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.
Additional Resource
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.
Newest
Video
In a spring Foreign Affairs article, Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, predicts that “U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.” In this online event, Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO of the national pro-democracy organization Common Cause, will discuss how her organization and others are working to prove him wrong. We’ll explore some decisions by the Trump administration that worry democracy advocates—including election rule changes and military deployments to cities—as well as some of the strategies of democracy advocates, their prospects for success and failure, and what more can be done. Archon Fung, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, will moderate.
Podcast
Former Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, now the Emma Bloomberg Professor of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, joins Archon Fung and Stephen Richer.
Podcast
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss President Trump’s assertions about mail-in voting and what they portend for future elections and voter participation.
Podcast
Juliette Kayyem joins Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss the federal takeover of the D.C. police department and deployment of the National Guard in our nation’s capital.
Podcast
New York Times Opinion Columnist Michelle Goldberg joins Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss “South Park” and the role political satires play in political discourse.
Podcast
A fight is brewing between some of America’s largest states. A line has been drawn, not in the sand, but on a Texas map.
Podcast
What does Columbia’s recent settlement with the Trump administration mean for higher education? Are the First Amendment rights of Columbia and other universities being infringed?
Article
In this op-ed, Jennifer Hochschild explains that Chicago is facing a financial crisis decades in the making — a crushing burden of pension debt that no current resident created but all must bear. Instead she says, it is the result of a century of political promises, underfunded commitments, and systemic avoidance — leaving Chicagoans to reckon with the consequences today.
Podcast
A majority of people agree that democracy is worth fighting for, but when asked if democracy is at risk, opinions begin to differ. Are we all operating under the same idea of what a democracy truly is?