Policy Brief
AI for Democracy Movements: Toward a New Agenda
A new report summarizes key insights from the Nonviolent Action Lab’s December 2025 convening on how artificial intelligence can empower pro-democracy movements.
Research & Resources
Through our books, case studies, journal articles, papers, and surveys, the Ash Center is home to some of the world’s most advanced research and publications on issues related to democratic governance and self-governance.
To explore all research authored by Ash Center faculty, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School website. You can view the Ash Center’s open access policy here.
Newest
Additional Resource
Storytelling Pathways to Civics Engagement
Watch Roadtrip Nation’s Living Civics documentary and hear from leading universal civic learning experts on the power of narrative for civic engagement.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Navigating Unprecedented Politics: A Conversation with Kevin McCarthy
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy joins hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to share his experience leading through some of the most intense political challenges in recent memory and his thoughts on the future of American democracy.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Behind a Bipartisan Bid to Protect Election Integrity
GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg has launched a new initiative, the Bipartisan American Election Project, with former Obama White House counsel Bob Bauer to oppose efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress to impose new rules on election administration.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Can Ideological Diversity Improve Campus Culture?
Professor Eitan Hersh, the inaugural director for Tufts University’s new Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education, wants create a new campus atmosphere of “robust intellectual life, where norms of curiosity and goodwill reign.”
Additional Resource
AI & Democracy: Perspectives from an Emerging Field
The Allen Lab is proud to have contributed to this timely landscape report from The David & Lucile Packard Foundation mapping the emerging field of AI and democracy.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Trump and His Billionaire Allies Make their Move on the Media
Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center director and former TIME editor Nancy Gibbs joins co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss the impacts of billionaire media consolidation and pressure from the Trump administration on the flow of information vital to democracy.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – The Bombs to Ballots Fantasy: Can the Iran War Lead to Democracy?
Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow and Boston College Associate Professor Ali Kadivar joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss the prospects for democracy in Iran now that the country is at war with the U.S. and Israel.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement—What If Millennials and Gen Z Leaders Replaced the Gerontocracy?
Amanda Litman, the president and founder of Run for Something, joins co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to talk about why she believes democracy needs a generational makeover.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement—How Does Our Civil Rights History Shape the Future of American Democracy?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer invite Harvard Kennedy School Professor and civil rights advocate Cornell William Brooks to assess the evolution of America’s historical narrative and what implications history has on our contemporary political context.