What would it be like to really rethink our Constitution? In this webinar, we will learn about participatory constitution building, a way of writing a new constitution with full public participation. Participatory constitution building is common around the world, but how it is designed and the process by which it is undertaken is critical to making it a success anywhere. We will learn with experts on participatory constitution building globally, in Chile at this moment, and among tribal governments. What are the practices we might think about as we reconsider the strengths and weaknesses...

Americans have deep-seated skepticism about presidential power. This skepticism is not always made explicit in the public’s day-to-day political expressions, but it is a latent force in American political culture forged at the founding of the nation and ingrained in grade school civics lessons. It is not a legalistic or intellectual understanding of the text of the US Constitution or Declaration of Independence. Rather, this skepticism reflects a belief that the separation of powers, especially in their protection from tyranny, is...

The Ash Center and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies invite you to a book talk with Manfred Elfstrom, author of Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression,& Responsiveness (2021, Cambridge University Press) and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Elfstrom will be joined...

The promulgation of the National Security Law by Beijing is a paradigm shift for Hong Kong's legal and political environment. The concept of 'national security' under the People's Republic of China (PRC) law is broad and overarching. In combination with this and other restrictions from Beijing, the National Security Law has created a new environment under which international businesses and NGOs need to understand the risks they face. During this discussion, Dennis Kwok, Senior Fellow at the Ash Center, and Elizabeth Donkervoort, Program...

In the nearly one year since the November 2020 elections, the diverging directions state legislatures have taken on expanding or contracting voting rights have created a huge fault line in American democracy, described by some as ‘two Americas’. A Voting Rights Lab tracking report as of September 13th identifies 27 states representing 70 million voters that have passed laws to expand voting opportunities, and 13 states with 55 million people that have passed sharply restrictive legislation. And state legislatures are still at work. What’s causing this divergence?

How are...

Don’t miss your chance to register and join the Ash Center and Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (Harvard Project) on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, to learn from and celebrate the 2021 Honoring Nations Awardees!

Six exceptional tribal programs have been selected by the Harvard Project’s Honoring Nations Program as finalists for the prestigious 2021 awards in American Indian governance. At the heart of Honoring Nations is the principle that...