Feature
Reimagining Democracy 2026 Summer Reading List
Tova Wang, director of research projects in democratic practice at the Ash Center, shares her top picks for summer reads focused on making democracy more resilient, responsive, and inclusive.
Policy Brief
Proceedings — Getting to Eighty Percent: A Symposium Advancing Voter Participation
Issues
May 2018
At the core of the work of the Ash Center and the Kennedy School is the effort to understand how citizens and institutions come together to make democracy work, and rarely before has the importance of this effort been more evident. Underlying the deceptively simple idea of making democracy work are a number of large themes: protecting the fundamental norms of democracy and democratic processes from challenges both in the United States and internationally; encouraging innovation in governance and public accountability; preventing the massive inequalities of our economic system from permeating our democracy and threatening its existence.
Indeed, one essential element of “making democracy work” in the United States is to have as close to full and inclusive participation of the people who comprise our democracy as we possibly can. The name of our May 3rd symposium, “Getting to 80
percent,” was chosen with intent; while a goal of 80 percent participation is achievable, it will require a real stretch—not tinkering around the edges of the current system, but instead pursuing a major set of innovative ideas and practices.
Paper
Building Capacity to Use Social Media: How Election Officials Can Leverage Content Creation to Provide Accurate Voter Information
As traditional news declines, content creators play a growing role as information sources. This paper proposes frameworks for effective collaboration between creators and election officials and offers recommendations for officials to develop their own social media content.
Additional Resource
Who’s in Charge of Congressional Elections?
This resource provides accessible, reliable information on constitutional history and the roles and responsibilities involved in administering congressional elections in the United States, with the goal of advancing civic understanding among government officials, media, civic organizations, and the American public.