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.
Paper
A new paper by Executive Session on Elections and Election Administration members Trey Grayson, Tammy Patrick, Judd Choate, Wesley Wilcox and Al Schmidt advocates for strengthening and investing in state associations to support election administrators year-round.
Newest
Policy Brief
A new policy brief explores how unions help members become more engaged in civic and political life.
The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation’s Digital Civic Infrastructure initiative aims to understand how technology can strengthen democratic agency through improving how civic voice is developed and gathered, how public input becomes policy, and how decisions get enforced and services delivered.
Open Access Resource
With a majority of municipalities publishing their budgets as PDFs, Open Book offers a free alternative that towns own and run themselves.
Open Access Resource
This free, self-paced course equips public officials with the skills to design, run and learn from meaningful engagement with communities.
Article
In a new research article, Democracy Visiting Fellow Gordon Gauchat and co-author Kassandra Thompson offer an alternative framework for public understanding of science, focusing on “science’s role as a social system” shaped by institutional norms and practices, rather than traditional approaches centered on knowledge possession or trust in experts.
Policy Brief
When Amazon announced a company-wide $15 minimum wage in 2018, the obvious assumption was that every competitor fighting for the same workers would have to match it or lose their workforce. They didn’t. Despite dramatic wage jumps at the companies that voluntarily raised their floors — and real cuts to turnover and hiring costs that made the move pay for itself — researchers find zero evidence of wage spillovers to the “poacher” and “feeder” companies competing in the very same local labor markets. The explanation turns out to say less about generosity than about just how much leverage employers hold over workers who have nowhere else to go.
Additional Resource
As public officials increasingly turn to digital tools, this guide helps Massachusetts municipal leaders navigate Open Meeting Law and their everyday digital practice while safeguarding transparency.
Paper
A new working paper by Randy Akee, Julie Johnson Kidd Professor of Indigenous Governance and Development, and co-authors examines the role of The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 in facilitating sustained private-sector growth for American Indian reservations through tribal casino development.
Article
A new article in the American Journal of Political Science, co-authored by Yanilda María González, Ford Foundation Associate Professor of Public Policy and Ash Center affiliate, examines public attitudes toward police violence in Brazil. The authors find that while police discourse can increase public endorsement of violence, counternarratives from marginalized victims can be effective in reducing citizen support for repressive policing.