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.
Occasional Paper
In a new working paper, Crocodile Tears: Can the Ethical-Moral Intelligence of AI Models Be Trusted?, Allen Lab authors Sarah Hubbard, David Kidd, and Andrei Stupu introduce an ethical-moral intelligence framework for evaluating AI models across dimensions of moral expertise, sensitivity, coherence, and transparency.
Newest
Case Study
The primary findings of this report are that sports facilities make excellent polling sites and team involvement in promoting voting is uniquely helpful in sharing the importance of participation.
Additional Resource
GETTING-Plurality Research Network members Allison Stanger and Woojin Lim, along with other authors, published “Terra Incognita: The Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Global Perspective” in the Annual Review of Political Science.
Additional Resource
The Electoral College is viewed as a democratic anachronism in modern-day America, yet it has persisted for over two centuries despite repeated attempts to reform or abolish the institution. To build off of an Ash Center symposium hosted in April 2024, our scholars and researchers continue to seek answers to some of the biggest questions surrounding why the Electoral College has remained impervious to change for so long and what are the prospects for reform. Below, we invite you to explore several resources geared toward resolving these enduring debates.
Policy Brief
We face a fundamental question: is the very pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) the kind of aim democracies should allow?
Book
In this book, When Democracy Breaks, Archon Fung, Arne Westad, and David Moss aim to deepen our understanding of what separates democratic resilience from democratic fragility by focusing on the latter.
Additional Resource
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.
Additional Resource
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.
Additional Resource
Additional Resource
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.