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.
Book
When Democracy Breaks aims to deepen our understanding of what separates democratic resilience from democratic fragility by focusing on the latter.
Newest
Additional Resource
This guide is intended for advocates, organizers, and practitioners working across America to facilitate the voting process for eligible voters in jails.
Additional Resource
This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Niclas Boehmer 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 Manon Revel 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 Aditi Juneja at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023.
Video
Harvard community members joined the Ash Center for a Democracy in Hard Places Initiative event featuring Larry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Case Study
Additional Resource
This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Nick Couldry at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023.
Additional Resource
“The Real Dangers of Generative AI” by Danielle Allen and Glen Weyl was featured in the January 2024 Journal of Democracy.
Abstract: As perhaps the most consequential technology of our time, Generative Foundation Models (GFMs) present unprecedented challenges for democratic institutions. By allowing deception and de-contextualized information sharing at a previously unimaginable scale and pace, GFMs could undermine the foundations of democracy. At the same time, the investment scale required to develop the models and the race dynamics around that development threaten to enable concentrations of democratically unaccountable power (both public and private). This essay examines the twin threats of collapse and singularity occasioned by the rise of GFMs.
Additional Resource
This essay was adopted from a presentation given by Jon Evans at the Second Interdisciplinary Workshop on Reimagining Democracy held on the campus of Harvard Kennedy School in December 2023.