Policy Brief
Why Collective Behavior Change Requires a Civic Culture Approach
A new policy brief explores how civic culture can reshape social norms, encourage collective action, and drive lasting behavioral change.
Video
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
The Ash Center hosted an online book talk with author Marietje Schaake and discussant Bruce Schneier on Schaake’s latest work, The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley. The discussion was moderated by Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation.
Issues
In The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake explains how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can-and must-resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world. Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world—and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.
Related Resources
Commentary
Field Report: How AI Is Being Used in the 2026 Midterms
Allen Lab Policy Fellow Hillary Lehr provides a late-October 2026 snapshot of the multiple ways that AI and the midterms are intersecting, including campaign use cases, policy issues, and voters’ use of LLMs.
Additional Resource
From Questions to Evidence
Commentary
Field Report: How AI Is Being Used in the 2026 Midterms
Allen Lab Policy Fellow Hillary Lehr provides a late-October 2026 snapshot of the multiple ways that AI and the midterms are intersecting, including campaign use cases, policy issues, and voters’ use of LLMs.
Commentary
California Writes Public Deliberation Into Law
Engaged California is the nation’s first state-run deliberation program, and a new law aims to make it last.
Additional Resource
How A.I. Can Be Good For Democracy
In a recent guest essay for The New York Times, Allen Lab Democracy Stack Fellow Beth Noveck argues for putting A.I. behind every public servant.