Policy Brief
AI for Democracy Movements: Toward a New Agenda
A new report summarizes key insights from the Nonviolent Action Lab’s December 2025 convening on how artificial intelligence can empower pro-democracy movements.
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
2024: The Year of Global Elections
With over half the world’s population heading to the polls in 2024, the Ash Center convened scholars from across Harvard and beyond throughout the spring to delve into a number of election contents that are likely to shape the future of democracy across the globe. From India to Indonesia, El Savador to Taiwan, join us below as the Ash Center’s community of scholars delve into these important, and often underreported electoral contests.
Case Study
From Crisis to Opportunity: How the City of Portland Embraced Democratic Innovation
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?
Video
CEA Conference: Sports Teams and Election Administrators: Partnering to Create Polling Place Access
Scott Pioli and Tova Wang discussed ways that sports franchises and election administrators have partnered to increase polling place access by opening up their facilities for elections.
Case Study
Voting in 2020: Professional Sports Stadiums & Arenas as Polling Places
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
Terra Incognita: The Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Global Perspective
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
Resource Page — The Electoral College: What’s to be Done
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
AGI and Democracy
We face a fundamental question: is the very pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) the kind of aim democracies should allow?
Book
When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, From Ancient Athens to the Present Day
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
Democracy as Approximation: A Primer for “AI for Democracy” Innovators
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.