Occasional Paper
Democracy movements are struggling to challenge autocratic governments, partly due to the changing technology landscape. This report summarizes a December 2024 workshop on the specific issue of AI adoption within democracy movements and offers some key recommendations.
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In recent years, democracy movements have experienced a historic decline in their ability to challenge autocratic governments effectively. This decline is due, at least in part, to the changing technology landscape, which has allowed autocratic governments to monopolize the advantages of breakthrough technologies to strengthen their power. The relatively slow adoption of AI tools by democracy movements may be widening the gulf between these movements and their adversaries—a gap that may grow even larger if movements do not integrate these technologies now. To explore these issues, we convened a workshop in December 2024. This report summarizes the proceedings and offers several recommendations based on the discussion.
Video
In this webinar, panelists drew upon lessons from around the world about how civil society groups can protect and promote democracy and the rule of law during episodes of democratic backsliding.
Article
From 7 October 2023 to 7 June 2024, the Crowd Counting Consortium recorded nearly 12,400 pro-Palestine protests and over 2,000 pro-Israel protests in the United States.
Podcast
Host Jay Ulfelder and Hardy Merriman discuss Merriman’s latest guide, titled Harnessing our Power to End Political Violence, which empowers people from all over the country to band together and support democracy by rejecting acts of political violence.
Feature
In response to the recent anti-democratic patterns in the United States, the Ash Center hosted a panel of Harvard scholars to discuss how civil society can resist democratic backsliding through social mobilization and organizing.
Video
In this webinar, panelists drew upon lessons from around the world about how civil society groups can protect and promote democracy and the rule of law during episodes of democratic backsliding.
Commentary
At a conference earlier this month, Professor Danielle Allen argued that what we are seeing with DOGE is the real time implementation of an extreme ideological vision of the role that technology and a small cohort of its wealthiest leaders should have in the world.
