Open Access Resource
Open Book: Open-Source Budget Transparency for Municipalities
With a majority of municipalities publishing their budgets as PDFs, Open Book offers a free alternative that towns own and run themselves.
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.
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.
Additional Resource
How Maduro’s Dictatorship Plans to Survive
Even with Nicolás Maduro gone, the fight for Venezuela’s future is far from over. Freddy Guevara warns that Maduro’s successors are more interested in regime survival than democratic reform.
Additional Resource
Allen Lab Fellow Spotlight: The Case for Building an AmeriCorps Alumni Leadership Network
In a new essay, The Case for Building an AmeriCorps Alumni Leadership Network, Allen Lab Policy Fellow Sonali Nijhawan argues that the 1.4 million Americans who have completed national service represent an underleveraged civic asset. Drawing on her experience as former Director of AmeriCorps, Nijhawan outlines a roadmap for transforming dispersed alumni into a connected leadership network capable of reinvigorating public service, rebuilding trust in government, and strengthening civic participation.
Additional Resource
The Ecosystem of Deliberative Technologies for Public Input
Ensuring public opinion and policy preferences are reflected in policy outcomes is essential to a functional democracy. A growing ecosystem of deliberative technologies aims to improve the input-to-action loop between people and their governments.
Video
Making Democracy Interesting: Tips from TV, Podcasts, Science Fiction, and Online Creators
The Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation’s Making Democracy Interesting webinar brought together scholars, writers, and creators to explore how storytelling can make democratic life feel more accessible, human, and compelling.
Policy Brief
Why Gen-Z Is Rising
In this essay, originally published in the Journal of Democracy, Erica Chenoweth and Matthew Cebul analyze the global surge of Gen Z-led protest movements, showing how economic insecurity, exclusion from power, and corruption are driving youth mobilization worldwide.
Occasional Paper
Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI
In a new working paper, Crocodile Tears: Can the Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI Models Be Trusted?, Sarah Hubbard, Associate Director for Technology & Democracy, David Kidd, an Allen Lab member, and Andrei Stupu, a former Allen Lab fellow, introduce a framework for evaluating the ethical-moral intelligence of AI models across dimensions of moral expertise, sensitivity, coherence, and transparency.
Open Access Resource
Sunset Section 230 and Unleash the First Amendment
Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation Senior Fellow Allison Stanger, in collaboration with Jaron Lanier and Audrey Tang, envision a post-Section 230 landscape that fosters innovation in digital public spaces using models optimized for public interest rather than attention metrics.