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Research and dissemination are hallmarks of the Ash Institute’s continuing effort to catalyze innovation and explore the principles and processes of democracy. The Institute builds knowledge through an open exchange of ideas and experiences, bringing together government innovators, practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and advocates from around the world to address pressing concerns for improving the lives of citizens. |
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The Public Innovator's Playbook: Nurturing Bold Ideas in Government
The Public Innovator’s Playbook report, published by Deloitte Research in the US with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Institute for the Democratic Governance and Innovation, describes how governments have the opportunity to help improve the economic environment, create jobs, and more efficiently manage costs. According to the book, governments currently innovate. Moreover, some creative approaches in the private sector come from the public sector. However, few governments take an integrated view of the process or treat it as a discipline—which includes methodical processes, reward systems, and a mission linked to the process and organizational structure. Stephen Goldsmith contributes the book's introduction. |
Event Spotlight: Democracy in the 21st Century - Global Challenges and OpportunitiesAt the recent inaugural panel Democracy in the 21st Century: Global Challenges and Opportunities, Dean Ellwood offered introductory remarks and called the event “a celebration of the next generation of the Ash Institute in which we are exposing you to the best thinking going on at Harvard Kennedy School.” HKS scholars and practitioners concentrating on the study of democratic institutions and politics Anthony Saich, Stephen Goldsmith, Alex Keyssar, Archon Fung, and Jane Mansbridge served as panelists. More» |
The Public Diplomacy (PD) Collaborative is a forum for enhancing purposeful international communication. Its goal is to connect key nodes of public diplomacy practice and put public opinion and public diplomacy research into the hands of practitioners, regardless of location or sector. The PD Collaborative emphasizes discussion, training, scholarship, and publication in the field of public diplomacy as well as the exchange of regional information across sectors, disciplines, and national boundaries. The project seeks to support, improve, and expand public diplomacy efforts in a manner that most successfully promotes democratic governance.
Beginning in 2004, the Institute initiated an annual research grant competition open to all Harvard Kennedy School faculty. While the current application deadline for HKS research and retreat grants has passed, applicants are encouraged to contact Bruce Jackan for details. Visit the following links for additional information concerning the Ash Institute's research grant competition:
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Dr. Lan Xue China is currently making the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, from a rural and agricultural society to an urban and industrial society, and from a governance structure based on individual will and charisma to one based on democratic principles and the rule of law. While the first two transitions have made significant progress over the past two decades, the latter one has not. There are increasing concerns that if China’s political reform does not keep pace with its economic reform, China may be turned into a society characterized by corruption, inequality, and social tension. Professor Xue's research will document the current incremental reforms in the public policy process in China, investigate the roles different social institutions have played in these processes, and assess the impacts and limits of these reforms on the political development in China in terms of building infrastructure for democracy. |
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Dr. Kay Schlozman
Research Scholar, 2006 - 2007 Political arrangements can have consequences for equal citizenship in various ways: for example, by controlling who is considered a citizen or which citizens have the right to participate fully in governing; by facilitating or inhibiting the conversion of market resources into political influence; by creating circumstances in which some votes count more than others; by affecting the likelihood that citizens will be able to elect candidates of their choice; by fostering the representation of particular interests. Through a comparative approach that places American practices in the context of political arrangements in other democracies -- both long-established ones and, where appropriate, emerging ones -- Professor Schlozman's research focuses on the political institutions, procedural rules, and representative arrangements that have implications for democratic equality among citizens. |