keyssar also presents a controversial thesis: that the primary factor promoting the expansion of the suffrage has been war and the primary factors promoting contraction or delaying expansion have been class tension and class conflict. The June 2009 edition includes a new chapter on voting rights since 2000.

PB - Basic Books UR - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465029698/ref=cm_sw_su_dp ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities Y1 - 2009 ED - Jorrit de Jong ED - Gowher Rizvi AB -

Jorrit de Jong and Gowher Rizvi, editors, Brookings Institution Press, 2009

The State of Access documents a worrisome gap between principles and practice in democratic governance. This book is a comparative, cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create the equal opportunities that they have promised to deliver to the people they serve. In theory, rules and regulations may formally guarantee access to democratic processes, public services, and justice. But reality routinely disappoints, for a number of reasons – exclusionary policymaking, insufficient attention to minorities, underfunded institutions, inflexible bureaucracies. The State of Access helps close the gap between the potential and performance in democratic governance.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2008/thestateofaccess ER - TY - Generic T1 - Structural Change: The Only Effective Stimulus Y1 - 2009 A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - David Dapice A1 - Jonathan Pincus A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, David Dapice, Jonathan Pincus, and Ben Wilkinson, January 2009

This paper responds to a request from the Vietnamese government for an analysis of the impact of the global economic crisis on Vietnam, and policy recommendations to help the government stimulate growth and reduce the risk of financial crisis. The government has proposed an economic stimulus valued at six billion U.S. dollars, although details of this plan are still being worked out as this document is prepared. The roots of macroeconomic instability in Vietnam are domestic, and that the appropriate policy response is structural change. This paper argues that the deepening of the international economic downturn strengthens the case for structural reforms. Further, the paper suggests that the fiscal and monetary stimulus proposed by the government will not have the desired impact but will instead accelerate inflation and increase systemic financial risks. The authors recommend an alternative set of policies including gradual depreciation of the VND and adjustments to the public investment program to delay capital and import intensive projects in favor of labor intensive projects that do not rely heavily on imports.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/structural_change.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Unlocking the Power of Networks: Keys to High Performance Government Y1 - 2009 ED - Stephen Goldsmith ED - Donald Kettl AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and Donald Kettl, editors, Brookings Institution Press, 2009

The era of textbook top-down, stovepiped public management in America is over, and the traditional dichotomy between public ownership and privatization is an outdated notion. Public executives have shifted their focus from managing workers and directly providing services to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver those services. In this new book, Stephen Goldsmith and Donald Kettl head a stellar cast of policy practitioners and scholars exploring the potential, strategies, and best practices of high-performance networks while identifying next-generation issues in public sector network management. Unlocking the Power of Networks employs sector-specific analyses to reveal how networked governance achieves previously unthinkable policy goals.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2009/unlockingthepowerofnetworks.aspx ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement Y1 - 2009 A1 - Marshall Ganz AB -

Marshall Ganz, Oxford University Press, 2009

Why David Sometimes Wins tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' groundbreaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor – a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a longtime movement organizer and scholar, Ganz illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. Authoritative in scholarship and magisterial in scope, this book constitutes a seminal contribution to learning from the movement's struggles, setbacks, and successes.

PB - Oxford University Press UR - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-david-sometimes-wins-9780195162011;jsessionid=B708B5D63537F9FA65E7837D052FB8AC?cc=us&lang=en& ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities Y1 - 2009 ED - Jorrit de Jong ED - Gowher Rizvi AB -

Jorrit de Jong and Gowher Rizvi, editors, Brookings Institution Press, 2009

The State of Access documents a worrisome gap between principles and practice in democratic governance. This book is a comparative, cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create the equal opportunities that they have promised to deliver to the people they serve. In theory, rules and regulations may formally guarantee access to democratic processes, public services, and justice. But reality routinely disappoints, for a number of reasons—exclusionary policymaking, insufficient attention to minorities, underfunded institutions, inflexible bureaucracies. The State of Access helps close the gap between the potential and performance in democratic governance.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2008/thestateofaccess.aspx ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China Rules: Globalization and Political Transformation Y1 - 2009 ED - Ilan Alon ED - Julian Chang ED - Marc Fetscherin ED - Christoph Latteman ED - John R. McIntyre AB -

Ilan Alon, Julian Chang, Marc Fetscherin, Christoph Latteman, and John R. McIntyre, editors, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

The development of the Chinese multinational is a new feature of globalization. This book deals in the first section with the political economy and governance of China. The contemporary discourse of the internationalization of Chinese enterprises is discussed from different theoretical perspectives and shows how it will reshape global competition, and how the new corporate governance structures impact the long-term performance of state-owned enterprises in China. The second section assesses international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) by Chinese firms and their impact on developed countries. The effects of China's policy and regulatory change on outward FDI are outlined and a Sino-EU Intra-Industry Trade and FDI analysis explores the nature of the challenge facing the EU. Section three describes the developments in certain Chinese industries, such as telecommunications, electronics and automotives, and explains companies and government strategies to gain access to global natural resources.

UR - http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/china-rules-ilan-alon/?sf1=barcode&st1=9780230576254 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States Y1 - 2009 AB -

Alexander Keyssar, Basic Books, 2009

Most Americans take for granted their right to vote, whether they choose to exercise it or not. But the history of suffrage in the U.S. is, in fact, the story of a struggle to achieve this right by our society's marginalized groups. In The Right to Vote, HKS historian Alexander Keyssar explores the evolution of suffrage over the course of the nation's history. Examining the many features of the history of the right to vote in the U.S.—class, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, and age—the book explores the conditions under which American democracy has expanded and contracted over the years. Keyssar presents convincing evidence that the history of the right to vote has not been one of a steady history of expansion and increasing inclusion, noting that voting rights contracted substantially in the U.S. between 1850 and 1920. Keyssar also presents a controversial thesis: that the primary factor promoting the expansion of the suffrage has been war and the primary factors promoting contraction or delaying expansion have been class tension and class conflict. The June 2009 edition includes a new chapter on voting rights since 2000.

PB - Basic Books UR - http://amzn.com/0465029698 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Choosing Success: The Lessons of East and Southeast Asia and Vietnam's Future Y1 - 2008 A1 - Vietnam Program AB - “For Vietnam, success is a choice.“ This sums up the verdict delivered by the Center’s Vietnam Program to the government of Vietnam in early 2008. In a country accustomed to outpourings of praise from multilateral donors for its economic performance, the sobering assessment was headline news. On January 15, 2008, a Vietnam Program delegation headed by Director Tom Vallely met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi, and presented him with this report. The paper was written in response to a request from Prime Minister Dung that the Vietnam Program conduct a critical analysis of Vietnam’s socioeconomic development strategy for the period through 2020. UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/choosing_success.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Celebrating 20 Years of Government Innovation Y1 - 2008 A1 - Innovations in Government Program AB -

Innovations in Government Program, March 2008 

This report offers findings and subsequent analysis of the winners of the Innovations in American Government (IAG) Awards honored between 1986 and 2007. The findings were released at the Institute’s “Frontiers of Innovation: Celebrating 20 Years of Innovation in Government” conference held March 31 through April 2, 2008.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/surveyreport.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Structural Roots of Macroeconomic Instability Y1 - 2008 A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - David Dapice A1 - Jonathan Pincus A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, David Dapice, Jonathan Pincus, Ben Wilkinson, September 2008

This paper responds to a request from the Vietnamese government for an analysis of the short- and long-term challenges confronting the Vietnamese economy. The paper argues that restoring macroeconomic stability and positioning the economy for long term growth will require fundamental, structural reform. The paper begins by comparing Vietnam’s performance over the past 20 years to other countries in the region. This comparison reveals a set of worrisome trends which, taken together, raise questions about the sustainability of Vietnam’s growth path. Part II examines the current macroeconomic environment and assesses the government’s response to date. The paper concludes that, while government policy has succeeded in reducing macroeconomic turbulence in the short run, nothing has been done to address the structural weaknesses of the Vietnamese economy.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/structural_roots.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Surviving a Crisis, Returning to Reform Y1 - 2008 AB -

Vietnam Program, May 2008

The Vietnamese economy is facing its most serious challenges since the mid-1980s. Over the past several months the government has stated its determination to curb inflation and restore macroeconomic stability. These are indeed critical priorities, but the government’s actions to date to achieve this end have been largely ineffectual. This Vietnam Policy Discussion Paper argues that a restoration of the situation prior to the onset of the current instability is neither possible nor desirable. This is because the current situation is due largely to structural weaknesses in the Vietnamese economy; the international conditions that have been offered as explanations are, at best, secondary factors.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/surviving_a_crisis.pdf ER - TY - CASE T1 - Case: A One Stop Shop for Small Businesses in Amsterdam Y1 - 2008 A1 - Erik Gerritsen AB -

Erik Gerritsen, March 2008  

The research project Improving Access (www.ImprovingAccess.Org) was developed by an international group of researchers interested in innovations in democratic governance. It explores the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create genuinely equal opportunities. This partnership between the Ash Institute at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Centre for Government Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands has resulted in the production and organization of research, conferences, publications, and teaching materials.

This document is an interview with Erik Gerritsen, Knowledge Ambassador for the city of Amsterdam, regarding the innovative program, One Stop Shop for Hotel Restaurant Café Licenses (abbreviated HoReCa1).

Despite the economic value of the hotel and restaurant sector in Amsterdam, the regulations for acquiring a bar, hotel, or restaurant license in the city were extremely complicated. Especially for nascent immigrant entrepreneurs, the investments of time, money, and energy were prohibitive. HoReCa1, a novel, cross-agency, and web-enabled initiative, dramatically reduced the complexity and costs of licensing-for the entrepreneurs and the government.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/90501.pdf?m=1632927634 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Citizen Assistance Service Charters, Brazil Y1 - 2008 A1 - Jorrit de Jong A1 - Elba C.S. de Andrade AB -

 Jorrit de Jong, Elba C.S. de Andrade, March 2008  

The research project Improving Access (www.ImprovingAccess.Org) was developed by an international group of researchers interested in innovations in democratic governance. It explores the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create genuinely equal opportunities. This partnership between the Ash Institute at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Centre for Government Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands has resulted in the production and organization of research, conferences, publications, and teaching materials.

This document is an interview with Elba C.S. de Andrade, Quality Management Director of the Superintendency for Citizen Assistance, State Secretariat of Administration for the state of Bahia, Brazil, about the innovative Mobile Citizen Service Assistance centers in Brazil.

If bureaucracy impedes service delivery to citizens, it doubly affects citizens in remote areas, who live great distances from administrative centers. In the state of Bahia, Brazil, the government created mobile centers that bring services directly to those citizens. In the process, procedures were simplified and services were coordinated among different agencies.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/90521.pdf?m=1632927392 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Mass Community-Based Legal Aid in Gujarat, India Y1 - 2008 AB -

Jorrit de Jong, Harsh Mander, March 2008

The research project Improving Access (www.ImprovingAccess.Org) was developed by an international group of researchers interested in innovations in democratic governance. It explores the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create genuinely equal opportunities. This partnership between the Ash Institute at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Centre for Government Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands has resulted in the production and organization of research, conferences, publications, and teaching materials.

This document is an interview with Harsh Mander, the Convenor of Aman Biradari, a people's campaign for secularism, peace and justice, regarding the innovative program, Nyayagrah.

In the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots, more than half of the complaints filed by victims were closed without trial. The Nyayagrah initiative brought together working-class Muslim and Hindu volunteers to provide moral support and legal assistance to the victims. Along with a petition to the Supreme Court, the project led to real access to justice for the survivors of the riots.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/90511.pdf?m=1629837755 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Macroeconomic Instability: Causes and Policy Responses Y1 - 2008 A1 - Nguyen Xuan Thanh A1 - Vu Thanh Tu Anh A1 - David Dapice A1 - Jonathan Pincus A1 - Ben Wilkinson AB -

Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Vu Thanh Tu Anh, David Dapice, Jonathan Pincus, and Ben Wilkinson, February 2008

This paper argues that a series of resolute and coordinated policy interventions is needed to restore macroeconomic stability, cushion the impact of the global economic downturn, and keep Vietnam on the path of sustainable growth. Specifically, the Vietnamese government must quell price inflation, reduce fiscal and trade deficits and slow down money and credit growth through a consistent and synchronized set of policy interventions. Gradual deflation of the real estate price bubble is needed in order to avoid a sudden collapse in prices, which would, if it occurred, destabilize the financial sector with potentially serious contagion effects for the real economy. Successful implementation of these policy prescriptions in the near term, and maintaining a stable economic environment over the medium to long term, will require greater policy coordination than the Vietnamese government has demonstrated in recent years.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/macroeconomic_instability.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication Y1 - 2008 ED - Sandford F. Borins AB -

Sandford F. Borins, editor, Brookings Institution Press, 2008

What is the future of government innovation? How can innovation enhance the quality of life for citizens and strengthen democratic governance? Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication answers these questions by presenting a comprehensive approach to advancing the practice and study of innovation in government. The authors discuss new research on innovation, explore the impact of several programs that recognize innovation, and consider challenges to the replication of innovations.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2008/innovationsingovernment ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Presidential Politics in Taiwan: The Administration of Chen Shui-bian Y1 - 2008 A1 - Julian Chang ED - Steven M. Goldstein AB -

Steven M. Goldstein and Julian Chang, editors, EastBridge Books, 2008

Presidential Politics in Taiwan discusses some of the main themes which emerged following Chen Shui-bian’s election and seeks to elucidate the major challenges that the administration faced, as well as the policies that Chen established. This serves as a foundation for the individual chapters assessing the direction that the Chen Shui-bian administration has taken in regard to the major issue areas of domestic political dynamics; socio-political “hot buttons”; and foreign policy/national security. Each chapter addresses the question of how the Chen administration’s first term defined, debated, and impacted specific aspects of the evolving Taiwanese polity.

PB - EastBridge Books UR - http://www.eastbridgebooks.org/PresidentialTaiwan.html ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Providing Public Goods in Transitional China Y1 - 2008 A1 - Anthony Saich A1 - Palgrave Macmillan AB -

Anthony Saich, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2008

China's leaders faced a major challenge to provide citizens with acceptable social welfare during the economic transition. They are confronted with building a new support system in the countryside, shifting the burden in urban China from the factory to the local state, and integrating new social groups into existing systems. Providing Public Goods comprises a detailed study of healthcare, disease control, social insurance, and social relief.

PB - Publishers Limited UR - http://us.macmillan.com/Retailer.aspx?isbn=9780230609518 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication Y1 - 2008 ED - Sandford F. Borins AB -

Sandford F. Borins, editor, Brookings Institution Press, 2008

What is the future of government innovation? How can innovation enhance the quality of life for citizens and strengthen democratic governance? Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication answers these questions by presenting a comprehensive approach to advancing the practice and study of innovation in government. The authors discuss new research on innovation, explore the impact of several programs that recognize innovation, and consider challenges to the replication of innovations.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2008/innovationsingovernment.aspx ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Globalization of Chinese Enterprises Y1 - 2008 ED - Ilan Alon ED - John R. McIntyre AB -

Ilan Alon and John R. McIntyre, editors, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2008

The 21st century has been dubbed the Chinese century. As China becomes a dominant world economic actor, its enterprises—state-run or otherwise—increasingly look to distant shores in the Western hemisphere and the European continent for inspiration. Edited by John R. McIntyre and former Rajawali Fellow Ilan Alon, this collection of papers brings together a diverse community of interdisciplinary Chinese research scholars to assess the impact of Chinese business on global business and environments, disseminate knowledge on the emergence of globalizing Chinese firms, and address the issues related to corporate sustainable development and outsourcing.

PB - Palgrave Macmillan Publishers Limited UR - http://us.macmillan.com/globalizationofchineseenterprises#biography ER - TY - BOOK T1 - China Urbanizes: Consequences, Strategies, and Policies Y1 - 2008 ED - Anthony J. Saich ED - Shahid Yusuf AB - Over the next 10-15 years, China's urbanization rate is expected to rise from 43 percent to well over 50 percent, adding an additional 200 million mainly rural migrants to the current urban population of 560 million. How China copes with such a large migration flow will strongly influence rural-urban inequality, the pace at which urban centers expand their economic performance, and the urban environment. The growing population will necessitate a big push strategy to maintain a high rate of investment in housing and the urban physical infrastructure and urban services. To finance such expansion will require a significant strengthening and diversification of China's financial system. PB - World Bank Publications UR - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/6337 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Impact, Transformation, and Quality of Life Y1 - 2008 A1 - Yang Xuedong AB -

Yang Xuedong, 2008 

Participation is an integrated part of development. By mobilizing public participation, development can win support and clarify its goal. As for social groups, especially disadvantaged groups, they influence the process of development and share its fruits through participating. How to mobilize and sustain public participation has always been an important issue for development. In addition to institutional and technological obstacles, there are social obstacles hindering public participation in development. In spite of views to the contrary, numerous cases from development have shown that the poor can participate in public affairs, in a manner that promotes public governance, if there are practicable mechanisms connecting their interests with public affairs and coordinating their opinions and actions. This book, part of the Learning from Innovations series, offers examples of designing mechanisms for participation from four Latin American countries: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Chile. The Learning from Innovations series aims to disseminate some of the lessons that are being learned by comparing innovation in the ten partner programs of the Liaison Group for Innovations in Governance and Public Action. The Fund for Agricultural Development (FUNDAT) was established in Tupandi, a town in Brazil. It helps local residents with agricultural development. In Coatepec, Mexico, local government initiated the "Program for Payment of Environmental Forestry Services in Coatepec" to protect forests and ensure the water supply for approximately 50,000 inhabitants in 22 municipalities. In the rural Andes area of Ranra (Junin), Peru, local people rely on the irrigation system to increase productivity. In Lampa, Chile, local government runs the local environmental management program with financial support of UNDP. Each of the four innovations presented in this book have designed practicable mechanisms to mobilize and sustain participation of concerned groups, especially local residents. The cases presented include analysis of other factors, including individual innovators, capacity training, and strong and sustainable financing.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/128951.pdf?m=1632930505 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Learning from Innovations: Local Government and Human Rights Y1 - 2008 A1 - Gonzalo Delamaza AB -

Gonzalo Delamaza, 2008 

In recent years, human rights have become a prominent issue in politics and society, creating a new idea of concept of what human rights entails, extending to include not only social rights, but economic and political rights as well. As human rights have become a central element of international policy, it is important to highlight instances where great strides in their development have occurred. This book, part of the Learning from Innovations series, presents case studies from eight countries. From China, South Africa, and Brazil, the issue of the rights of women and girls is addressed. Indigenous rights are the focus of the contributions from Chile and the Indian Nations. A case from Kenya presents youth rights and human rights and the justice system is the topic of the contributions from Mexico and Peru. The Learning from Innovations series aims to disseminate some of the lessons that are being learned by comparing innovation in the ten partner programs of the Liaison Group for Innovations in Governance and Public Action.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/128971.pdf?m=1632929817 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through Innovation Y1 - 2008 A1 - Ceciliah Kinuthia-Njenge AB -

Ceciliah Kinuthia-Njenge, 2008  

The Millennium Development Goals have become a universal framework for development and a means for developing countries and their development partners to work together in pursuit of a common vision. The challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals in all regions of the developing countries by 2015 is a daunting one. Unfortunately, many of these countries are behind the MDG targets. Success is possible but there is a clear need for more targeted interventions and strategies for greater localization of the MDGs. There is still a dire need for sound local governance, enhanced productive capacities, effective policies, strategies and technical and financial support. There is increasing awareness that sustainable development will only be enhanced if processes at the local level are strengthened.

Fostered by the Ford Foundation in the mid-1980s, the Innovation in Local Governance Award Programme now exists in Brazil, Chile, China, the Indian Nations of the USA, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, East Africa, and the United States. The programmes are dedicated to identifying and disseminating experiences that are making significant contribution to increasing service provision, broadening citizenship, and improving governance at local levels. In East Africa, UNHABITAT initiated the "Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Award Programme" (MILGAP) in three of the East African countries-Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. MILGAP recognizes innovative practices in local governance and through this award, enabling innovative ideas to reach a wider audience and help reinforce the ideals of UNHABITAT's Campaign on Urban Governance and the goal of eradicating poverty through improved urban governance.

This book, part of the Learning from Innovations series, was prepared by UNHABITAT's MILGAP programme and provides regional perspectives and different approaches to improving local governance using selected case studies from Brazil, Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Indian Nations in the U.S. and China. The discussions are centered around local innovations enacted to realize the MDGs. These call for effective and inclusive local development practices to enhance the abilities of the local actors by equipping them with the capacities to plan, implement, and monitor activities in a participatory manner. The Learning from Innovations series aims to disseminate some of the lessons that are being learned by comparing innovation in the ten partner programs of the Liaison Group for Innovations in Governance and Public Action.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/128961.pdf?m=1632930586 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Practicing Democracy: How Political Arrangements Promote Equal Citizenship . . . or Not Y1 - 2007 A1 - Kay L. Schlozman AB -

Organized by Kay L. Schlozman, April 2007 

With the 2008 political season starting to heat up, The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Visiting Fellow Prof. Kay Schlozman of Boston College took a look at the ways in which political arrangement impact citizenship in an April 27 workshop, "Practicing Democracy: How Political Arrangements Promote Equal Citizenship...or Not." The daylong workshop examined four key areas of political arrangements: political money and campaign finance; citizenship and enfranchisement; representing groups; and ballot integrity and prevention of electoral corruption. Experts from the Kennedy School of Government and across the county discussed American democratic practices in the context of political arrangements in other democracies-both long-established ones and, where appropriate, emerging ones. "Political arrangements can have consequences for equal citizenship in various ways," Schlozman explained; "for example, by controlling who is considered a citizen or which citizens have the right to participate fully in governing, or by facilitating or inhibiting the conversion of market resources into political influence."

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/27751.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Decentralizing Governance: Emerging Concepts and Practices Y1 - 2007 ED - G. Shabbir Cheema ED - Dennis A. Rondinelli AB -

G. Shabbir Cheema and Dennis A. Rondinelli, editors, Brookings Institution Press, 2007

The trend toward greater decentralization of governance activities, now accepted as commonplace in the West, has become a worldwide movement. Today's world demands flexibility, adaptability, and the autonomy to bring those qualities to bear. In this thought-provoking book, experts in government and public management trace the evolution and performance of decentralization concepts, from the transfer of authority within government to the sharing of power, authority, and responsibilities among broader governance institutions. The contributors to Decentralizing Governance assess emerging concepts such as devolution and capacity building; they also detail factors driving the decentralization movement such as the ascendance of democracy, economic globalization, and technological progress.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2007/decentralizinggovernance.aspx ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Informal Institutions and Rural Development in China Y1 - 2007 A1 - Biliang Hu AB -

Biliang Hu, Routledge, 2007

China's successful transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy, with rapid growth in rural areas 1980s, is a consequence of the impact of both formal and informal institutions. Hitherto, most work undertaken on this issue has focused on formal institutions. This book shows the great importance of informal institutions on the economic and social development of rural China. It examines the relationship between informal institutions and rural development in China since the end of the 1970s, focusing in particular on three major informal institutions: village trust and rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), guanxi community and 'integrating village with company' (IVWC) governance.

PB - Routledge UR - http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Informal-Institutions-and-Rural-Development-in-China/Biliang-Hu/e/9780415421775/?itm=1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Decentralizing Governance: Emerging Concepts and Practices Y1 - 2007 ED - G. Shabbir Cheema ED - Dennis A. Rondinelli AB - The trend toward greater decentralization of governance activities, now accepted as commonplace in the West, has become a worldwide movement. Today's world demands flexibility, adaptability, and the autonomy to bring those qualities to bear. In this thought-provoking book, experts in government and public management trace the evolution and performance of decentralization concepts, from the transfer of authority within government to the sharing of power, authority, and responsibilities among broader governance institutions. The contributors to Decentralizing Governance assess emerging concepts such as devolution and capacity building; they also detail factors driving the decentralization movement such as the ascendance of democracy, economic globalization, and technological progress. PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - https://www.brookings.edu/bipress/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Economic Reform and Cross-Strait Relations: Taiwan and China in the WTO Y1 - 2007 A1 - Julian Chang A1 - Steven M. Goldstein AB - The book begins with an introduction which analyzes the state of Cross-Strait economic and political relations on the eve of dual accession to the WTO, and briefly introduces the chapters which follow. The first chapter discusses the concessions made by both sides in their accession agreements and is followed by two chapters which describe the manner in which the Taiwan economy was reformed to achieve compliance as well as the specific, restrictive trade regime that was put into place to manage mainland trade. The next two chapters deal with the implications of that restrictive trade regime for the Taiwan economy in Asia and with the nature of the interactions between the two sides within the WTO. The final four chapters of the volume examine the impact of membership on four sectors of the economy: finance; agriculture; electronics; and automobiles. PB - World Scientific Publishing UR - https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/6150 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency Y1 - 2007 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Mary Graham A1 - David Weil AB -

Which SUVs are most likely to roll over? What cities have the unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious? In recent decades, governments have sought to provide answers to such critical questions through public disclosure to force manufacturers, water authorities, and others to improve their products and practices. Corporate financial disclosure, nutritional labels, and school report cards are examples of such targeted transparency policies. At best, they create a light-handed approach to governance that improves markets, enriches public discourse, and empowers citizens. But such policies are frequently ineffective or counterproductive. Based on an analysis of eighteen U.S. and international policies, Full Disclosure shows that information is often incomplete, incomprehensible, or irrelevant to consumers, investors, workers, and community residents. To be successful, transparency policies must be accurate, keep ahead of disclosers' efforts to find loopholes, and, above all, focus on the needs of ordinary citizens.

PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-economy/full-disclosure-perils-and-promise-transparency ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Which SUVs are most likely to roll over? What cities have the unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious? In recent decades, governments have sought to provide answers to such critic Y1 - 2007 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Mary Graham A1 - David Weil AB - Which SUVs are most likely to roll over? What cities have the unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious? In recent decades, governments have sought to provide answers to such critical questions through public disclosure to force manufacturers, water authorities, and others to improve their products and practices. Corporate financial disclosure, nutritional labels, and school report cards are examples of such targeted transparency policies. At best, they create a light-handed approach to governance that improves markets, enriches public discourse, and empowers citizens. But such policies are frequently ineffective or counterproductive. Based on an analysis of eighteen U.S. and international policies, Full Disclosure shows that information is often incomplete, incomprehensible, or irrelevant to consumers, investors, workers, and community residents. To be successful, transparency policies must be accurate, keep ahead of disclosers' efforts to find loopholes, and, above all, focus on the needs of ordinary citizens. PB - Cambridge University Press UR - https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-economy/full-disclosure-perils-and-promise-transparency ER - TY - BOOK T1 - What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality Y1 - 2006 A1 - Theda Skocpol A1 - Ariane Liazos A1 - Marshall Ganz AB -

Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos, & Marshall Ganz, Princeton University Press, 2006 

From the nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, millions of American men and women participated in fraternal associations – self-selecting brotherhoods and sisterhoods that provided aid to members, enacted group rituals, and engaged in community service. Even more than whites did, African Americans embraced this type of association; indeed, fraternal lodges rivaled churches as centers of black community life in cities, towns, and rural areas alike. Using an unprecedented variety of secondary and primary sources – including old documents, pictures, and ribbon-badges found in eBay auctions – this book tells the story of the most visible African American fraternal associations. The authors demonstrate how African American fraternal groups played key roles in the struggle for civil rights and racial integration. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, white legislatures passed laws to outlaw the use of important fraternal names and symbols by blacks. But blacks successfully fought back. Employing lawyers who in some cases went on to work for the NAACP, black fraternalists took their cases all the way to the Supreme Court, which eventually ruled in their favor. At the height of the modern Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, they marched on Washington and supported the lawsuits through lobbying and demonstrations that finally led to legal equality. This unique book reveals a little-known chapter in the story of civic democracy and racial equality in America.

PB - Princeton University Press UR - https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691138367/what-a-mighty-power-we-can-be ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1850.0 Starting Small, Reaching High: The Parents as Teachers National Center Y1 - 2006 A1 - Susan Rosegrant AB -

Parents as Teachers: Missouri – 1987 Innovations Winner 

In the early 1980s, Missouri’s director of early childhood education launched a novel parent education pilot project designed to increase children’s kindergarten readiness and support family well-being by sending specially trained educators on monthly home visits to help parents foster their babies’ early development. By 1985, when an evaluation touted strong results for the pilot, the Missouri legislature already had made the program – dubbed Parents as Teachers – a mandatory offering of school districts statewide. Soon after, the St. Louis-based Parents as Teachers National Center, formed to oversee the state program and respond to outside inquiries, became an independent nonprofit. From the start, the National Center staff built quality controls into program design and the training of parent educators while simultaneously embracing rapid growth; by 1999 Parents as Teachers programs served more than 500,000 children in the U.S. and six foreign countries. But despite such quality control efforts, the flexibility and adaptability that aided fast replication left the National Center with no effective way to manage or monitor the more than 2,000 sites worldwide. As a result, the National Center was forced to take a hard look at its replication model, its oversight role, and at how the center could better monitor and improve program quality.

This two-case series allows discussion of key issues facing growing nonprofits, in particular, weighing the tradeoffs inherent in different replication strategies; managing the tension between rapid growth and quality control; and analyzing how political and funding constraints can impact program design. While the (A) case addresses replication, training, organizational structures, and program design, the (B) case focuses on questions around evaluation, program fidelity, and implementation of quality standards.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1849.0 Starting Small, Reaching High: The Parents as Teachers National Center Y1 - 2006 A1 - Susan Rosegrant AB -

Parents as Teachers: Missouri – 1987 Innovations Winner 

In the early 1980s, Missouri’s director of early childhood education launched a novel parent education pilot project designed to increase children’s kindergarten readiness and support family well-being by sending specially trained educators on monthly home visits to help parents foster their babies’ early development. By 1985, when an evaluation touted strong results for the pilot, the Missouri legislature already had made the program – dubbed Parents as Teachers – a mandatory offering of school districts statewide. Soon after, the St. Louis-based Parents as Teachers National Center, formed to oversee the state program and respond to outside inquiries, became an independent nonprofit. From the start, the National Center staff built quality controls into program design and the training of parent educators while simultaneously embracing rapid growth; by 1999 Parents as Teachers programs served more than 500,000 children in the U.S. and six foreign countries. But despite such quality control efforts, the flexibility and adaptability that aided fast replication left the National Center with no effective way to manage or monitor the more than 2,000 sites worldwide. As a result, the National Center was forced to take a hard look at its replication model, its oversight role, and at how the center could better monitor and improve program quality.

This two-case series allows discussion of key issues facing growing nonprofits, in particular, weighing the tradeoffs inherent in different replication strategies; managing the tension between rapid growth and quality control; and analyzing how political and funding constraints can impact program design. While the (A) case addresses replication, training, organizational structures, and program design, the (B) case focuses on questions around evaluation, program fidelity, and implementation of quality standards.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Central Government and Frontline Performance Improvement Y1 - 2006 A1 - Steven Kelman AB -

Steven J. Kelman, October 2006 

During the past several years the most aggressive effort in the history of government has been made in the United Kingdom to use an innovative public management tool – the use of performance metrics and performance goals in the management of public sector organizations – both to improve the performance of public-sector organizations and also to recast some of the terms of democratic deliberation in the UK. As a pioneer in this innovation, the UK example may provide lessons for other governments as they seek to further implement this innovation. Professor Kelman’s research, largely focusing on interviews with managers within UK government, seeks to discover how United Kingdom central government institutions have gone about trying to influence the performance of frontline organizations that must actually meet these targets.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/central_government_and_frontline_performance.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - State Offices of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: A Summary of Selected Research Y1 - 2006 A1 - Chris Pineda AB -

Chris Pineda, March 2006 

Faith-based organizations, of all sizes, have long played an essential role in the provision of social services in the United States, at times in partnership with government. Indeed, some of these organizations are very well-known: Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and United Jewish Communities, to name a few. These large and nationally prominent faith organizations, however, should be differentiated from smaller organizations with faith-affiliation that are based in local communities across the country. The latter organizations can more rightly be called faith-based community organizations (FBCOs). In January 2001, President George W. Bush established the White House Office of FaithBased and Community Initiatives, by executive order, to “strengthen and expand the role of FBCOs in providing social services.” Since that time, President Bush has also urged state governments to create state offices of faith-based initiatives in order to encourage state and local government partnerships with faith-based community organizations.1 Many states have heeded the President’s call and begun to engage their state’s FBCOs in new ways around long-standing community problems arising from poverty and other issues. From a “liaison to the faith community” to a full-blown office with several staff members and initiatives underway, states have opted to engage their faith communities in vastly different ways. This paper is a summary of the efforts by states to engage their FBCOs. Specifically, the paper provides (1) background information on the most active state offices and faith community liaisons; (2) an overview of the best practices employed in the states; (3) a description of one current challenge—engaging sectarians FBCOs; and (4) a brief examination on how one state engages its FBCOs. It is our hope that these findings will be useful to governors and other state officials interested in these types of cross-sector partnerships.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/11127.pdf?m=1629836479 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Improving Secondary Education Through Institutional Innovation: A Report to UNDP and UNICEF Y1 - 2006 A1 - Ash Center Vietnam Program AB -

Vietnam Program, August 2006 

This report records the findings of a mission to Cambodia sponsored by the UNDP and UNICEF. The objective of the mission was to assess the present state of education in Cambodia and to make recommendations for how new investment might be used effectively to promote continued reform through institutional innovation. The mission was convened against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Cambodia over several PL-480 “humanitarian“ loans made to the government of Lon Nol (1970-1975). There is bipartisan interest in the U.S. Congress in allocating these payments to support Cambodia's continued development. It has been suggested that if and when Cambodia agrees to a repayment scheme, the United States government might use these repayments to endow a special vehicle to support education in Cambodia.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/cambodia.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Dynamics of Diffusion: Conceptions of American Federalism and Public-Sector Innovation Y1 - 2006 A1 - John D. Donahue AB -

John D. Donahue, February 2006 

In a phrase coined by Lord Bryce and popularized by Justice Louis Brandeis, America's separate states are seen as “laboratories of democracy,“ giving the United States 50 channels for generating fresh new approaches to public problems. The potential advantages are apparent. But how fully this potential is realized depends on how rapidly and reliably innovations developed in each “laboratory“ diffuse to other states. As the literature on the diffusion of innovations is limited, the archives of the Innovations in American Government Awards offer a promising but mostly untapped data set for exploring the replication of valuable innovations. In this publication, Donahue identifies state-level award winners and traces the pace and pattern of their diffusion.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/links/dynamics-diffusion-conceptions-american-federalism-and-public-sector-innovation ER - TY - CASE T1 - Making Services Work for the Poor: A Synthesis of Nine Case Studies from Indonesia Y1 - 2006 A1 - Susannah Hopkins Leisher A1 - Stefan Nachuk AB -

Susannah Hopkins Leisher, Stefan Nachuk; 2006 

The nine Making Services Work for the Poor case studies synthesized in this paper reviewed innovations in service delivery at the local level in Indonesia in the wake of decentralization. It is hoped that this synthesis will be useful to donors and government in and other countries interested in practical ideas for improving local service delivery.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/11247.pdf?m=1632932135 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Empowered Participation: Reinventing Urban Democracy Y1 - 2006 A1 - Archon Fung AB -

Archon Fung, Princeton University Press, 2006 

Every month in every neighborhood in Chicago, residents, teachers, school principals, and police officers gather to deliberate about how to improve their schools and make their streets safer. Residents of poor neighborhoods participate as much or more as those from wealthy ones. All voices are heard. Since the meetings began more than a dozen years ago, they have led not only to safer streets, but also to surprising improvements in the city's schools. Chicago's police department and school system have become democratic urban institutions unlike any others in America. Empowered Participation is the compelling chronicle of this unprecedented transformation. It is the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the ways in which participatory democracy can be used to effect social change. Using citywide data and six neighborhood case studies, the book explores how determined Chicago residents, police officers, teachers, and community groups worked to banish crime and transform a failing city school system into a model for educational reform. The author's conclusion: Properly designed and implemented institutions of participatory democratic governance can spark citizen involvement that in turn generates innovative problem-solving and public action. Their participation makes organizations more fair and effective.

PB - Princeton University Press UR - https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691126081/empowered-participation ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Mapping Your Community's Faith-Based Assets Y1 - 2006 A1 - Chris Pineda A1 - Julia Berger A1 - Greg Landsman AB -

Chris Pineda, Julia Berger, Greg Landsman, Spring 2006 

Mapping Your Community's Faith-Based Assets was developed for public managers interested in strategically engaging their city's faith-based organizations. It serves as an easy-to-apply inventory tool that helps in identifying the potential areas for cross-sector collaboration with faith-based organizations. Too often, researchers and local governments overlook local faith-based organizations, particularly smaller ones, despite their important contributions to local communities. This tool should thus prove instructive to most local officials. This tool's six-step methodology will provide public managers with (1) a comprehensive listing of the local faith-based organizations in a geographically defined area, and (2) an opportunity inventory tool that lays out, in an easy-to-understand format, the faith-based assets in their communities. This tool is part of City Hall and Religion: An Online Curriculum for Public Managers. With support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the City Hall and Religion curriculum was designed as a professional resource for mayors, and other public managers, interested in urban revitalization through cross-sector collaboration...

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/13704.pdf?m=1629837897 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Participatory Planning in Maros District, South Sulawesi Province Y1 - 2006 A1 - Stefan Nachuk A1 - Susannah Hopkins Leisher A1 - Arya B. Gaduh A1 - Nunik Yunarti A1 - Maulina Cahyaningrum A1 - Luis Fujiwara AB -

Stefan Nachuk, Susannah Hopkins Leisher, Arya B. Gaduh, Nunik Yunarti, Maulina Cahyaningrum, Luis Fujiwara, 2006 

From 2001 to 2005, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented the Perform (Performance-Orientated Regional Management) project to assist 80 district governments in Indonesia with participatory planning for multi-year district investment plans.

Forum Warga, a local civil society organization, was Perform's local partner in Maros district, South Sulawesi province. In 2002, Forum Warga and Perform staff began a Program of Participatory Development (PDPP) aimed at increasing villager participation in planning. In 2003, they successfully lobbied for passage of a law requiring participatory planning in Maros. As of the writing of this report, just 20 of Maros' villages (only 19 percent) have completed participatory 5-year village plans under PDPP. In some of these villages, the new planning process has indeed involved more people than did the traditional planning processes. However, in two villages visited by the team, villager awareness of and involvement in the PDPP process was nil. Even in villages where participation has increased, women's participation has still been limited, despite efforts to the contrary. And nowhere are villagers involved in budgeting.

One of the objectives of PDPP was to ensure that village plans influence district budget allocation. In 2004, the district planned to support just 38 percent of village proposals (calculated by Rp. amount), but in the end more than doubled its support to 67 percent of total requests. However, this was due to advocacy by Forum Warga rather than to PDPP itself. Due to the lack of data, it is impossible to say whether there has been a change in type or amount of village budget allocations over time, though in one village PDPP was confirmed to have helped secure funding for two proposals where, prior to PDPP, no village proposals had ever been funded. Despite minor successes, then, villagers are still pessimistic about their impact on district plans and budgets, and continue to lobby government officials directly as the most effective way to get funding. It is unknown how many village plans are actually being used in district planning and budgeting. Forum Warga asserts that about two-thirds of PDPP village heads are using the 5-year plans as a basis for village-level annual planning, though.

The financial sustainability of participatory planning in Maros is uncertain, due both to lack of data and limited financial commitments from the district, but financial hardship does not appear to be a factor. PDPP implementation has depended heavily on the involvement of the main local champion, Forum Warga, whose limitations reduce the chances of institutional sustainability. Finally, limited villager involvement in PDPP may reduce chances for social sustainability of participatory planning.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/10600.pdf?m=1632931059 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Civil Service Reform in Boalemo District, Gorontalo Province (Indonesia) Y1 - 2005 A1 - Arya B. Gaduh A1 - Nunik Yunarti A1 - Maulina Cahyaningrum AB -

Arya B. Gaduh, Nunik Yunarti, Maulina Cahyaningrum, 2005 

Boalemo was one of the new districts created in 1999 as a result of Indonesia's decentralization policy, after which a number of districts were sub-divided. This study analyzes how the local government has improved local governance by creating improved accountability systems for civil servants through more rigorous application of rewards and sanctions, and use of enhanced mechanisms for promoting transparency.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/9683_1.pdf?m=1632932759 ER - TY - CASE T1 - Rewarding Educational Performance in Tanah Datar, Sumatra (Indonesia) Y1 - 2005 A1 - Eleonora Suk Mei Tan A1 - C. Clarita Kusharto A1 - Sri Budiyati AB -

Eleonora Suk Mei Tan, C. Clarita Kusharto, Sri Budiyati, 2005 

In February and March, 2005, research was carried out in Tanah Datar District, West Sumatra Province, Indonesia for one of nine case studies in support of a World Bank analytical project, "Making Services Work For the Poor." The objective of the case studies was to illustrate the impact of service delivery innovation on (a) stakeholders' behavior and (b) access to and quality of the service. The Ash Institute of Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation International Innovations Liaison Group, has served as a partner in this project.

Two innovative education policies are highlighted in this case study: the Stronger Incentives Policy, which rewarded best-performing English teachers and headmasters with training and study visits overseas, and the Smaller Classes Policy, which limited class size in senior high schools to 30 students. As a result of the new policies, over 200 school staff were sent overseas, all public (but not all private) senior high schools, as well as some junior high and elementary schools, have cut class sizes. Key changes in attitude and behavior included increased motivation to do better work on the part of English teachers and headmasters, changes in teaching methodology on the part of some English teachers, increased interest in student performance on the part of teachers and headmasters, increased support for the Bupati (governor) by those who benefited from the policies, and an increase in reform mindedness of government education and school staff. Access to senior high school education decreased for some children. Changes in quality of education included improved teaching skills at the better schools, and broader educational offerings and better facilities at better schools. There was, however, an increased financial burden on some schools and teachers, and an overall increase in inequity among schools. Key to the positive impact of the reforms were changes in national government policy, the vision, imagination and leadership of the Bupati, and effective policy implementation. Factors which limited positive impact included inadequate dissemination of the new policies, lack of follow-up from study trips, the decision not to legalize the reforms, ineffective use of local government, insufficient numbers of classrooms, and no targeting of the poor and disadvantaged.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/6343.pdf?m=1632930925 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Health Insurance Reform in Jembrana District, Bali Province, Indonesia Y1 - 2005 A1 - Arya B. Gaduh A1 - Laila Kuznezov A1 - Janes Ginting A1 - Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso AB -

Arya B. Gaduh, Laila Kuznezov, Janes Ginting, Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso, 2005 

As part of its mandate to alleviate poverty in Indonesia, the World Bank is undertaking a series of case studies to promote better service provision, especially for poor and disadvantaged people. The case studies were chosen from the many innovative practices seen in Indonesian local government in recent years, through a competitive outreach process managed by the World Bank. Donors, non-governmental organizations, and local government staff were contacted and encouraged to submit proposals regarding innovative service delivery work that they either were undertaking or knew about.

The Jaminan Kesehatan Jembrana (JKJ) health insurance reform scheme in Jembrana District, Bali, touches upon a theme that is central to making services more pro-poor, to wit, the use of private providers to expand service coverage and improve quality by increasing competition. The Jaminan Kesehatan Jembrana (JKJ or Jembrana Health Insurance) scheme begun in Jembrana District, Bali Province in March 2003 provides free primary healthcare to all members; free secondary and tertiary care is also provided for poor members. The scheme has improved the access of both poor and non-poor citizens to healthcare. Before JKJ, only 17 percent of district citizens were covered by any kind of health insurance; now, 63 percent are covered. The percentage of ill people who sought treatment in Jembrana more than doubled from 40 percent in 2003 to 90 percent in 2004. For the poor, the increase was from 29 to 80 percent. Increased access of the poor to health services is due primarily to the inclusion of private providers in the JKJ scheme. Though on paper, out-of-pocket healthcare costs have increased sharply for poor non-members, in practice most public providers still provide free care for all poor clients. This increases access of even non-member poor to healthcare, but subjects them to the discretion of providers who have the legal right to refuse them free services. Meanwhile, JKJ registration requirements have kept many of the poor from joining.

JKJ's attempts to become self-financing have focused recently on a new one-membership-card-per-person system (rather than the old one-card-per-family scheme), and this is likely behind a drop in membership of the poor, from 66 percent in 2004 to 22 percent (re-registered under the new system) by May 2005, since many poor families cannot afford to re-enroll all members. By increasing access to private providers, JKJ has increased competition between public clinics and private doctors for clients. JKJ has also improved both healthcare quality and client satisfaction. It is likely that JKJ's enforcement of strict standards on equipment, treatment, medication, and referral has contributed to the improvement. JKJ does not, however, appear to be financially sustainable. There has been a rapid, unbudgeted increase in district spending on JKJ. JKJ's inclusion of non-poor citizens adds greatly to its cost--in 2004, 95 percent of the Rp. 9.5 billion in JKJ claims were made for services to non-poor clients. The informal inclusion of poor non-members also increases JKJ costs, as those who provide free services to poor non-members are in fact usually reimbursed by JKJ. Finally, investment in JKJ administration is grossly inadequate, and JKJ's legal basis is challenged by a 2004 law centralizing health insurance.

 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/8638.pdf?m=1632932425 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - How City Hall Can Invigorate the Faith Community Around a Citywide Agenda Y1 - 2005 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith A1 - Chris Pineda A1 - William B. Eimicke AB -

Stephen Goldsmith, Chris Pineda, William B. Eimicke, 2005 

This paper examines how city governments can collaborate with faith-based organizations, and invigorate these partners, around a citywide housing agenda. Specifically, the paper explores: (1) why city hall/FBO collaborations are important; (2) what FBOs bring to housing efforts; (3) how cities can more effectively collaborate with FBOs; (4) lessons on collaboration from the various 'Unlocking Doors' cities; and, (5) a case study on city hall/FBO collaboration in the city of Nashville. The goal of this paper is to fill the gap of practical knowledge on collaborations with the faith community by presenting a framework to help city halls more intentionally leverage successful partnerships, based on lessons learned from other local cases.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/11119.pdf?m=1632422817 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Emergence and Sustainability of the Innovation Process of Mexico’s Local Governments Y1 - 2005 A1 - Gilberto Garcia AB -

Gilberto Garcia, July 2005 

After analyzing 271 government programs qualified as innovative through having won a national government and local management award in Mexico, and submitting a questionnaire to the 79 persons responsible for some of the best practices in the municipal government in the years 2001, 2002, and 2003, this paper identifies and analyzes variables that have a bearing on the emergence and sustainability of the innovation process in Mexico’s local governments. The results show paradoxes in the process of innovation of organizations needing to accomplish increasingly complex objectives through a lack of mechanisms to accrue intermediate and long-term technical expertise, as well as organizational learning. This paper also describes the differences in the process of innovation according to three contextual variables: organization capability, institutional development, and political and electoral competition.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/emergence_and_sustainability.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Renewal in Government Y1 - 2005 A1 - Steven Kelman AB -

Steven Kelman, Brookings Institution Press, 2005 

This is a hopeful account of the potential for organizational change and improvement within government. Despite the mantra that "people resist change," it is possible to effect meaningful reform in a large bureaucracy. In Unleashing Change, public management expert Steven Kelman presents a blueprint for accomplishing such improvements, based on his experience orchestrating procurement reform in the 1990s. Kelman's focuses on making change happen on the front lines, not just getting it announced by senior policymakers. He argues that frequently there will be a constituency for change within government organizations. The role for leaders is not to force change on the unwilling but to unleash the willing, and to persist long enough for the change to become institutionalized.

PB - Brookings Institution Press UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/unleashing-change/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - Dynamics of Diffusion: Conceptions of American Federalism and Public-Sector Innovation Y1 - 2005 A1 - John D. Donahue AB -

John D. Donahue, March 2005 

In a phrase coined by Lord Bryce and popularized by Justice Louis Brandeis, America 's separate states are seen as "laboratories of democracy," giving the United States fifty channels for generating fresh new approaches to public problems. The potential advantages are apparent. But how fully this potential is realized depends on how rapidly and reliably innovations developed in each "laboratory" diffuse to other states. The literature on the diffusion of innovations is limited, and rather stale. The archives of the Innovations in American Government offer a promising but mostly untapped data set for exploring the replication of valuable innovations. Alan Gerber of Yale and Eric Patashnik of Virginia asked John D. Donahue to write a paper that exploits the history of Innovations to test alternative hypotheses about the diffusion of state-level innovations, for a major conference and book project on "American Democracy and the Political Economy of Government Performance." A research award from the Ash Institute has made it possible for him and a team of research assistants to identify state-level award winners and begin work this summer to trace the pace and pattern of their diffusion. This paper was produced as the result of a research competition open to faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government sponsored by the Ash Institute of Democratic Governance and Innovation.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/6771.pdf?m=1632926792 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Improving Budget Transparency in Bandung City, West Java Province, Indonesia Y1 - 2005 A1 - Laila Kuznezov A1 - Janes Imanuel Ginting A1 - Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso AB -

Laila Kuznezov, Janes Imanuel Ginting, Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso, 2005 

BIGS is a watchdog NGO in Bandung City, and has become well known for aggressively researching and disseminating budget data for the local government. Since BIGS began focusing on budget transparency in 2002, it has promoted greater government accountability by making citizens more aware of how government allocates and spends money. This has resulted not only in greater public awareness of government spending priorities, but elimination of budgetary allocations to some sectors that are viewed as "easily corruptible."

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/8970.pdf?m=1632932292 ER - TY - Generic T1 - From Food to Finance: What Makes Disclosure Policies Effective? Y1 - 2005 A1 - Fagotto, Elena A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Mary Graham A1 - David Weil AB -

Elena Fagotto, Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil; April 2005 

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/food_to_finance.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - From Walden to Wall Street: Frontiers of Conservation Finance Y1 - 2005 ED - James N. Levitt ED - Lydia K. Bergen AB -

James N. Levitt and Lydia K. Bergen, editors, Island Press, 2005

In the absence of innovation in the field of conservation finance, a daunting funding gap faces conservationists aiming to protect America's system of landscapes that provide sustainable resources, water, wildlife habitat, and recreational amenities. Experts estimate that the average annual funding gap will be between $1.9 billion and $7.7 billion over the next forty years. Can the conservation community come up with new methods for financing that will fill this enormous gap? Which human and financial resources will allow us to fund critical land conservation needs? From Walden to Wall Street brings together the experience of more than a dozen pioneering conservation finance practitioners to address these crucial issues. Contributors present groundbreaking ideas, including mainstreaming environmental markets; government ballot measures for land conservations; convertible tax-exempt financing; and private equity markets.

PB - Island Press UR - http://www.islandpress.org/book/from-walden-to-wall-street ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The Community Block Grant Program in Blitar City, East Java Province, Indonesia Y1 - 2005 A1 - Laila Kuznezov A1 - Janes Imanuel Ginting A1 - Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso AB -

Laila Kuznezov, Janes Imanuel Ginting, Gregorius Kelik Agus Endarso, 2005 

This study evaluates the impact of the block grant program implemented in Blitar City since 2002. A community block grant program allocates a portion of the city government's budget for small projects that are disbursed directly to communities. The program was designed to increase public participation and self-management at the local level, as well as to serve as a vehicle for local officials and communities to exercise their autonomy. The block grant program initially addressed communities' immediate needs, mostly for small-scale infrastructure improvements. In the longer term, this program has the potential to empower communities to participate systematically in both the design and implementation of more effective development programs.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/8971.pdf?m=1632930774 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Creating Learning Communities for Children in Polman District, West Sulawesi Province, Indonesia Y1 - 2005 A1 - Stefan Nachuk A1 - Maulina Cahyaningrum A1 - Susannah Hopkins Leisher A1 - Arya B. Gaduh A1 - Nunik Yunarti A1 - Lina Marliani A1 - Luis Fujiwara AB -

Creating Learning Communities for Children (CLCC) is a training package that focuses on school-based management, community participation, and joyful/active learning. This study traces its implementation in two schools in Polewali district in South Sumatra, since its introduction in 2001. The results indicate that CLCC had a lasting impact on improved learning practices in the school. However, no impact on test scores could be identified, parental involvement increased little, and most school committees continued to focus largely on revenue collection.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/6805_1.pdf?m=1632930125 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Democracy & Constitutionalism in South Asia: The Bangladesh Experience Y1 - 2005 A1 - Gowher Rizvi AB -

Gowher Rizvi, 2005 

The purpose of this paper is to explain the failure of constitutionalism in Bangladesh, a country which -- except perhaps for brief interludes of constitutional governments -- has remained for much of its history under arbitrary and authoritarian rule, albeit often behind a constitutional and a democratic facade. Despite going ongoing popular fervor and passion for democratic government, the Bangalis have been subjected to authoritarian rule for much of the last half century. The commitment of the Bangali to constitutionalism is well known. It is evidenced by periodic popular movement against authoritarian rule, and most dramatically demonstrated by the war of liberation in 1971. Ironically, however, the quest for constitutionalism appears to have been derailed from the very outset. The central thrust of the author's argument is that in the period from 1947 to 1971, the constitutional debate became mired by an effort of the unrepresentative (those who were not popularly elected or did not enjoy a popular mandate) ruling elites to institutionalize their dominance of the government through the manipulation of the constitutional arrangements.

Their efforts to alter the facts of the national reality took the 'spirit' out the constitution and made a mockery of constitutional governance. This was done first by denying the Bangalis their majority status (they constituted more than half of the total population of Bangladesh) by thrusting on them the principle of representational parity with other smaller groups which placed the minority groups at par with the majority and were given representational weightage far in excess of their numbers; and subsequently, and more blatantly under the authoritarian rule of the military, by contriving to keep the authoritarian and unelected leaders in power by denying the very principle of popular elections. Once the ruling elite in Pakistan were able to do away with the need for seeking a popular mandate by various political gimmicks in place of popular elections - no general election was held in Pakistan between 1947 and 1970 - the will of the majority ceased to count.

The author also argues that it was this constitutional failure that led Bangladesh to secede from Pakistan. And yet devoid of any constitutional culture the country was back under authoritarian rule after a brief period of constitutional government between 1972-75. Even though the constitution was never formally abrogated, it was nonetheless seriously mutilated and only the most superficial semblance of a constitutional facade was preserved. Successive military rulers, backed by unelected and self-appointed representatives, abused the constitution and acquired untrammeled power to govern without popular mandate or due constitutional processes.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/8644.pdf?m=1632927137 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Educational "Innovation" v. Educational Innovation Y1 - 2005 A1 - Frederick M. Hess AB -

Frederick M. Hess, 2005 

This report draws on the 2005 Innovations in American Government education finalists to understand what meaningful innovation in the education field looks like and how to promote it. The Innovations Awards finalists include promising initiatives such as Big Picture Company's efforts to promote more personalized high school and High Tech High's effort in San Diego to develop a model that integrates technology throughout a rigorous high school curriculum. However, to date, educational innovation has had a limited reach and modest impact due in large part to a bureaucratic system that discourages entrepreneurial personalities while rewarding employees who respect the standard rules and procedures. In order to harness the power of these innovative education programs, schooling needs to be reformed so that it no longer merely tolerates entrepreneurs but fosters their efforts, rewards their successes and encourages their growth.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/11703_1.pdf?m=1632926974 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Overcoming Barriers to Success in the Public Sector: Lessons from the 2005 Innovations Finalists Y1 - 2005 A1 - Olivia Golden AB -

Olivia Golden, 2005

The innovations recognized through the Innovations in American Government Awards Program are selected because they are novel, effective, significant, and replicable. But, from the perspective of improving public sector outcomes, an important next question is not about the innovations themselves but about the conditions that make them necessary. This paper draws on the cases of the Innovations Awards 2005 finalists to address two questions: Why did these ineffective practices persist until the innovation occurred? Why did innovation happen at the time that it did?

Three major themes emerge in this report:

  1. Many different reasons--from political context to long-term underinvestment to internal agency failures--explain why problems persisted and an innovation was needed.
  2. Two of these reasons were particularly striking:
  3. While both of these problems may seem hard to solve, the innovations offered an intriguing list of approaches to solving them, providing a useful starting point for further exploration. In particular, the solutions to fragmented operation
UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/11702.pdf?m=1629837429 ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Political Economy of Transparency: What Makes Disclosure Policies Effective? Y1 - 2004 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - David Weil A1 - Mary Graham A1 - Fagotto, Elena AB -

Archon Fung, David Weil, Mary Graham and Elena Fagotto, December 2004 

Transparency systems have emerged in recent years as a mainstream regulatory tool, an important development in social policy. Transparency systems are government mandates that require corporations or other organizations to provide the public with factual information about their products and practices. Such systems have a wide range of regulatory purposes which include protecting investors, improving public health and safety, reducing pollution, minimizing corruption and improving public services.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/political_econ_transparency.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Government Innovation around the World Y1 - 2004 A1 - Elaine Kamarck AB -

Elaine Kamarck, November 2003

For some countries government reform and innovation involves the reform of an old bureaucracy in the context of a newly democratic state. For other countries, this entails an all out fight against corruption. For still other countries, the challenge is to modernize large, outmoded bureaucracies and bring them into the information age. While countries have come to government reform for very different reasons, government reform and innovation is a global phenomenon. This paper provides a review of government innovations undertaken in the last 20 years in many countries around the world including the United States.

UR - files/government_innovation_around_the_world.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Changing Big Government Organizations: Easier than Meets the Eye? Y1 - 2004 A1 - Steven Kelman AB -

Steven Kelman, May 2004

The need for government organizations to change how they work is a major theme among practitioners and observers of government, discussed informally and repeated constantly at conferences for practitioners. The need for organizational change is also a preoccupying theme in the business world. But the impetus for change in government is somewhat different. In the private sector, the assumption is that the organization's current performance is good, but that shifts in the organization's environment demands changes in what the organization produces or how it produces it. In government, by contrast, the impetus for organizational change is typically that current performance isn't what it should be. Government isn't working as well as it should, and organizational change is needed to improve performance.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/changing_big_government_organizations.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform Y1 - 2004 A1 - Merilee S. Grindle AB -

Merilee S. Grindle, Princeton University Press, 2004

Despite the Odds poses an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. Despite the Odds opens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts.

PB - Princeton University Press UR - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/despite-the-odds-merilee-s-grindle/1101639731?ean=9780691118000&itm=1&usri=9780691118000#TABS ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform Y1 - 2004 A1 - Merilee S. Grindle AB -

Merilee S. Grindle, Princeton University Press, 2004

Despite the Odds poses an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. Despite the Odds opens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts.

PB - Princeton University Press UR - http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Despite-the-Odds/Merilee-S-Grindle/e/9780691118000/?pwb=2#TABS ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector Y1 - 2004 ED - Stephen Goldsmith ED - William D. Eggers AB -

Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers editors, Ash Center and Brookings Institution Press, 2004

A fundamental, but mostly hidden, transformation is happening in the way public services are being delivered, and in the way local and national governments fulfill their policy goals. Government executives are redefining their core responsibilities away from managing workers and providing services directly to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver the services that government once did itself. Authors Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers call this new model "governing by network" and maintain that the new approach is a dramatically different type of endeavor that simply managing divisions of employeesGoverning by Network examines for the first time how managers on both sides of the aisle, public and private, are coping with the changes. Here is a clear roadmap for actually governing the networked state for elected officials, business executives, and the broader public.

View a presentation on the book

PB - Ash Center and Brookings Institution Press UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2004/governingbynetwork.aspx ER - TY - Generic T1 - Findings of the Workshop on Innovation and Quality Y1 - 2003 A1 - Winthrop Carty AB -

Winthrop Carty, November 2003

The Workshop on Innovation and Quality was led by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a center at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, in partnership with the Ford Foundation Innovations Liaison Group (of which Ash is a member), the Government of Mexico, and the American Society for Quality. It was held over two days, 5 and 6 November, as one of six workshops of the Fifth Global Forum on Reinventing Government under the auspices of the United Nations and the Government of Mexico. The workshop was attended by over 300 participants who engaged the presenters of 12 examples of government innovation from Brazil, Chile, China, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, and the United States. The audience was approximately 85% Mexican government officials and 15% other nationalities (diverse regional representation). They participated actitely and contributed valuable insight to discussions with presenters.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/8064.pdf?m=1618346070 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Learning from Green Grassroots Innovators: How Does a Tail Wag the Dog? Y1 - 2003 A1 - Anil Gupta AB -

Anil Gupta, October 2003

This paper presents an analysis of small grassroots innovations in India including the Honey Bee Network, underlying how small innovations can make a big difference. When the Honey Bee Network was started about 14 years ago, most innovators in three fields of technology, primary education, and common property institutions were poorly networked among themselves, though they were networked reasonably well within their communities. High degrees of fortitude, stubbornness, and to an extent, tendency to go alone were quite common and pronounced traits among the innovators. They were difficult to influence and even more difficult to convince of the need to network with others of their kind. It is against this context that the evolution of the Honey Bee Network and its influence on public policy, institutions, and structures is evaluated.

UR - files/learning_fm_green_grassroots.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Overcoming Obstacles to Technology-Enabled Transformation Y1 - 2003 A1 - William Eggers AB -

William Eggers, May 2003

Through the example of the General Service Administration, Eggers presents an analysis of how technology-enabled transformation entails breaking old habits, learning to do business in new ways, and adopting a radically different approach to serving your customers. Since nearly all the incentives in government work against all of these things, strong leadership is indispensable to achieving fundamental change in government.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/overcoming_obstacles.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Jamming in the Symphony Y1 - 2003 A1 - John D. Donahue AB -

John D. Donahue, April 2003

In this document, the introductory chapter to Making Washington Work: Tales of Innovation in the Federal Government, John Donahue acknowledges that the culture of the federal government includes an institutionalized bias toward continuity at the expense of change. His paper offers insights that heighten awareness of, and appreciation for, successful federal innovations that confront this bias. It provides a framework for exploring the complexities of innovation within large and long-established bureaucracies, and addresses such issues as scale, accountability, competition, pressure, and leadership.

UR - http://www.brookings.edu/press/books/chapter_1/washington_work.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance Y1 - 2003 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Erik Olink Wright AB -

Archon Fung and Erik Olink Wright, Verso Press, 2003

The institutional forms of liberal democracy developed in the 19th century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the 21st. This dilemma has given rise in some places to a new, deliberative democracy, and this volume explores four contemporary empirical cases in which the principles of such a democracy have been at least partially instituted: the participatory budget in Porto Alegre; the school decentralization councils and community policing councils in Chicago; stakeholder councils in environmental protection and habitat management; and new decentralized governance structures in Kerala. In keeping with the other Real Utopias Project volumes, these case studies are framed by an editor’s introduction, a set of commentaries, and concluding notes.

PB - Verso Press UR - http://www.versobooks.com/books/169-deepening-democracy ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Political Economy of Transparency: What Makes Disclosure Policies Sustainable? Y1 - 2002 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - David Weil A1 - Mary Graham A1 - Fagotto, Elena AB -

Archon Fung, David Weil, Mary Graham and Elena Fagotto, December 2002

This paper explores the dynamics of transparency. It asks why some government-created systems improve over time while others stagnate or degenerate into costly paperwork exercises. As products of the political process, transparency policies inevitably begin as unlikely compromises. Though transparency is universally admired in principle, its particular applications frequently conflict with other societal values or powerful political interests. Disclosing information can clash with efforts to protect public safety and proprietary information, to guard personal privacy, or to limit regulatory burdens. It can also clash with the central economic and political objectives of target organizations that may view such disclosure as a threat to reputation, markets or political influence. At the same time, the benefits of disclosure are often diffuse. Beneficiaries may be consumers, investors, employees, and community residents. Such users are rarely organized to support and oversee transparency systems.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/fgwtransparency1.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Democracy by Disclosure Y1 - 2002 A1 - Mary Graham AB -

Mary Graham, Brookings, August 2002 

Drawing on detailed profiles of disclosure systems for toxic releases, nutritional labeling, and medical errors, Graham explains why the move toward greater transparency has flourished during a time of regulatory retrenchment and why corporations have often supported these massive raids on proprietary information. However, Democracy by Disclosure, sounds a cautionary note. Just as systems of financial disclosure have come under new scrutiny in the wake of Enron’s collapse, systems of social disclosure deserve careful examination. Behind the seemingly simple idea of transparency, political battles rage over protecting trade secrets, minimizing regulatory burdens, and guarding national security. Like other forms of regulation, disclosure systems can be distorted by narrow scope, flawed metrics, minimal enforcement, or failure to adapt to changing markets and public priorities. Graham urges designers of future systems to heed lessons from early experience to avoid misleading the public.

PB - Brookings UR - https://www.brookings.edu/book/democracy-by-disclosure/ ER - TY - Generic T1 - The Effect of Government Funding on Nonprofit Administrative Efficiency: An Empirical Test Y1 - 2002 A1 - Peter Frumkin A1 - Mark T. Kim AB -

Peter Frumkin and Mark T. Kim, October 2002

This article draws on a large longitudinal data set of nonprofit organizations in order to shed light on the consequences of government funding on nonprofit administrative efficiency and gain a more grounded understanding of the link between public funding and nonprofit efficiency. The piece first surveys literature on the nature of public funding and its impact on the administrative efficiency of nonprofits. It then presents the data and analyzes the impact of public funding on a group of nonprofit organizations over an 11-year period. The piece concludes with an exploration of the implications of the findings for future research on public-nonprofit relations.

UR - files/effect_of_government_funding.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Service Contracting with Nonprofit and For-Profit Providers: On Preserving a Mixed Organizational Ecology Y1 - 2002 A1 - Peter Frumkin AB -

Peter Frumkin, April 2002

This paper explores the differences in operational and cultural characteristics of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, highlighting why many believe business firms have certain important advantages over nonprofits when it comes to competing for large human service contracts. The second section analyzes why public managers may need to structure service contracts in a way that not only maximizes short-term results, but that also affirms the importance of preserving a mixed organizational ecology. In a third and concluding section, some thoughts are offered on policy remedies that might supplement a more nuanced managerial approach to service contracting with nonprofit and for-profit providers.

UR - files/service_contracting.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Conservation Innovation in America: Past, Present, and Future Y1 - 2002 A1 - James N. Levitt AB -

James N. Levitt, December 2002

Observers throughout the course of U.S. history, including such prominent commentators as Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic volume Democracy in America, have dismissed Americans’ willingness to appreciate or conserve nature. In fact, Americans have a long and distinguished record of realizing landmark conservation innovations that are novel on a worldwide basis; politically significant; measurably effective; transferable to separate organizations, jurisdictions, and nations; and, particularly significant in the field of conservation, enduring. This paper reviews conservation innovations in the U.S., starting with the observation that among the many important conservation innovations that Americans have achieved, only a distinct subset of them has had an enduring impact and so can be considered landmark innovations.

UR - files/conservation_innovation_in_america.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Understanding Innovation: What Inspires It? What Makes It Successful? Y1 - 2001 A1 - Jonathan Walters AB -

Jonathan Walters, December 2001

Public sector innovation may be considered an oxymoron, but for 15 years the Ford Foundation and Harvard Kennedy School have been identifying innovative public sector programs at the state, local, federal, and tribal government levels through the Innovations in American Government Awards Program, funded by Ford and administered by the Kennedy School. What the initiatives identified through the program tell us is that despite government’s well-deserved reputation for being unfriendly to new ideas and change, government has actually proved to be remarkably – even resiliently – innovative. But where does innovation come from? What drives people to innovate? And in a political world where program survival is often a matter of having the right political patrons, what characteristics make for sustainable, replicable, results-based innovation?

UR - files/understanding_innovation.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - Information as Risk Regulation: Lessons from Experience Y1 - 2001 A1 - Mary Graham AB -

Mary Graham, May 2001

Since the mid-1980s a wide variety of federal and state laws in the United States have employed structured disclosure of factual information as a means of reducing risks to public health, safety, or the environment. These disclosure systems aim to create new economic or political incentives for organizations to improve their products or practices. In effect, they harness the government's enduring authority to command the disclosure of previously private information to create a form of risk regulation. In the past, each of these disclosure systems has been viewed as unique. No central plan has informed their architecture or increasing popularity. Evidence from four such systems suggests, however, that they represent a cohesive innovation in public policy. This paper discusses the challenges faced by policymakers in using this promising tool of risk regulation effectively in the future.

UR - files/information_as_risk_regulation.pdf ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest Y1 - 2001 A1 - Jane Mansbridge AB -

Jane Mansbridge, University Of Chicago Press, 2001

How can human beings be induced to sacrifice their lives – even one minute of their lives – for the sake of their group? This question, central to understanding the dynamics of social movements, is at the heart of this collection of original essays. The book is the first to conceptualize and illustrate the complex patterns of negotiation, struggle, borrowing, and crafting that characterize what the editors term "oppositional consciousness" – an empowering mental state that prepares members of an oppressed group to undermine, reform, or overthrow a dominant system. Each essay employs a recent historical case to demonstrate how oppositional consciousness actually worked in the experience of a subordinate group. Based on participant observation and interviews, chapters focus on the successful social movements of groups such as African Americans, people with disabilities, sexually harassed women, Chicano workers, and AIDS activists. Ultimately, Oppositional Consciousness sheds new light on the intricate mechanisms that drive the important social movements of our time.

PB - University Of Chicago Press UR - http://amzn.com/0226503623 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Beyond Backyard Environmentalism Y1 - 2000 A1 - Archon Fung A1 - Bradley Karkkainen A1 - Charles Sabel AB -

Archon Fung, Bradley Karkkainen, Charles Sabel; Beacon Press; July 2000

When we think of environmental action, we draw upon images from the disaster of Love Canal or from A Civil Action-stories of lone activists fighting the government or some corporation against all odds. In their provocative essay, Sabel, Fung, and Karkkainen demonstrate that an effective alternative is emerging. Before environmental disasters occur, citizen groups are collaborating with experts, business leaders, and local and federal governments to figure out what is best for their own neighborhoods. These examples point to more than successful environmental action; they represent a model of grassroots democracy that can be applied to the needs of any community. 

PB - Beacon Press ER - TY - Generic T1 - Strategies for Scale: Learning from Two Educational Innovations Y1 - 2000 A1 - Bryan C. Hassel and Lucy Steiner A1 - Lucy Steiner AB -

Bryan C. Hassel and Lucy Steiner, June 2000

The authors of the paper examine two intriguing programs: Success for All and the Accelerated Schools Program, each of which has been adopted by more than 1,000 schools nationwide. They argue that given the relative success of these programs at scaling up, focusing some attention on the strategies that their promoters have used in taking them to scale might prove informative and useful for subsequent efforts to scale up good practice.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/strategiesforscale.pdf?m=1635172330 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Making Government Work: Lessons from America's Mayors and Governors Y1 - 2000 A1 - Stephen Goldsmith AB -

Stephen Goldsmith, Contributor, May 2000

The role of government, particularly at the state and local levels, has evolved dramatically over recent years. In Making Government Work, a bipartisan collection of the nation's most innovative governors and big city mayors describe how they make government more efficient and effective. From welfare to clean water, these original essays discuss a wide variety of issues and propose progressive solutions that will influence the thinking of all Americans interested in politics.

Read Goldsmith's Chapter 

PB - Rowman and Littlefield UR - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781461608127/Making-Government-Work-Lessons-from-America's-Governors-and-Mayors ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1237.0 Reorganizing the Defense Logistics Agency Y1 - 2000 AB -

Move Information, Not Property: U.S. Department of Defense – 1999 Innovations Finalist

This government re-engineering case focuses on the agency responsible for procuring goods and services (other than weapons) for the Department of Defense. New leadership at the DLA must deal with a sharply changed system. Rather than receiving an annual appropriation, the mammoth agency must bill its multitude of customers – the various military services – for performing procurement tasks. In trying to make itself a customer-focused operation, DLA considers changing both the management structure of its headquarters and the relationship between its headquarters and field offices.

ER - TY - Generic T1 - Implementing Federal Procurement Reform Y1 - 1998 A1 - Steve Kelman AB -

Steve Kelman, Spring 1998

The effort to reinvent the federal procurement system is widely regarded by outside observers as having undergone significant reform. The paper presents an account of successful innovation in government procurement (the way the federal government buys goods and services from the private sector for government use) initiated and pursued by the White House during the Clinton Administration. Steven Kelman is a Professor of Public Management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 1993 to 1997, he was administrator at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. One of the more promising trends in government reform, which we have seen in applications to the Innovations in American Government program, and which is occurring across all levels of government, has to do with new practices in procurement. In his position, Professor Kelman played key roles in federal reforms that have occurred in the past five years.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2552.pdf?m=1618943090 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1530.0: Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City Y1 - 1997 AB -

CompStat: New York, NY – 1996 Innovations Winner

The dramatic reduction in crime in New York City during the 1990s grabbed the attention of the U.S. and the world, seeming to provide evidence that new policy and management approaches could make an enormous difference for the better. This case tells the story of key management decisions that the New York Police Department itself credits with the successful attack on the city's crime rate. Specifically, it describes the approach of Police Chief William Bratton in assembling a core, reform-oriented management team and the development of a computerized crime tracking system used as the foundation for the targeting of police manpower. The epilogue raises the dramatic question of whether the goal of minimizing the misuse of force by police officers is also amenable to the measurement techniques successfully employed to the activity of criminals. This case, in addition to the questions it raises, provides a powerful telling of one of the most successful public sector management initiatives of recent times.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1558.3 The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City (B): CompStat Y1 - 1997 AB -

CompStat: New York, NY – 1996 Innovations Winner

This abridgment is based on the case ”Assertive Policing, Plummeting Crime: The NYPD Takes on Crime in New York City” (1530.0). The abridgment of the case divides the story of the change in the New York Police Department into three, roughly chronological parts – the diagnosis of the crime and organizational problems, the development of a new system of practices and incentives and a description of the variety of impacts which the new ”assertive policing” regime appeared to have. The three parts (1557.3, 1558.3, 1559.3) and Epilogue (1557.1) can be used individually or together. They should not be used along with the full case and sequel (1530.0, 1530.1) but should, instead, be considered a substitute approach.

ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government Y1 - 1997 A1 - Mark H. Moore AB -

Mark H. Moore, Harvard University Press, 1997

A seminal figure in the field of public management, Mark Moore presents his summation of 15 years of research, observation, and teaching about what public sector executives should do to improve the performance of public enterprises. Useful for both practicing public executives and those who teach them, this book explicates some of the richest of several hundred cases used at Harvard Kennedy School and illuminates their broader lessons for government managers. Moore addresses four questions that have long bedeviled public administration: What should citizens and their representatives expect and demand from public executives? What sources can public managers consult to learn what is valuable for them to produce? How should public managers cope with inconsistent and fickle political mandates? How can public managers find room to innovate? Moore's answers respond to the well-understood difficulties of managing public enterprises in modern society by recommending specific, concrete changes in the practices of individual public managers: how they envision what is valuable to produce, how they engage their political overseers, and how they deliver services and fulfill obligations to clients.

PB - Harvard University Press UR - http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Public-Value-Management-Government/dp/0674175581/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267902728&sr=1-2 ER - TY - Generic T1 - Public Innovation and Political Incentives Y1 - 1997 A1 - Alan Altshuler AB -

Alan A. Altshuler, Fall 1997 

This is the first paper in a series dedicated to understanding innovation in public problem solving. American policy elites and the general public are deeply ambivalent about the desirability of bureaucratic innovation in the public sector. Yet there is broad agreement on the need to improve government performance. It is hard to imagine how that can be achieved without both encouraging public servants at all levels to take responsibility for performance and giving them some leeway to pursue it. In turn, it is difficult to imagine how incentives can be altered to encourage such innovation unless elected officials first become convinced that it is compatible with their own political interests.

UR - https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/2595.pdf?m=1618943267 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1155.0 Meeting for a Need: Jerry Abramson and CityWork in Louisville, Kentucky Y1 - 1996 AB -

CityWork: Louisville KY – 1995 Innovations Winner

This is a public sector total quality management (TQM) case. Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Jerry Abramson, early in his second term, finds himself dissatisfied with what is ostensibly a significant string of accomplishments – among them economic development, housing and urban beautification projects. He finds himself wanting to do more than cut ribbons on new initiatives, though, and seeks, in addition, to change the way the ongoing, core departments of city government serve the public. In an effort to bring a customer orientation to such agencies as Louisville’s public works department, Abramson recruits a major local private employer – General Electric – to design a training program to bring its ”total quality” approach to the public sector. The case tells the story of the origins and effects of the GE/Louisville partnership.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1269.0 Mayor Stephen Goldsmith: Organizing Competition in Indianapolis (A) Y1 - 1996 AB -

Competition and Costing: Indianapolis, IN – 1995 Innovations Winner

During his successful 1991 bid for the Indianapolis mayoralty, Stephen Goldsmith is clear about his preference for privatizing city services. Once in office, however, Goldsmith decides on a different, more complex approach. The inefficiency of publicly-provided services, he reflects, may not be the result of their being public but rather a reflection of the lack of competition over who will provide them. In that light, Goldsmith undertakes a bold experiment: to force city departments to bid against private providers. This case focuses on the first stages of the Goldsmith experiment, a time in which city public works crews must, for the first time, compete against private firms for a pothole repair contract. The case raises core questions as to how to structure public-private competitions to ensure that valid comparison will be possible, as well as how to determine the exact nature of public costs. In addition, it allows for discussion of more theoretical questions as to whether some functions must always be public, while others should be private and still others privately-provided but publicly-financed.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1323.0 Preparing a Public Sector Bid: Indianapolis Fleet Services Y1 - 1996 AB -

Competition and Costing: Indianapolis, IN – 1995 Innovations Winner

When the city of Indianapolis adopts a policy leading to head-to-head competition for contracts between public and private sector bidders, public departments such as the city’s motor vehicle maintenance facility find themselves in a brave new world. This case examines the point-by-point construction of the Indiana policy Fleet Services bid for the right to perform both routine and non-routine maintenance on the city’s motor vehicles and equipment, ranging from police cars to garbage trucks. It is designed to familiarize students with the process of understanding a public sector Request for Proposals (RFP) and developing a bid in response. It calls on students to understand the city's budget, its contractual relationship with organized labor, the potential use of employee merit pay and the variety of incentives, both for good or ill, that can arise by virtue of the way a contract is drafted. Thus the case is useful both for those interested in the public-private bidding process and for those interested in the drafting of public contracts.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1355.0 Central Complaint & Info. Service for Louisville: City Call (A) Y1 - 1996 AB -

CityWork: Louisville, KY – 1995 Innovations Winner

The belief of Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Jerry Abramson in improved service to citizen ”customers” leads to the 1989 establishment of a centralized complaint/information system – a single phone number to which complaints or inquiries about any of the city’s 25 departments can be made. But despite apparent success and a high public profile, managers of the ”CityCALL” system become frustrated with what they view as inefficiencies in their relationships with other city agencies. Some are linked to CityCALL by computer; others show little apparent inclination to cooperate. The case calls for consideration of how CityCALL could be improved through the vehicle of Louisville's ”CityWork” system, in which public employees, in a retreat-style setting, are called upon to offer specific suggestions for change. The case explores the evolution of an innovative program – its unexpected side effects and the sorts of resistance it encounters. It highlights, as well, Mayor Abramson’s contention that a system of cooperative program evaluation – CityWork – can lead to efficiencies which rival public/private competitive bidding and other ”privatization”-style strategies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1373.0 Regulatory Reform at OSHA (C) Y1 - 1996 AB -

Maine Top 200 Experimental Targeting Program: U.S. Department of Labor – 1995 Innovations Winner

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, created by Congress in 1970 to curtail what was viewed as a still-alarming level of industrial accidents, had, 20 years later, become a lightning rod for controversy. Its advocates viewed it as a bulwark of the defense of sale working conditions but opponents portrayed it as abusively intrusive, creating bureaucratic nightmares for employers. With that backdrop – and with dwindling manpower and other resources – OSHA officials in Maine, in 1991, try a radically different approach to their task, targeting 200 businesses which data has told them are the state’s most important to bring into compliance. OSHA hopes both to avoid diluting the inspection capacity it has – and to find ways to persuade, rather than to coerce through the law, business to make improvements. The apparent success of the Maine 200 program comes at a time when the new Clinton Administration is eager to find such government ”reinvention” programs it can widely replicate. This case allows, first, for analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Maine 200 effort as an example of gaining compliance through a new form of enforcement, and, second, for discussion of the complications, and advisability, of taking a small program ”to scale.”

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1384.0 Central Complaint & Info. Service for Louisville: City Call (B) Y1 - 1996 AB -

CityWork: Louisville, KY – 1995 Innovations Winner

The belief of Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Jerry Abramson in improved service to citizen ”customers” leads to the 1989 establishment of a centralized complaint/information system – a single phone number to which complaints or inquiries about any of the city’s 25 departments can be made. But despite apparent success and a high public profile, managers of the ”CityCALL” system become frustrated with what they view as inefficiencies in their relationships with other city agencies. Some are linked to CityCALL by computer; others show little apparent inclination to cooperate. The case calls for consideration of how CityCALL could be improved through the vehicle of Louisville's ”CityWork” system, in which public employees, in a retreat-style setting, are called upon to offer specific suggestions for change. The case explores the evolution of an innovative program – its unexpected side effects and the sorts of resistance it encounters. It highlights, as well, Mayor Abramson's contention that a system of cooperative program evaluation – CityWork – can lead to efficiencies which rival public/private competitive bidding and other ”privatization”-style strategies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1927.9 Wraparound Milwaukee: Interview with Bruce Kamradt (DVD Supplement) Y1 - 1996 AB -

Wraparound Milwaukee: Milwaukee County, WI – 2009 Innovations Winner

This video is a companion piece to the “Bringing Kids Home: The Wraparound Milwaukee Model“ case study (case number 1927.0). The Wraparound Milwaukee program was created in 1995 by Milwaukee County, Wisconsin and provides services and treatment to severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and youth. The program utilizes the “wraparound philosophy” to provide the children and youth it serves with a highly individualized, community, and strength-based approach to care. The delivery of services is facilitated by a Care Coordinator who works with the family to choose the right services from Wraparound Milwaukee’s network of individual providers and community based organizations. The program’s funding is pooled from several state and county agencies. Wraparound Milwaukee’s innovative approach to care has brought considerable savings to the county: $3,878 per month per child for Wraparound Milwaukee, versus $8,000-$10,000 per month per child that the county paid for residential placement. Wraparound Milwaukee has seen positive outcomes in the youth it serves after disenrollment in terms of clinical health indicators, as well as other indicators.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1204.1 Info/California: Where Do Electronic Government Tellers Belong? (Epilogue) Y1 - 1994 AB -

Info/California: California – 1993 Innovations Winner

The growth of the kind of new interactive technologies promise to make it more convenient and less expensive for government, like private providers of consumer goods and services, to serve its customers – whether they seek a driver’s license or unemployment compensation. Incorporating such technologies implies change, however, and, as this case makes clear, requires decisions about when and how automated transactions should be the norm. The story of the Info/California decision focuses on competing visions of a new, interactive system which promises to allow Californians to obtain records, licenses and program information of all sorts. For its champion within state government, it makes most sense for a scarce number of interactive terminals to be placed in public areas – supermarkets, malls and the like. He must, however, face a demand by a state agency that a terminal be used to make up for laid-off employees in a place where the public has been accustomed to going for records and licenses. Developed for the Kennedy School’s Program on Strategic Computing, this case allows for discussion of the relationship between mission and technology.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1243.1 Mountaineer Habitat for Humanity and the West Virginia Housing Development Fund: The Prospect of Partnership (Sequel) Y1 - 1994 AB -

Low-Income Assisted Mortgage Program: West Virginia – 1993 Innovations Winner

When a local chapter of the Habitat for Humanity organization learns that a state-chartered development fund might be able to provide it with financial help, the non-profit organization faces a decision. Should it accept funds from a public agency? Would doing so jeopardize its independence and push the organization in directions it might not want to go? So, too, does the Development Fund face decisions as it contemplates aiding the non-profit, which builds small homes for the near-poor, in part through the use of volunteer labor. Should Habitat’s religious affiliation bar the Fund from helping it? Should Habitat be allowed to retain control over who gets to purchase the homes it builds? This case focuses on the intersection of the public and non-profit sectors and raises questions about when they should or shouldn't overlap.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1256.0 Introducing Computer-Based Remote Services in California Y1 - 1994 AB -

Info/California: California – 1993 Innovations Winner

New, computer-based technologies offer the prospect of new ways for government to provide services for citizens. That was the hope of the director of the data center of California’s Health and Welfare Agency when, in 1991, he developed a new interactive ”kiosk” that would allow citizens to transact business with the state government without going to a government office. Licenses, permits and answers to questions could be obtained through a service which director Russell Bohart believed should ”go where the people are, as opposed to making everybody come to government.” In introducing the new system, however, Bohart found himself under pressure from state agencies which wanted to interactive technology to be located not at shopping malls and strip centers but in their own offices, as a means of replacing or supplementing employees. Bohart would have to decide which vision of his interactive kiosk was the right one and, if he stuck to his original concept, how to cope with the demands in conflict with it.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1256.1 Introducing Computer-Based Remote Services in California (Epilogue) Y1 - 1994 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1318.0 Washington State Workers’ Compensation Administration (B) Y1 - 1993 AB -

Washington State Workers’ Compensation: Washington – 1992 Innovations Winner

Like many such systems, the Washington State Workers’ Compensation Administration was, in the mid-1980s, in deep financial distress. Worse still, its fiscal problems were matched by deep problems of efficiency and morale, particularly in its crucial Claims Administration Unit, which called into question the agency’s ability to put its house in order. Under intense public and political pressure, a new team of administrators buys time through stopgap financial steps, before turning to the daunting task of internal structural reform, focused on the claims unit. The case provides rich detail of both the political and production operation issues which administrators confronted, including its strategy of breaking a claims log-jam by terminating a long-established ”assembly-line” claims process. Adopted in its place is a new structure which encouraged employees to take holistic responsibility for compensation claims and worker rehabilitation. The case raises the complications of worker morale, union relations and political and business pressures with which administrators coped, knowing that the possibility of privatization was a real alternative. They struggled both to put the department on its feet and to demonstrate a raison d’etre for a public system. Ultimately, their efforts were recognized by an Innovations in American Government program award.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1192.0 Fighting Graffiti in Philadelphia (A) Y1 - 1992 AB -

Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network: Philadelphia, PA – 1991 Innovations Winner

When Wilson Goode becomes the first African-American mayor of Philadelphia, he must find ways to fulfill a particularly visible campaign pledge: elimination of the graffiti which mar public buildings throughout poorer sections of the city and particularly in the North Philadelphia black wards crucial to Goode’s victory. This tells the story of a series of quite different compliance strategies pursued by a new city agency specifically created to curtail graffiti and housed within the mayor’s office. The anti-graffiti effort first conceives the problem in social terms and initiates a series of efforts to deal with the ”roots” of the graffiti problem, specifically the alienation and joblessness which may affect graffiti writers. Public pressure builds, however, for the city to adopt a more aggressive enforcement posture, viewing graffiti as a criminal act which must be swiftly punished. The case allows for discussion of the nature of public compliance and how it is achieved.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1197.0 Preventing Pollution in Massachusetts: The Blackstone Project Y1 - 1992 AB -

The Blackstone Project: Preventing Pollution Before it Happens – 1991 Innovations Winner

This case examines the origins and follows the implementation of a radical restructuring of the way the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection conducts inspections of industrial facilities. Specifically, it tells the story of a pilot program designed both to change the way in which inspections were carried out and the purpose of inspections. The Blackstone Project moved to replace inspections conducted by technical specialists in specific areas – air, water, hazardous waste – with ”cross-media” inspections, in which one inspector would consider an industrial operation as a whole. The project represented a radical departure for a department in which technical specialists had their own culture and history. At the same time, it represented an attempt to replace traditional law enforcement with pollution prevention – single inspectors acting as much as advisors for firms as law enforcers. This meaty case allows for analysis of the ways in which an organization's internal structure relates to its overall mission.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1197.1 Preventing Pollution in Massachusetts: The Blackstone Project (Sequel) Y1 - 1992 AB -

The Blackstone Project: Preventing Pollution Before it Happens – 1991 Innovations Winner

This case examines the origins and follows the implementation of a radical restructuring of the way the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection conducts inspections of industrial facilities. Specifically, it tells the story of a pilot program designed both to change the way in which inspections were carried out and the purpose of inspections. The Blackstone Project moved to replace inspections conducted by technical specialists in specific areas – air, water, hazardous waste – with ”cross-media” inspections, in which one inspector would consider an industrial operation as a whole. The project represented a radical departure for a department in which technical specialists had their own culture and history. At the same time, it represented an attempt to replace traditional law enforcement with pollution prevention – single inspectors acting as much as advisors for firms as law enforcers. This meaty case allows for analysis of the ways in which an organization's internal structure relates to its overall mission.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1218.0 Reproducing an Innovation in Tennessee: Dr. Barbara Levin and the Monroe Maternity Center, Inc. Y1 - 1992 ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1155.0 Meeting for a Need: Jerry Abramson and CityWork in Louisville, Kentucky Y1 - 1992 AB -

CityWork: Louisville KY – 1995 Innovations Winner

This is a public sector total quality management (TQM) case. Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Jerry Abramson, early in his second term, finds himself dissatisfied with what is ostensibly a significant string of accomplishments – among them economic development, housing and urban beautification projects. He finds himself wanting to do more than cut ribbons on new initiatives, though, and seeks, in addition, to change the way the ongoing, core departments of city government serve the public. In an effort to bring a customer orientation to such agencies as Louisville’s public works department, Abramson recruits a major local private employer – General Electric – to design a training program to bring its ”total quality” approach to the public sector. The case tells the story of the origins and effects of the GE/Louisville partnership.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1025.0 XPORT: A Public Sector Trading Company Y1 - 1991 AB -

Xport, The Port Authority Trading Company: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – 1990 Innovations Winner

This case takes its place in the ongoing debate over privatization: which functions are best performed by the public sector, which should be reserved to private enterprise? In this instance, a newly-appointed executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey must decide whether or not to continue a fledgling ”public sector trading company” – a program designed to nurture small business exports by identifying overseas customers and acting as middleman in the transaction – all for a fee. Early sales figures are disappointing; organized private opposition has surfaced in the state legislature. But a strong-willed program director is convinced that small exporters are not served by private trading firms and that increasing the volume of small exports will help keep the Port Authority’s facilities busy.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1038.1 Electronic Benefits System in Ramsey County, Minnesota Y1 - 1991 AB -

Electronic Benefit System: Ramsey County, MN – 1990 Innovations Winner

When banks in Ramsey County (Saint Paul), Minnesota decide to stop cashing welfare checks, the county faces a crisis. It must continue to provide a way for welfare recipients to receive their benefits. Yet it has exhausted the standard means of doing so. This Innovations in State and Local Government case follows the course of Ramsey County’s decision to adopt a radically different benefits delivery system – the use of an ATM (automatic teller machine) card which will allow welfare recipients to draw down their account at a variety of locations, at their own convenience. Officials in the Community Human Services Department gain acceptance of this idea, however, not because of its innovative quality but because they convince county officials it will provide the service at no increase in cost. This case provides a vehicle for discussion of the nature of public sector innovation and the forces that drive or constrain it. It raises the following question, as well: At a time when information technologies are making everything from mail orders to credit card replacement “user friendly,“ will government find ways to adapt these technologies to aid in delivering its services?

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1058.0 Please Be Patient: The Seattle Solid Waste Utility Meets the Press Y1 - 1991 AB -

Seattle Recycling Program: Seattle, WA – 1990 Innovations Winner

When the Seattle Solid Waste Utility, the department responsible for trash pick-up and disposal, moved during 1988-90 to introduce curbside recycling and other dramatic changes in garbage collection, director Diana Gale believed presentation of the utility's plans to the press would be crucial to their prospects for public acceptance. This case recounts the elaborate but successful strategies Gale employed, ranging from training sessions for utility employees run by former television news anchors, to the advent of the utility's own weekly newsletter to track problems and changes in the new garbage program. The case is designed both to allow for discussion of what makes for effective or ineffective relations between the public manager and the press, and to raise questions about the relative motivations of each party. In addition, the case can be used to pose the question of what methods are appropriate for a public agency to use in presenting its program initiatives to the public – and whether it is a necessary or proper use of funds when public agencies employ public relations and advertising tactics.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1047.0 Solving Seattle’s Solid Waste Crisis Y1 - 1991 AB -

Seattle Recycling Program: Seattle, WA – 1990 Innovations Winner

The closing of two landfill sites creates a municipal crisis in Seattle, forced to find new disposal options for the 2,000 tons of garbage it produces each day. Political concerns over what appears to be the most practical disposal option – construction of a major municipal incinerator – prompts the city’s Solid Waste Utility to undertake an innovative study to examine the extent to which recycling could minimize the city’s trash disposal needs. This case broadly examines the “Recycling Potential and Disposal Options“ study with an eye toward understanding the relationship between the political process and the techniques of public policy analysis. The case is designed to frame questions as to the proper relationship between policy analyst and elected official, and the ways in which analysis is constrained, properly or improperly, by political considerations.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1035.0 Court Reporting in Kentucky (A) Y1 - 1989 AB -

Kentucky Video Courts: Kentucky – 1988 Innovations Winner

When a shortage of court reporters threatens to delay trials and back up the appeals process, Kentucky's Administrative Office of the Courts considers new technology as a solution to its problem. Video ”transcripts” of court proceedings hold the potential to sidestep the labor problem plaguing the courts. The use of video cameras to record court proceedings raises questions, however. Would a video record truly provide as useful a product as a written transcript? Would judges – and the courts themselves – accept video as a legal record? Director Don Cetrulo of the Administrative Office of the Courts, intrigued by the promise of video, must ponder both its implications – and the fact that no proven automatic camera technology existed in the mid-1980s that could adapt to the multiplicity of speakers and locations. Before he can reach the point of considering the legal impact of video court reporting, Cetrulo must decide whether to go so far as to award state funds to a local manufacturer who believes he can devise such a system.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1037.1 Court Reporting in Kentucky (Sequel) Y1 - 1989 AB -

Kentucky Video Courts: Kentucky – 1988 Innovations Winner

When a shortage of court reporters threatens to delay trials and back up the appeals process, Kentucky's Administrative Office of the Courts considers new technology as a solution to its problem. Video ”transcripts” of court proceedings hold the potential to sidestep the labor problem plaguing the courts. The use of video cameras to record court proceedings raises questions, however. Would a video record truly provide as useful a product as a written transcript? Would judges – and the courts themselves – accept video as a legal record? Director Don Cetrulo of the Administrative Office of the Courts, intrigued by the promise of video, must ponder both its implications – and the fact that no proven automatic camera technology existed in the mid-1980s that could adapt to the multiplicity of speakers and locations. Before he can reach the point of considering the legal impact of video court reporting, Cetrulo must decide whether to go so far as to award state funds to a local manufacturer who believes he can devise such a system.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1076.3 The Ladder and the Scale: commitment and Accountability at Project Match (Abridged) Y1 - 1989 AB -

Project Match: Illinois – 1988 Innovations Winner

Located in one of the most troubled housing projects in Chicago, the job training program known as Project Match has an unusual approach to the task of bringing welfare recipients into the world of work. Rather than trying to broker a simple job placement, the program tries to encourage long-term change in the habits and living style of its hard-to-place population, in part by creating a social atmosphere in which work and ambition are valued. But because it receives funds from the Illinois Department of Public Aid, Project Match finds itself under pressure to produce job-placement results which demonstrate its success. The program itself urges authorities to find ways to quantify success besides simply finding someone a job – and places a premium on keeping track of those it’s trying to help, long after a first job placement. The case highlights the challenges of social service program evaluation, as well as the problems an innovative agency has explaining itself to traditional bureaucracies with which it must deal.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1119.0 Replicating Innovation: Judy Lenthall and SRO Housing Construction in San Diego Y1 - 1989 AB -

Single Room Occupancy Residential Hotel Program: San Diego, CA – 1988 Innovations Winner

When an idea for which she’s had responsibility wins a major national award, a San Diego planner must, under the terms of the award, take responsibility for alerting other jurisdictions to the merits of the idea: new, privately funded single room occupancy “hotels“ for the working poor. At first, Judy Lenthall plans a conference to which she intends to invite interested planners from other cities. When the mayor of San Diego disapproves, Lenthall must figure out a variety of strategies that will actually spread the word and lead to “replication.“

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 1119.1 Replicating Innovation: Judy Lenthall and SRO Housing Construction in San Diego – Sequel Y1 - 1989 AB -

Single Room Occupancy Residential Hotel Program: San Diego, CA – 1988 Innovations Winner

When an idea for which she’s had responsibility wins a major national award, a San Diego planner must, under the terms of the award, take responsibility for alerting other jurisdictions to the merits of the idea: new, privately funded single room occupancy “hotels“ for the working poor. At first, Judy Lenthall plans a conference to which she intends to invite interested planners from other cities. When the mayor of San Diego disapproves, Lenthall must figure out a variety of strategies that will actually spread the word and lead to “replication.“

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 871.0 Jean Ekins and the Family Learning Center (B) Y1 - 1989 AB -

Family Learning Center: Ingham County, MI – 1988 Innovations Winner

During the 1978-79 school year, the state of Michigan turned down Jean Ekins’ application for model-site designation of her Leslie, Michigan Family Learning Center. Ekins had started the program four years earlier within the Leslie public school system to provide an appropriate high school setting for teen-aged parents. Designation carried a $60,000 grant, about twice the center’s current annual budget. Ekins believed the money as well as the designation would have lent legitimacy to the center's existence, which the conservative community of Leslie frequently questioned on practical and moral grounds. At the time of Ekins’ application, the center provided services to about 20 students, but many more young parents were on the waiting list, denied services because of a lack of funds. It had become clear to Ekins that, without more money, the center would remain a small, relatively ineffective weapon in the fight to provide educational services to Leslie-area school-aged parents. The case describes Ekins’ efforts to establish the program and focuses on the issues confronting the administrator of a small, financially strapped program on the frontiers of service delivery. The case also addresses the question of how best to expand a successful but limited program: how to gauge degrees of support and opposition; how to balance demands for resources; and where and how to look for potential allies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 871.1 Jean Ekins and the Family Learning Center (Epilogue) Y1 - 1989 AB -

Family Learning Center: Ingham County, MI – 1988 Innovations Winner

During the 1978-79 school year, the state of Michigan turned down Jean Ekins’ application for model-site designation of her Leslie, Michigan Family Learning Center. Ekins had started the program four years earlier within the Leslie public school system to provide an appropriate high school setting for teen-aged parents. Designation carried a $60,000 grant, about twice the center’s current annual budget. Ekins believed the money as well as the designation would have lent legitimacy to the center’s existence, which the conservative community of Leslie frequently questioned on practical and moral grounds. At the time of Ekins’ application, the center provided services to about 20 students, but many more young parents were on the waiting list, denied services because of a lack of funds. It had become clear to Ekins that, without more money, the center would remain a small, relatively ineffective weapon in the fight to provide educational services to Leslie-area school-aged parents. The case describes Ekins’ efforts to establish the program and focuses on the issues confronting the administrator of a small, financially strapped program on the frontiers of service delivery. The case also addresses the question of how best to expand a successful but limited program: how to gauge degrees of support and opposition; how to balance demands for resources; and where and how to look for potential allies.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 996.0 St. Louis County Police Department Y1 - 1989 AB -

Computer Assisted Report Entry: St. Louis, MO – 1988 Innovations Winner

This case examines a specific technological innovation and tracks its effect on the procedures of an organization. The Computer Assisted Report Entry (CARE) system adopted by the St. Louis County Police Department is designed to replace what is viewed as a cumbersome, if vital, procedure: the filing of written reports by individual police officers involved in responses to calls and in arrests. CARE replaces what the department believes to be an inefficient system of written reports with a system of telephone reporting. Although viewed positively in the text, the case also invites scrutiny of the long-term, perhaps unforeseen, consequences of such a technological change.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 854.0 Wastewater Wars Y1 - 1988 AB -

Wetland Wastewater Treatment: Arcata, CA – 1987 Innovations Winner

In 1974, the small city of Arcata, California, learned that a new state policy would soon forbid the release of its treated wastewater into Humboldt Bay unless it could prove that the wastewater “enhanced“ the bay. That same year the Humboldt Bay Wastewater Authority was formed to devise a federal- and state-funded regional approach to wastewater disposal. By 1976, Arcata realized it had a serious problem on its hands: if the city hooked up to the proposed HBWA treatment plant, sewer bills would double in the near future and would probably continue to climb. Moreover, the huge sewage pipes mapped to run between Arcata and Eureka and under the bay’s shipping channels could allow unwanted strip development of the rural area between the cities and might even lead to an ecological disaster. But if Arcata decided to go its own way, it would be subject to a building moratorium and other penalties unless it could overcome the undefined “enhancement“ requirement. The case tells the story of Arcata's long political struggle to derail the planned regional sewage treatment plant and force federal and state regulators to accept its own, unconventional local alternative. It raises questions as to how to recognize innovation and the nature of bureaucratic cultures which discourage innovation. It also raises the question of whether community based opposition might be too heavily weighted in the political process.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 854.1 Wastewater Wars: Sequel Y1 - 1988 AB -

Wetland Wastewater Treatment: Arcata, CA – 1987 Innovations Winner

In 1974, the small city of Arcata, California, learned that a new state policy would soon forbid the release of its treated wastewater into Humboldt Bay unless it could prove that the wastewater “enhanced“ the bay. That same year the Humboldt Bay Wastewater Authority was formed to devise a federal- and state-funded regional approach to wastewater disposal. By 1976, Arcata realized it had a serious problem on its hands: if the city hooked up to the proposed HBWA treatment plant, sewer bills would double in the near future and would probably continue to climb. Moreover, the huge sewage pipes mapped to run between Arcata and Eureka and under the bay’s shipping channels could allow unwanted strip development of the rural area between the cities and might even lead to an ecological disaster. But if Arcata decided to go its own way, it would be subject to a building moratorium and other penalties unless it could overcome the undefined “enhancement“ requirement. The case tells the story of Arcata's long political struggle to derail the planned regional sewage treatment plant and force federal and state regulators to accept its own, unconventional local alternative. It raises questions as to how to recognize innovation and the nature of bureaucratic cultures which discourage innovation. It also raises the question of whether community based opposition might be too heavily weighted in the political process.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 737.0 Striving Toward Excellence in Minnesota Y1 - 1987 AB -

Strive Toward Excellence in Performance: Minnesota – 1986 Innovations Winner

On February 13, 1984, Minnesota Commissioner of Administration Sandra J. Hale told a group of some 200 state managers that her department would soon launch a program to improve the ”effectiveness and productivity” of state government. Hale and many other government leaders believed that past initiatives – usually focused either on cost-cutting or on management schemes developed by private sector executives – had failed to generate significant, lasting change in the performance of state government. She christened the new program ”STEP” (Strive Toward Excellence and Productivity, later renamed Strive Toward Excellence in Performance) specifically to distinguish it from a 1971 productivity initiative called ”LEAP” (the Loaned Executive Action Program), which was still remembered bitterly by many state workers. STEP would rely on ideas generated within the bureaucracy, Hale told the managers, and would create more cooperative partnerships between the public and private sectors. This decision-forcing case focuses on administrators charged with the task of designing the STEP program and challenges students to consider how to institutionalize innovation in government. Students will be asked to identify the political and institutional obstacles to innovative management and to consider what it would take to authorize – and galvanize – managers to approach their divisions in fresh, creative ways.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 793.0 Ellen Schall and the Department of Juvenile Justice Y1 - 1987 AB -

Case Management for At-Risk Children in Detention: New York, NY – 1986 Innovations Winner

This “Innovations in State and Local Government“ case begins in January 1983, when Ellen Schall is appointed commissioner of New York City’s Department of Juvenile Justice, an agency in upheaval. DJJ was established to detain seven- to fifteen-year-old children between arrest and adjudication. Most of DJJ’s charges are held in a 25-year-old secure detention facility called “Spofford,“ a notoriously violent and dilapidated facility in the South Bronx. The case describes the situation as Schall walks into it. In addition to internal tensions and significant operational problems in every division, the agency has a history of bad press and feuds with City Hall. The department is also struggling with deep-seated racial and class tensions among employees, and with great confusion over its mission. The case ends with Schall planning to speak to a new group of juvenile counselors, trying to articulate her vision for the agency. The case offers students the chance to diagnose the ills of the agency and to chart a strategic course of action. Among the topics for debate: How should Schall go about assembling an executive team? How should she address the confusion over agency mission? What should she do about racial tensions? How involved should she get with the nitty-gritty operational problems of her agency’s divisions?

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 856.0 Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child Y1 - 1987 AB -

One Church/One Child Minority Adoption Campaign: Illinois – 1986 Innovations Winner

In 1980, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faced a crisis. Over 700 black children in Cook County, including 69 infants, waited for adoption while the agency was unable to find black parents. Director Gregory L. Color, with his deputy gordon Johnson, approached Father George Clements, a black activist Chicago priest in the Baptist community. From those meetings came One Church, One Child, a plan to use pastors of the black churches as spokesmen to reach the community. Coler and Johnson faced several hurdles as they asked a private religious institution to help solve a public agency’s problem. They had to change negative attitudes both in the black community; which had grown to distrust the state agency, and among a staff suspicious of change who would implement the black adoption program. They had to revamp state laws that inhibited the adoption process. And they had to change bureaucratic procedures that had proven ineffective. The accompanying video exhibit brings to life the successful strategy of the One Church, One Child program, focusing on a presentation in a black church designed to encourage adoptions. In addition, the video includes retrospective comments from the program's administrators and vignettes of families who have adopted children as a result of the program. This case will challenge students to examine the assumptions that limit bureaucracies. Available in Spanish translation.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 744.0 Denise Fleury and the MN Office of State Claims Y1 - 1987 AB -

Strive Toward Excellence in Performance: Minnesota – 1986 Innovations Winner

When Denise Fleury left the insurance industry to become head of the Minnesota Office of State Claims in June 1984, she knew the job would be challenging. Recent changes in state law had changed and broadened the mission of the state claims office, which administered workers’ compensation benefits for all state employees. Fleury soon found herself scrambling to cope with day-to-day crises while trying to take on a host of new tasks. Through Fleury’s eyes, students will see the dilemmas that confronted the young manager and how she tackled them during her first year. This part of the case is a good introduction to how a manager creates organizational capacity. They will also see that at the end of her first year – despite significant progress – internal office procedures remained frustrating and confusing. The case ends here, giving students the chance to discuss what Fleury should do next, and how she might use various resources strategically in State Claims. This case provides an interesting counterpart to Striving Toward Excellence in the State of Minnesota (C16-87-737.0). In the Denise Fleury case, from the perspective of a mid-level manager, students can take another look at STEP as it was actually developed, to see whether it looks like a useful and attractive resource.

ER - TY - CASE T1 - 719.0 Financing Indonesia's Roads Y1 - 1986 AB - In the fall of 1986, the World Bank offered the government of Indonesia a loan of approximately US $200-250 million for highway construction in the capital city of Jakarta and the country's other four largest urban centers. It was an attractive proposal: plummeting world oil prices had squeezed the national treasury, which had derived about 60 percent of its revenues from Indonesian oil profits. But for much the same reason, Indonesia's Ministry of Finance felt compelled to find new revenue sources to repay the loan.  ER -