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.
Case Study
In this case study of democratic innovation at the local level, the authors answer the questions: Why, in 2022, was voting representation and democratic reform firmly on Portland’s agenda? Did this shift contribute to Portlanders passing Measure 26-228?
Newest
Video
The Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia hosted a conversation with AAPI members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Rep. Tram T. Nguyen MC/MPA ’24 and Rep. Tackey Chan on the importance of AAPI representation in state government, policy issues that impact AAPI communities, and running for office.
Video
As a greater number of American healthcare organizations have proclaimed their commitments to racial justice and equitable care, the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project (IARA) team at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation set out to answer the key question: What enables effective and sustained antiracist change in healthcare organizations?
Policy Brief
The IARA project investigates new and existing strategies for antiracist transformation in the healthcare sector.
Policy Brief
The authors highlight why we believe the problem of “plural publics” to be a core challenge of data governance, discuss existing tools that can help achieve it and a research agenda to further develop and integrate these tools.
This paper argues that the plethora of experiments with decentralized social technologies (DSTs)—clusters of which are sometimes called “the Web 3.0 ecosystem” or “the Fediverse”—have brought us to a constitutional moment.
Video
On Thursday, March 9, 2023, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Director Archon Fung, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, spoke to Kennedy School community members about threats to American democracy and how we can overcome them.
Video
You’re invited to watch a book talk with Harvard Kennedy School’s Bruce Schneier, author of “A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back.” Schneier was joined in conversation by moderator Archon Fung, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government.
Book
Additional Resource
“The onset of tribal self-determination through self-government in the late 1980s ushered in the only policy that has ever worked to improve economic and social conditions in Indian Country.”