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Communiqué The Magazine of the Ash Center forDemocratic Governance and InnovationFall 2017 Volume 21

Meet America’s Most InnovativeAsh Center Presents Winners of 2017 Innovations in American Government Awards

Teaching in TechnicolorAsh Alumna Transforms Myanmar Education with Virtual Reality

Inaugural Martha H. Mauzy Award WinnerKate O’Gorman MPA ’17 Is Working for anInclusive Economic Future

Welcome to the Fall 2017 issue of the Ash Center’s Communiqué magazine. Iam proud to report that my many colleagues at the Ash Center continue toadvance its mission of engaging scholars, students, and practitioners in themost important political and governance challenges we face both in the US andglobally. In this issue, we highlight the winners of the 2017 Innovations inAmerican Government Awards (p. 10) and Professor Odd Arne Westad’s per-spective on the Cold War as set forth in his new book (p. 8). In our Q+A (p. 4),we talk with Jie Bai, assistant professor of public policy, about the economicchallenges firms face in developing countries and emerging markets such asVietnam and China. On p. 12, we introduce Hla Hla Win MC/MPA ’16, who was aFord Foundation Mason Fellow with the Ash Center and who is using virtualreality to transform the educational experience in Myanmar. And, we are verypleased to profile the accomplishments of the graduating student recipient of the Martha H. Mauzy Award for its inaugural year (p. 14). Finally, we explorethe work of Dan Hummel, a past History and Public Policy Fellow with theCenter, which focuses on Christian Zionism and recent changes in the move-ment (p. 17).

There is much more to be found in this issue and I hope you will enjoy learn-ing about our students, faculty, alumni, fellows, and scholars as they work tomake the world a better place. As always, you can find more information aboutthe Ash Center on our website at ash.harvard.edu.

Tony SaichDirector, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and InnovationDaewoo Professor of International AffairsHarvard Kennedy School

Letter from the DirectorCommuniquéFall 2017, Volume 21

Ash Center for Democratic Governanceand InnovationHarvard Kennedy School 79 John F. Kennedy StreetCambridge, Massachusetts 02138

617-495-0557www.ash.harvard.edu

DirectorTony Saich

EditorJessica Engelman

Associate Director for CommunicationsDaniel Harsha

Communications CoordinatorSarah Grucza

Designforminform

PhotographyBloomberg Philanthropies City of Boston Mayor’s OfficeBenn CraigFulbright University VietnamSarah GruczaDaniel HarshaJayme JohnsonNational Conference of State LegislaturesMartha StewartVivian TianXenia ViraghWallboat Arthur Z./iAsk Media

ash.harvard.edu

www.ash.harvard.edu

In this Issue

IN THE NEWS

4Q + A with Jie Bai

5News and Announcements

21Event Snapshots

FEATURES

8Odd Arne Westad: On theGlobal Roots of the Cold War

10The Ash Center Presents America’s Most Innovative Government Programs

RESEARCH BRIEF

16Fellows FocusMeet Our New Fellows

17Fellows SpotlightChristian Zionism, the ReligiousRight, and Donald Trump:History’s Role in ContemporaryPolitics

18On the Bookshelf

IN THE FIELD

12Alumni in the FieldHla Hla Win MC/MPA ’16

13Student FocusAsh Center Supports ExperientialLearning and Research Activitiesfor Students

14Student FocusMeet the 2017 Martha H. MauzyAward Winner

NEWS IN DEPTH

15Rebuilding Our DemocracyThrough Redistricting Reform

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12

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15

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4 Communiqué Fall 2017 www.ash.harvard.edu

IN THE NEWS

Your research focuses on microeconomic issues offirms in developing countries and emerging mar-kets such as China and Vietnam. Broadly speaking,what are some of the economic challenges thatfirms in these and similarly positioned countriesface today?One of the key challenges firms in China and otherdeveloping countries face today is the difficulty ofmoving up the value chain to produce higher qualityand higher value-added products. Traditional costadvantages are diminishing as a result of risingwages and energy costs. Firms will find themselvescompeting more and more alongside establishedglobal players as the economy shifts out of low-endmanufacturing industries. Shedding obsolete tech-nologies and catching up with the world’s frontier isthe first step, and eventually innovation and qualityupgrading would be the keys to success. For that,we need a financial system that can effectively chan-nel resources to capable prospective entrepreneurs,and well-enforced intellectual property laws to en-courage innovation. However, capital market fric-tions, weak legal systems, and poor law enforcementin many parts of the developing world could poseserious challenges to firm growth and upgradationin the next phase of development.

For American consumers, the “Made in China” labelis not typically associated with high quality manu-facturing practices. What are firms in China doingto counter this perception, and how has the qualityof Chinese manufacturing changed in recent years?I think the perception has been gradually changingover time, partly because of some globally success-ful Chinese companies, such as Alibaba, Huawei, andMidea. As some of these industrial leaders adoptnew technologies and practices to improve quality,the world will start perceiving “Made in China” dif-ferently—no longer a synonym for the cheap and in-ferior. However, for the same reason that successfulfirms can generate a positive change in “collectivereputation,” public concerns regarding quality andsafety issues with certain Chinese products in recentyears, especially food products, can lead to greatergeneral distrust. In such an environment, it can behard for a single firm to signal its quality, and newfirms are also “endowed” with the damaged reputa-tion of its predecessors. Such collective reputationalforces generate an important externality, and thuscall for more government and third-party interven-tions to establish higher quality standards and en-force tighter quality control.

We hear a great deal about anti-corruption efforts in China under President Xi. How has cor-ruption in China hindered economic growth morebroadly, and do you believe that Xi’s anti-corrup-tion campaign is likely to reap meaningful eco-nomic benefits?I think the truth is that we don’t know much yet(perhaps other than the big blow on high-endrestaurants and luxury goods industries—for exam-ple, wines). Some say that the campaign has para-lyzed the “political ecosystem” in China, leading toinactions of many local bureaucrats; others say thatthe campaign would eventually reduce corruptionand rent-seeking in the economy, bringing funda-mental change toward good governance in China.Nearly five years into the anti-corruption campaign,I think we are now in a position to rigorously evalu-ate the broad economic impact, both short-run andmedium-run. I look forward to seeing more rigorousstudies on this topic in the next few years.

How have internal trade barriers among China’sprovinces helped skew economic growth?Unlike international trade barriers—tariffs, quotas,and explicit import/export restrictions—domestictrade barriers are much more insidious and harderto measure as they can take many forms. Physicaltransportation costs within China have certainlygone down significantly over the past decades dueto the big investments in railway and infrastructureprojects. However, various protectionist measuresimposed by local governments still remain, espe-cially in certain strategic sectors of the economy. Forexample, in the auto industry, local governmentsgive out various subsidies and benefits to favor localbrands, which distort consumers’ purchasing deci-sions and can result in significant welfare losses. Localprotectionism could also potentially explain why theindustry remains highly fragmented today with manysmall inefficient players. In general, internal trade fric-tions, in the form of institutional or political barriers,distort efficient allocation of resources and can havea sizable impact on economic outcomes.

Q+A with Jie Bai

C

The world will start perceiving“Made in China” differently—no longer a synonym for thecheap and inferior

Jie Bai, the Ash Center’s newest faculty affiliate,joined HKS as an Assistant Professor of Public Pol-icy in AY2017. She received her PhD in Economicsfrom MIT in June 2016 and then spent one year at Microsoft Research New England

5www.ash.harvard.edu Fall 2017 Communiqué

IN THE NEWS

This fall, the Ash Center has been pleased to wel-come the following Harvard Kennedy School facultyto its ranks of affiliates: Jie Bai, Assistant Professorof Public Policy, whose research focuses on focuseson microeconomic issues of firms in developingcountries and emerging markets; David Eaves, Lec-turer in Public Policy, who is a public policy entre-preneur and expert in information technology andgovernment; Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. BelferProfessor of International Affairs, a specialist on USforeign relations history and 20th-century interna-tional history; Christopher Robichaud, Senior Lec-turer in Ethics and Public Policy, whose interestssurround ethics, political philosophy, and social epis-temology; and, James Waldo, Gordon McKay Pro-fessor of the Practice of Computer Science in theSchool of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Har-vard and HKS Professor of Policy, who teaches ontopics of technology and policy.

Herman Bolhaar, the for-mer chairman of the Boardof Prosecutors General inthe Netherlands—the pub-lic agency charged withoverseeing the country’spublic prosecutors—hasbeen a Senior Fellow tothe Ash Center’s Innova-tions in Government Program this fall. Bolhaar, whoalso served as Amsterdam’s chief prosecutor, is anoted expert on human trafficking and served aschairman of the Dutch National Task Force againstHuman Trafficking. In September, the Prime Ministerof the Netherlands appointed Bolhaar the new Na-tional Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and SexualViolence against Children. In this role, Bolhaar willwork to influence policies and forge international al-liances that help prevent and end modern slaveryand sexual exploitation.

This fall, Bolhaar led a study group jointly spon-sored by the Ash Center and the Carr Center forHuman Rights Policy on innovations in the fightagainst human trafficking. The study group broughtleading scholars and practitioners to campus to par-ticipate in sessions with students from across Harvardwhere they presented the latest in anti-trafficking re-search and fieldwork from across the country.

In July, Ash faculty affiliate Linda Bilmes, DanielPatrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy,was appointed to serve on the United Nations Com-mittee of Experts on Public Administration. Thecommittee supports the work of the Economic andSocial Council on the promotion and developmentof public administration and governance amongmember states.

Reflecting upon the appointment, Bilmes said,“The United Nations is one of the only organizationsin the world that promotes world peace. Howeverthe task of managing and financing the institutionand its initiatives is complex. Part of my research fo-cuses on ways to improve the funding structure forUN peacekeeping operations. These critical missionsare frequently hindered because money is not avail-able at the right time. I am honored to be appointedto the Committee of Experts on Public Administra-tion and I look forward to making a contribution.”

The Ash Center is pleased toannounce that resident fac-ulty affiliate Dara Kay Cohenwas promoted in July to As-sociate Professor of PublicPolicy. Her research and teach-ing interests span the field ofinternational relations, including international secu-rity, civil war and political violence, and gender andconflict. Her first book Rape During Civil War (Cor-nell, 2016), examined conflicts in Sierra Leone,Timor-Leste, and El Salvador; her current project isfocused on the intersection of political violence,public opinion, and gender in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The Center is also pleased to announce that fac-ulty affiliate Maya Sen waspromoted in July to Associ-ate Professor of Public Policy.She writes on issues involvingthe political economy of USrace relations, law and poli-tics, and statistical methods.Her latest book, coauthored with Matthew Blackwell(Harvard) and Avidit Acharya (Stanford), exploresthe lasting impact of US slavery on contemporarySouthern politics. It is forthcoming with PrincetonUniversity Press in 2018.

Ash resident faculty affiliate Dara Kay Cohen wonthe 2017 Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award fromthe American Political Science Association (APSA),awarded annually to recognize the author of a firstbook in any field of political science that exemplifiesqualities of broad ambition, high originality, and in-tellectual daring, for Rape During Civil War (CornellUniversity Press, 2016). Cohen also won the 2018ISSS Best Book Award and the 2018 Best Book Prizefrom the Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Sec-tion from the International Studies Association forthe same work.

Candelaria Garay, also an Ash resident facultyaffiliate, won the APSA’s 2017 Robert A. Dahl awardfor her book Social Policy Expansion in Latin America(Cambridge University Press, 2016). The award isgiven annually to an untenured scholar who has pro-duced scholarship of the highest quality on the sub-ject of democracy.

New Faculty Affiliates Faculty Promotions

Ash Faculty Win PrestigiousBook Awards

Herman Bolhaar AppointedSenior Fellow

Linda Bilmes Appointed toUN Committee of Expertson Public Administration

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

David Eaves, Fredrik Logevall, JamesWaldo, Christopher Robichaud


IN THE NEWS

Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV)—the country’sfirst independent nonprofit university—is opening itsdoors to an inaugural cohort of Master in Public Pol-icy (MPP) students this year. Just over a year afterFUV received its license from the Vietnamese gov-ernment, civic-minded professionals and civil ser-vants from around the country sat for exams andapplied to the school. Once admitted, students willbegin an MPP program that in many ways mirrorsthe program at HKS, but is tailored to the uniquechallenges of the Vietnamese public sector.

The similarities between FUV and HKS are nomistake; FUV is rooted in the former Fulbright Eco-nomics Teaching Program, a partnership that the

Fulbright University Vietnam Welcomes First MPP Class

The Ash Center’s Transparency Policy Project (TPP)launched a new Project on Transparency and Tech-nology for Better Health, headed by HKS AcademicDean Archon Fung and the TPP’s Director of Re-search Elena Fagotto. The new project, funded by agrant through the Commonwealth Fund, will exam-ine how advances in transparency and data-sharingmay lead to better health outcomes.

New platforms, fueled by advances in digitaltechnologies, promise to empower patients by al-lowing them to produce and share their own healthdata and connect with other patients, physicians,and doctors in unprecedented ways. Yet evidenceshows that often data-sharing fails to mobilize pa-tients, translating information into concrete actionsfor better health can be problematic, and vulnerablepopulations might be left behind by informationtools. This research project hopes to identify whichcharacteristics are more likely to support patientempowerment, which will fill a critical gap in the lit-erature and could improve the design of future data-sharing platforms.

The project team will develop comparative casestudies to construct an inventory of patient engage-ment efforts and a typology of those efforts to un-derstand their design features, populations theyserve, and modes of engagement they employ. Casestudies will build on interviews with patients, plat-form leaders, clinicians, and researchers to capturethe breadth of experiences with patient platforms,which will be published on the project’s website:transparencyforhealth.ash.harvard.edu.

In June, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas El-mendorf spent nearly one week traveling with theAsh Center’s Director Tony Saich and the director ofthe Center’s China Programs, Edward Cunningham,visiting Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen. The tripbegan with an energetic reception in Beijing forChina-based HKS alumni, during which the group lis-tened to the Dean discuss his vision for the Schooland for the Asia-related activities the School is pursuing. The Dean then participated actively in atwo-day US-China Economic Governance workshopthat the Ash Center China Programs organized to-gether with the Development Research Center of theState Council, which serves as the main economicthink tank of the Chinese cabinet. Discussion topicsranged from trade and investment to regional finan-cial architecture and prospects for global gover-nance cooperation.

The group then traveled to Hong Kong andShenzhen to meet with a range of Chinese philan-thropists and foundation directors, many of who

Dean Elmendorf Travels with Ash’s China Programs

Ash Center’s Tommy Vallely helped establish be-tween the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh Cityand Harvard Kennedy School. Vallely, a leader inFUV’s creation and an active advisor, remarked, “Theinstallment of MPP students at Fulbright UniversityVietnam is an important milestone. Arming the nextgeneration of government leaders and civil servantswith the right education is a critical part of helpingVietnam prosper in the 21st century.”

FUV’s two-year MPP program plans to graduate itsfirst class in the spring of 2020. In tandem to the ad-vancements of the MPP program, FUV is also workingto develop its first class of undergraduate students.

were alumni of the Ash Center’s dual training pro-grams relating to the rise of philanthropy in China.Director Saich and the Dean offered comments andfielded questions during the capstone experience ofa particular training program for Chinese philanthro-pists scheduled that week as part of the China GlobalPhilanthropy Institute (CGPI) curriculum. CGPI isChina’s first independent philanthropy-focused re-search and training institute, and is the main partnerof the Ash Center in the multiyear China PhilanthropyProject that launched in late 2015.

LEFT

New MPP students participate inthe Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management’s openingceremony

RIGHT

Dr. Ryan Derby-Talbot, chief academic officer of Fulbright University Vietnam, welcomes theinaugural class of MPP students

New Health TransparencyProject

transparencyforhealth.ash.harvard.edu


IN THE NEWS

The Ash Center recently relaunched its Initiative onDemocracy in Hard Places under the leadership ofSultan of Oman Professor of International RelationsTarek Masoud and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professorfor Brazil Studies Scott Mainwaring, both residentfaculty affiliates of the Center. The initiative aims tofoster social science research on democratic exper-iments—both successful and failed—throughout thedeveloping world to learn how democracy can bebuilt and maintained in a variety of terrains.

The initiative convenes a speaker series thatbrings to campus distinguished scholars and prac-titioners to analyze the conditions, institutions, andbehaviors that enable democracy to survive in hardplaces. This fall, the Democracy in Hard Placesseries hosted Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at theHoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Insti-tute for International Studies at Stanford Universityfor a discussion on whether there is an emergingcrisis of liberal democracy. In addition, Masoud andMainwaring have started a fellowship program that

Across all levels of government, data is being trans-formed into vibrant maps and interactive graphicsthat allow users to readily glean valuable insights. Torecognize superior data visualizations and maps thatillustrate, enhance understanding of, or solve a com-plex problem faced by the public sector, the Innova-tions in Government Program launched a new honor,Map of the Month.

Following the program launch this summer, theinitiative named its first three honorees. “Vision ZeroBoston” is a story map that gives citizens the powerto directly influence the process of making Boston’sstreets safer—and fatal crash-free—by the city’s tar-get date of 2030. “Redlining Louisville: The Historyof Race, Class and Real Estate” is a map created toraise awareness of the issue of redlining, or discrim-inatory housing development, disinvestment, andlending patterns from the 1930s that left communi-ties of color significantly disadvantaged in terms ofproperty value and wealth-building. The most recenthonoree, “Baltimore’s GEOLOOM co>map,” is a toolcommunities can use to gain access to funding andresources and display arts and culture in their com-munity through crowdsourcing, and which city agen-cies can use to visualize and fill gaps in arts andcultural institutions. Future Map of the Month winnerswill be announced on the Data-Smart City Solutionswebsite at datasmart.ash.harvard.edu.

Democracy in Hard Places Initiative

This Week in Dystopia, a new podcast hosted byChristopher Robichaud, Harvard Kennedy SchoolSenior Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy and AshCenter faculty affiliate, was launched this fall in re-sponse to a perceived crisis of liberal democracy inthe United States. Encompassing politics, theory,and pop culture, This Week in Dystopia brings com-mentary from Harvard’s halls to listeners’ head-phones. In each episode, Robichaud welcomesHarvard faculty and other esteemed guests to dis-cuss core challenges to US democracy without thecontentious atmosphere that pervades other fo-rums. Featured guests have included Julia Minson,HKS Assistant Professor of Public Policy, discussing

New Podcast CombatsDystopia with Academic Insights

the likelihood of productive civil disagreement;Nicole Hemmer, University of Virginia Assistant Pro-fessor, discussing white nationalism and alt-rightmedia; and Bart Stupak, former US Representativefrom Michigan's 1st congressional district, discussinghis decision to vote for health-care reform, despitehis anti-abortion beliefs.

Ash Launches Honor for DataMaps and Visualizations

ABOVE LEFT

Professor Tarek Masoud, Democracy in HardPlaces Initiative co-director, moderates an eventwith Francisco Lara Marquez MPP ‘12, a Venezue-lan lawyer and political activist

ABOVR RIGHT

Professor Scott Mainwaring, Democracy in HardPlaces Initiative co-director, moderates an eventwith Professor Ashutosh Varshney (Brown Univer-sity) about the state of India’s democracy

brings to the Ash Center a carefully selected groupof practitioners and scholars from around the worldto participate in collaborative research on how toestablish democracy and strengthen it in the face ofchallenges in the developing world, where endemicpoverty, illiteracy, ethnic conflict, economic inequal-ity, as well as legacies of colonial domination andmilitary tutelage, pose serious obstacles to attain-ing and sustaining democratic government.

ABOVE

Baltimore’s GEOLOOM co>map visualizes thecity’s arts and cultural resources

datasmart.ash.harvard.edu

Growing up in Norway, Odd Arne Westad lived on the frontier of the Cold War.While the fjords and tundra of this Scandinavian nation may not evoke theiconic images of Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie or the Korean peninsula’s demili-tarized zone, for Westad, the S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations and AshCenter resident faculty affiliate, the Cold War was an omnipresent fact of life.“Norway was a kind of frontline state with regard to the Cold War,” says Westad.

Deeply anchored to the West, Norway nonetheless shared an Arctic Circleborder with the Soviet Union along the country’s far north. Having actively re-sisted the Nazis during Germany’s brutal five-year occupation of Norway dur-ing World War II, the Norwegian Communist Party emerged from the war witha healthy degree of popular support. Yet, with the onset of the Cold War andNorway’s decision to join 11 other nations to found the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization in 1949, the communists’ popularity eroded as tensions with So-viets escalated. Taking their ideological cues from Moscow, Norway’s commu-nists lost much of their immediate post-war political appeal as the party wasincreasingly seen as a Soviet mouthpiece.

“The sense of this ideological divide that the majority of the populationdistrusted the communists and the Communist Party because they were seenas serving the Soviet Union and not serving our country, is something that Ivery much grew up with,” recalls Westad, whose latest book, The Cold War: AWorld History (Basic Books, 2017), was published this fall to critical acclaim.Westad’s newest work on the Cold War explores, as he puts it, “this sense of

Odd Arne Westad:

On the Global Roots

of the Cold War

ABOVE

Odd Arne Westad learning to ski as a young boy in Norway in 1964. Later

that year, the Cold War heats up half a world away after the passage of the

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by the US Congress gives the Johnson adminis-

tration the green light to dramatically escalate the war in Vietnam


the two defining alliances of the conflict: NATO and the Warsaw Pact. For Wes-tad, his hope is that this book is part of a broader, more contemporary view ofthe conflict, which comprises the economic, cultural, and political develop-ments that have largely created the world we live in today.

Westad, as both a historian and teacher of the Cold War, marvels over howmost of his students at HKS came of age after the fall of the Berlin Wall andthe dissolution of the Soviet Union. “What's so interesting about teaching theCold War today is that the new generation who've grown up... tend to think ofit, understandably, very much in terms of how they understand internationalaffairs today, which is very interest-based and oriented very much towards thestate that they come out of.”

Whereas Westad’s youth in Norway was marked by the ceaseless ideolog-ical struggle and the ever-present threat of military conflict, his students todayfind it hard to understand the ideological intensity of the Cold War. For manystudents, “it's difficult to understand, I think, how high the stakes were and thekind of risks that people were willing to take during the Cold War in order tofurther their own positions.” While for most observers, the erosion of Americanmilitary and political hegemony in the early 21st century marks a chaotic mo-ment in international affairs, Westad cautions that in many ways “it pales incomparison to what the situation was when you had two nuclear superpowers

coming up against each other—both willing to take ex-ceptional risks with the future of the world in order tomake sure that their ideological alternative came outon top.”

“It was,” as Westad reminds his students, “abattle for the future of the world.”

divides, this sense of splits. It is something that I took on board from my ownupbringing, which pushed me towards wanting to know more about the ColdWar on a global scale.”

Westad, whose earlier seminal work The Global Cold War: Third World In-terventions and the Making of Our Timeswon Columbia University’s prestigiousBancroft Prize in 2006, has long immersed himself in the historical legacy ofthe Cold War. While he readily acknowledges that the topic has been the sub-ject of a great deal of scholarship, Westad argues that much of that writinglacks a cohesive narrative about the global scale and ideological roots of theCold War. “What I tried to do in this book is to take some of that wonderful lit-erature, and some research that I've done on my own, and put that togetherin an overall syncretic account.”

To help weave this new narrative together, Westad attempted to put theCold War within a broader perspective of 20th-century international history.“I wanted to put it within a framework that looks at it in terms of how 20th-century history, really from the latter part of the 19th, developed first and fore-most in terms of ideological divides.” To illustrate the point, The Cold War: AWorld History, does not begin with the standard retelling of the division ofGermany after Hitler’s fall or the Berlin Airlift. Rather, the story’s roots lie in aconflict of ideologies dating back to the late 19th century. “In terms of the con-flict between capitalism and socialism, that was there well before the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union became the predominant world powers after theSecond World War.” For Westad, you cannot understand the Cold War withoutunderstanding the ideological origins of its protagonists.

While Westad drew from decades of existing Cold War scholarship, he alsotraveled the globe, digging into newly available archival materials. In manyways, his timing was fortuitous. “Only a few years ago it was really hard to getat some of the materials that I've been using for writing this book becausethey were still classified, they were still secret, or they were held in archiveswhere there simply was no access whatsoever,” said Westad. Traveling twiceto Egypt to undertake research for his book, he admits that he was “very luckywith the timing of this, it was just after the revolution against Mubarak. Andthere was some access to archives in Cairo that hadn't existed in the past. Andfrom what I hear, do not exist today.”

Westad also spent significant time researching his book in India, a countryrarely given more than a cursory glance in most retellings of the ColdWar. On the surface, it is easy to see why the subcontinentwould play such a seemingly minimal role in most accounts ofthe Cold War—with much of India and Pakistan’s early modernhistory consumed by the quest to shed the last vestiges of the BritishRaj. Nor are the partition in 1947 and subsequent regional conflicts be-tween India and Pakistan often viewed through the historical prism of theCold War because “in one sense it is a sort of anti-Cold War,” Westad suggests,referring to the fraught, 70-year relationship between these two South Asianpowers. “Indian leaders did not like this bipolar approach that they felt wasimposed on them. And seeing that with Indian documents is fascinating.”

With its emphasis on the ideological genesis of the conflict and Westad’suse of newly available archival accounts, The Cold War: A World History is partof a reshaping of how this topic is being taught in classrooms the world over.Most traditional histories of the Cold War have emphasized military affairs and

For Westad, you cannot understand the Cold Warwithout understanding the ideological origins ofits protagonists

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This summer, the Ash Center announced the winner of its 2017 Innovations inAmerican Government Award as well as its Roy and Lila Ash Innovation Awardfor Public Engagement in Government, a special award aimed at highlighting in-novations in democratic governance from around the country. Connecticut GreenBank, a leader in green energy financing and the first institution of its kind inthe United States, won the 2017 Innovations in American Government Award.The California Citizens Redistricting Commission, an independent panel ap-proved by voters and charged with drawing the state’s legislative boundaries,won 2017’s special award for public engagement in government. Both winners,Connecticut and California, demonstrate that the spirit of innovation is alive andwell in government agencies and departments from across the country.

Connecticut Green BankIn order to stabilize our climate—preventing irreversible, catastrophic environ-mental changes—the United States needs to fill a $160 billion funding gap forclean energy over the next 20 years. How can we meet this goal? Governmentcan start by making sure its investments in clean energy sources go further thanever before by seeing 10 dollars of private-sector capital invested for every publicdollar, rather than the much lower return ratios that many grant, rebate, and sub-sidy programs realize.

Connecticut Green Bank does exactly that.In 2011, Governor Dannel Malloy and Connecticut’s General Assembly estab-

lished the country’s first state green bank. Their aim was to spend wisely, createjobs, lower energy costs, and realize cleaner, cheaper, more reliable powersources. Their solution, the Connecticut Green Bank, uses small amounts of pub-lic dollars to attract large sums of private capital investment. The bank is fundedthrough a number of means including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,electric bill surcharges, federal funds, as well as private capital.

“We focus our limited funds on gaps in the market where the private sectorhas not yet offered a viable solution,” said Bryan Garcia, CEO and president ofthe Connecticut Green Bank. From the private lender's point of view, clean en-ergy investments are still relatively new and therefore have less performancehistory by which to assess risk. Public dollars help these companies get over thatinvestment hurdle.

When Connecticut Green Bank was formed, green investment also lackedestablished financial tools in the way that industries like real estate have mort-gages and home equity loans that are widely understood. Any lender acting asa first mover would face high transaction costs to generate new financial toolsas well as to find and attract potential buyers. For that reason, Connecticut GreenBank has created over a dozen products and helped form a thriving market forrenewable energy in the state.

Speaking at the Innovations in American Government Awards finalist event inMay, Garcia noted that the metric the Green Bank is interested in isn’t the size ofthe public sector’s monetary investment in green energy, but rather the effective-

ness of that investment, something more akin to watts deployed per dollar. TheGreen Bank estimates that its initiatives have created more than 200 megawattsof renewable energy as well as over 13,000 jobs for the state. It has leveraged $170million in public financing to create an estimated $1 billion in green projects.

Another important component of the Green Bank is bringing attention tolow-income neighborhoods that can significantly benefit from green energy in-vestments, but that might be overlooked by the private sector. “The issue of en-ergy and climate change is actually linked to income, job opportunities, health,and resiliency. For our most vulnerable citizens, high energy costs are forcingthem to trade off paying utilities with things like food, medicine, or housing,”said Connecticut Green Bank Vice President Kerry O’Neill.

California Citizens Redistricting CommissionLike most states, the once-a-decade process of drawing new legislative bound-aries in California was hardly an exercise in participatory democracy. The redis-tricting process was historically controlled by the state legislature and mapswere drawn in secret, designed to extract maximum political advantage for in-cumbent officeholders. The results were clear. In 2002, the first election cyclefor the US House of Representatives in California using the state’s then-newlyadopted legislative boundaries, saw not a single incumbent in California’s 53-person large congressional delegation lose their seat. In fact, only one of thestate’s redrawn congressional districts was even considered competitive (the in-cumbent still won).

“Politicians picking their voters, rather than the voters picking their politi-cians, distorts and undermines the integrity of our electoral process,” said Stan-ley Forbes, a member of California’s independent Citizens RedistrictingCommission. “Gerrymandering distorts fair outcomes by minimizing the votesof some while increasing the potency of others,” added Forbes.

Advocates proposed a nonpartisan commission of California citizens to drawthe state’s legislative lines. Placed on the ballot in 2008, voters narrowly ap-proved Proposition 11, the Voters FIRST Act, which authorized the creation of anew 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission charged with drawing districtlines for the State Senate, Assembly, and State Board of Equalization. Two yearslater, voters went to the polls again and approved Proposition 20, the VotersFIRST Act for Congress, which expanded the commission’s role to include Cali-fornia’s congressional seats.

The size and selection process of the commission was no accident. With 14members, the commission was decidedly larger than other, earlier attempts atestablishing redistricting commissions elsewhere in the country, which usuallyhad only a handful of commissioners. The larger California body was designedto minimize the risk that individual commissioners would have outsized influenceover the commission’s deliberation, according to Michael Li, a senior counselwith the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and a site eval-uator for the Innovations in American Government Award program.

The Ash Center Presents America’s Most Innovative Government Programs

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Membership on the commission, which is composed of five Democrats, fiveRepublicans, and four members who declined to state their political affiliation,was overseen by the independent Bureau of State Audits. Nearly 30,000 Cali-fornians started the application process, which included rigorous financial dis-closures and supplemental essay questions outlining their professionalbackgrounds, knowledge of California’s diversity, and querying prospectivemembers on why they wanted to serve on the commission.

During 2011, commissioners traveled throughout California, holding dozensof open meetings where they heard input from community members on howthey hoped to see new district lines drawn. Many in the state’s political elitescoffed at the prospect of average citizens successfully drawing new maps thatcould survive a court challenge or weather intense public and political scrutiny.

“Politicians have resisted reform, saying line drawing is inherently partisanor needs experts,” said Forbes during his finalist presentation at Harvard in May.“There was widespread expectation among many elected officials and politicalinsiders heading into the redrawing of maps in 2011 that the commission wouldfail,” added the Brennan Center’s Li. “Either the commission would deadlock orthe maps they produced would be struck down by courts or commissioners, as‘amateurs’ would prove unable to live up to the requirements of the job.”

With active citizen participation, and a framework that encouraged consen-sus among its members, the commission set out to redraw the political land-scape in the country’s largest state. By and large they succeeded. “There hasbeen a lot of turnover and change as a result,” said Forbes. In 2012, the statesaw nine highly-contested House races, with a number of senior members ofCongress either opting to retire or losing their reelection bids. Thirty-eight newmembers were elected to the State Assembly. Remarking on this sharp increasein newly competitive seats across California, Li said that “although the commis-sion was expressly prohibited from drawing maps based on political outcomes,the maps drawn by the commission nonetheless improved competitiveness byreturning community-focused districts, roughly tripling the number of districtsconsidered competitive.”

Spreading Two Award-Winning IdeasWhile California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission may be the most ambitiousattempt yet at redistricting reform, advocates are hoping that it won’t be the last.Cities and states across the country are looking to California’s experience in non-partisan, citizen-driven redistricting as an antidote to partisan gerrymandering.“As in many other states, we've been troubled by the levels of partisanship andfailures at problem-solving in our legislature and in Congress, but there's littleturnover among lawmakers and very few competitive elections,” said Bob Warner,a government reform advocate from Pennsylvania active with Fair Districts PA, acoalition of civic groups pushing the state legislature in Harrisburg to adopt a re-districting commission similar to California’s. “We think California's model wouldeliminate the partisan element of recent redistricting efforts and begin to restoresome sense that voters are choosing our representatives.”

The Connecticut Green Bank has already taken hold, with New York, NewJersey, and Rhode Island each creating their own versions of the model. Col-orado, Maryland, and Nevada are slated to open their own green banks, as well.Both Innovations Award winners received $100,000 grants from the Ash Centerfor dissemination and replication activities to encourage other jurisdictions toadopt the ideas and to build constituencies and political support.

A Refresh for the Innovationsin American GovernmentAward

This fall, the Ash Center an-nounced a major restructuring toits flagship innovations program,the Innovations in American Gov-ernment Award. For more than 30years, the Innovations Award hassought to recognize public-sectorprograms that make American gov-ernment more efficient, more cre-ative, and more effective ataddressing social problems andproviding services to the public.The changes to the Award programare designed to better meet thesegoals by seeking applicants focusedon a single, intractable problem inAmerican society today. With anew, streamlined application andevaluation process, the Awards willnow be offered annually. The 2018Award cycle seeks initiatives fo-cused on improving economic andsocial mobility.

The Innovations in AmericanGovernment Award is heralded asthe premier public-sector honor inthe nation and continues to cele-brate programs that serve as exam-ples of creative and effectivegovernment at its best. The$50,000 top prize is open to pro-grams at all levels of government—federal, state, local, tribal, andterritorial—from within the UnitedStates. Finalists will also receivemonetary grants. The Ash Centerwill utilize resources and expertisefrom across the Harvard Universitycommunity, as well as preeminentauthorities in the field, to select thetop finalists and ultimate winner ofthe Innovations in American Gov-ernment Award.

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TOP

Representatives from the 11 finalistsfor the Innovations in AmericanGovernment Awards gathered in theForum at the Kennedy School inMay to make their presentations tothe National Selection Committee

SECOND

Kerry O’Neill and Bryan Garcia fromConnecticut Green Bank present tothe National Selection Committee,who quizzed them on the challengesof securing public funding to makegreen energy financing accessibleand affordable

THIRD

Stanley Forbes from the CaliforniaCitizens Redistricting Commissionand Kathay Feng from Common Causemake their winning presentation

BOTTOM

Former California Governor ArnoldSchwarzenegger speaks at an eventin Washington, DC, honoring theCalifornia Citizens RedistrictingCommission. In office during thecreation of the commission, hespoke of the achievements of itsfirst redrawn map and how he nowworks to combat gerrymanderingthrough his philanthropy


IN THE FIELD

Alumni in the Field Teaching in Technicolor: Alumna Transforms Myanmar Education with Virtual Reality

“I was a misfit, not book-smart,” reflects Hla Hla Win,MC/MPA ‘16. After the ninth grade, Win walked outof her school in Myanmar and didn’t return. Fifteenyears later, she walked across the stage at HarvardKennedy School’s 2016 commencement and into herrole as founder and CEO of a social enterprisenamed 360̊ ed. Win’s dedication to transformingthe antiquated education system that impeded herearly learning fueled an over decade-long journeyfrom dropout to social entrepreneur.

As a young student, Win struggled to learn in therigid structure of a Myanmar classroom. There,teachers often lecture 80 pupils at a time and noroom is given for students to ask questions. Infor-mation lives on the pages of old black-and-whitetextbooks and learning happens during repetitiveexercises. Win finished her education on her ownand passed her matriculation exams with distinc-tions. She then taught locally for three years beforeleaving to get a bachelor’s degree in K-12 educationfrom William Penn University in Iowa.

Win returned to Myanmar in 2008 passionateabout the new teaching methods she observed inthe US. She was eager to apply modern pedagogicaltheories to classrooms at home, but teachers mether enthusiasm with blank stares. Reflecting on thisexperience, Win observes, “They just couldn’t relateto what I was saying, the classrooms were too dif-ferent. They couldn’t visualize what it was like to bein a student-centered learning environment.”

It became clear teachers in Myanmar needed toexperience firsthand the modern classrooms Winwas trying to describe, but with less than 2 percent

of Myanmar’s GDP going toward education, flyingthem across the globe wasn’t an option.

Not to be deterred, Win pursued other avenuesto make a difference. She created scholarship pro-grams for students in her country and worked in various education institutions ranging from capacity-building programs for new governments in transitionto international colleges to building liberal arts col-leges in Myanmar. Her experiences brought her backto the US and eventually to Harvard Kennedy School.

Win, who was a Ford Foundation Mason Fellowwith the Ash Center, spent her time at HKS advanc-ing her studies on education, policy, and business.She conducted comparative research into educationreforms, looking at how countries like Indonesia andMalaysia were able to modernize their school sys-tems. She honed her public speaking skills and of-fered her perspective at a special event discussingMyanmar’s momentous 2015 elections with the AshCenter’s Tommy Vallely, Senior Advisor for MainlandSoutheast Asia, and David Dapice, Senior Economistfor the Vietnam and Myanmar Programs. She alsoexpanded her network, getting involved with Har-vard’s i-Lab, an innovation incubation space, andHarvard Business School.

Win’s time at the School was formative. As sheputs it, “It helped me define who I wanted to become.”When Win walked across the stage in May 2016, shewasn’t only holding a diploma, but a desire to serveand a new plan for a business that could fulfill herdream of transforming Myanmar’s education system.

After graduation, Win continued her work with theAsh Center as a research fellow during the 2016–17

academic year. In tandem, the Global Solution Pro-gram at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley initiative designed to help entrepreneurs createmoonshot innovations to the benefit of humanity,welcomed Win to its ranks. There she learned moreabout new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR)and augmented reality (AR), and met LaurentBoinot, another entrepreneur passionate about ed-ucation, and Perttu Pölönen, creator of music-teach-ing innovation MusiClock. Together, Boinot, Pölönen,and Win decided to make the dream of bringingteachers to classrooms around the world a realityusing VR technology. 360̊ ed was born.

Win returned to Myanmar in 2016, this time pre-pared to prove that student-centered learning waspossible. In January 2017, 360̊ ed launched. Thecompany’s team and services grew rapidly, and nowthey offer multiple key services.

Teachers can be transported to classroomsaround the world with 360̊ ed’s immersive footage;all the teachers have to do is don a VR headset. “Theteachers can look around and listen,” says Win, “theycan almost walk around.” This experience fulfillsWin’s original dream at a fraction of the cost ofbringing teachers to the US. VR headsets are afford-able; they come in a cardboard version, which makesthe solution scalable for a cash-strapped country.

Students aren’t left out of the experience. VR andAR solutions from 360̊ ed bring the dated textbookpages to life. Geography lessons in Myanmar usedto consist of drawing maps, and as the 360̊ ed web-site notes, “Studying in a rote way can be as effec-tive as sleeping pills for digital natives.” Now, usingjust a smartphone, students and parents can scantextbooks to bring up engaging 2-D or 3-D models.Students can leave the classroom, without ever leav-ing their chair, to visit the locations they’re learningabout in school by using VR. “Ninety-nine percentof Myanmar students have never been outside of thecountry,” remarks Win, “now, with VR they can go tothe moon.”

And, the learning doesn’t stop there. 360̊ ed hasalso created an innovation lab that encourages stu-dents to explore, design, build, and invent. The en-terprise hosts workshops that give learners hands-on experience with modern technologies like 3-Dprinters and laser-cutters. Students leave as creatorsand makers, not just consumers.

360̊ ed will continue to grow and there’s potentialfor the solution to be applied to other communitiesand countries. Meanwhile, Win notes, “we are remov-ing the barriers to education—that’s very satisfying.”

“If I had tools like this when I was in school,” Winreflects, “I would have been a number one student.”

“Ninety-nine percent ofMyanmar students havenever been outside of thecountry. Now, with VR,they can go to the moon”

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www.360ed.org


IN THE FIELD

Student FocusAsh Center Supports Experiential Learningand Research Activities for Students

The Ash Center is committed to encouraging careers in the public sector, pro-viding opportunities for students to explore in greater depth the topics andquestions of most interest to them, and strengthening the connection betweenstudents and faculty affiliated with the Center. During the summer of 2017, theCenter supported and facilitated a number of opportunities for students.

Ash Center Summer Fellowshipin InnovationSince 2008, the Center has been plac-ing students in summer fellowshipswith some of the most creative and effective public officials and policy advisors in the country, not only tolearn but also to add value by sharingcutting-edge trends and ideas exploredat HKS. This summer, six HKS studentswere hosted by public-sector agencies:Aliya Bhatia, MPP ’18, North MississippiIndustrial Development AssociationCole Boskey, MPP ’18, Department of In-formation Technology, MassachusettsDaniel Lander, MPP ’18, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, Boston, MassachusettsVanessa Lion, MPP ’18, Office of Infor-mation Technology and Innovation,New Orleans, LouisianaSibella Matthews, MPP ’18, Departmentof Innovation and Technology, IllinoisLayla O'Kane, MPA/ID ’18, Boston Women'sWorkforce Council, Massachusetts

Innovation Field Lab SummerFellowsBeginning in 2015, the Ash CenterSummer Fellowship in Innovation hasincluded a number of additional place-ments, with funding support from theTaubman Center's Government Per-formance Lab. These student fellowscontinue the work done by studentsin the Innovation Field Lab experientiallearning course, which works to createdata-driven solutions to problem prop-erties in partner cities in Massachu-setts. The students work full-time inField Lab cities, implementing and re-fining the innovations designed duringthe semester. During the summer of2017, six students served as InnovationField Lab Summer Fellows in the fol-lowing Massachusetts cities:Sean Alaback, Harvard Extension School’17, Innovation Field Lab cities at large

Jessica Kahlenberg, MC/MPA ’17, ChelseaChristine Koh, MPP ’18, FitchburgLisa Salerno, MC/MPA ’17, SalemManuel Schuler, MPA ’18, WinthropMarisol Thomer, MC/MPA ’18, Lawrence

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative SummerFellowsThe Bloomberg Harvard City Leader-ship Initiative, which provides cityleaders with customized executive ed-ucation focused on leadership and in-novation in governance, welcomed itsfirst summer fellows this year. The fourfellows conducted research on behalfof the initiative and the 40 cities en-rolled in the 2017–18 program.Lisa Cox, Master of Liberal Arts, HarvardExtension SchoolFernando Fernandez-Monge, MC/MPA ’17,Harvard Kennedy SchoolJulia Rosenbaum, MPP ’18, HarvardKennedy School; MBA ’18, Tuck Schoolof Business at DartmouthSanjay Seth, MPA ’19, Harvard KennedySchool; Master in Urban Planning ’18,Harvard Graduate School of Design

China Programs Student Research GrantsThe China Programs financially sup-ports Harvard University students pur-suing China-related internships, inde-pendent research, and other forms ofstudy conducted in China.Shen Zheng, HKS MPA ‘19/MIT MBA ’19:How Charity Foundations Drive Busi-ness Performance and Operational Efficiency of Grantee and InvesteeProjects

Vietnam Program InternshipsFor summer 2017, the Vietnam Pro-gram provided awards for two HKSstudents and one undergraduate stu-dent from Harvard College to pursuesummer internships at the Fulbright

Economics Teaching Program in HoChi Minh City.Adnan Mahmood Awan, MPA ’18: Re-searched feasibility of using land-based financing for infrastructure proj-ects in Lahore and Ho Chi Minh City.Vedant Bahl, Harvard College ‘20: Con-ducted an estimation of long-run elas-ticities for demand in Vietnam.

Ian Yeunsoo Lee, MPP ’18: Conducted in-dependent research project examiningthe economic development of Viet-nam, focusing on why state-owned en-terprises in the country have not be-come like the large conglomerates(“chaebols”) in South Korea.

LEFT

During her Ash Summer Fellowship

in Innovation, Sibella Matthews

MPP ’18 was based in the Illinois

Department of Innovation and

Technology and worked on projects

under the Governor's Children's

Cabinet. She is pictured with Gov-

ernor Bruce Rauner who estab-

lished the Cabinet in February 2016

ABOVE BOTTOM

Layla O'Kane MPA/ID ‘18 (left)

spent last summer working with

the Boston Women's Workforce

Council to enhance their data

collection and analysis methodolo-

gies towards ending the gender

pay gap in the Greater Boston area.

Pictured here with her colleagues

and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh

ABOVE MIDDLE

Aliya Bhatia MPP '18 (center)

partnered with the staff of several

Mississippi community colleges

on a social media campaign to raise

awareness about ongoing work-

force trainings in the community.

She is pictured here with Terry

Logan and Stacy Clayton, staff from

East Mississippi Community College


IN THE FIELD

Student FocusMeet the 2017 Martha H. Mauzy Award Winner

This spring, graduating MPA student Kate O’Gormanwas honored as the inaugural recipient of the AshCenter’s Martha H. Mauzy Award for Advancementof Democratic Governance. The award was estab-lished in honor of Mauzy upon her retirement as theCenter’s executive director in February 2017 and inrecognition of her championing the developmentand continued expansion of the Center’s studentprograms during her tenure. The Class Day Award,presented to a graduating HKS student who demon-strates a “unique commitment, through scholarshipand practice, to making governance more participa-tory, transparent, responsive, or representative,” hasbeen the capstone of a demanding two years for O’Gorman, who in addition to her MPA also man-aged to complete a dual-degree program with Stan-ford’s Graduate School of Business.

O’Gorman was an undergraduate at Barnard Col-lege when a charismatic freshman senator from Illi-nois launched what was assumed to be a longshotbid for the presidency. “I could see a big upswell ofchange and excitement, and real hope for [the]more systemic changes that I thought were needed,”she reflected, looking back at Barack Obama’s earlymessage of optimism and change. After Barnard,O’Gorman, following the new president’s call to pub-lic service, headed south to Washington, DC, and ul-timately landed a job with Iraq and AfghanistanVeterans of America (IAVA), a new veterans organi-zation that had been working to build support forthe Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of2008 and tackle issues related to veteran employ-ment, mental health, and suicide prevention. “I wasexcited about how much they were impacting thedebate at the national level on veterans’ issues, so Ijoined the team,” she recalled.

At IAVA, O’Gorman ultimately rose to becomethe organization’s political director, where shehelped lead a successful campaign to push theObama administration to issue an executive orderon veteran suicide prevention. She also worked toconvince Congress to pass the Clay Hunt SuicidePrevention for American Veterans Act, which in-creased access to mental health care for veteransand provided increased resources and accountabilityfor mental health and suicide prevention efforts atthe Department of Veterans Affairs.

Yet even as O’Gorman was succeeding at passinglegislation and training a new generation of veteranleaders, she was frustrated with how the laws shehelped to pass and the executive orders she workedto convince the president to sign would stumble intheir execution. “I started to see us be able to passbill after bill that created hope for real change hap-pening for veterans. But even the best bills were

often frustrated in their implementation.” The issuecame to a head with the Veterans Health Adminis-tration scandal in 2014, in which reports surfacedthat some VA facilities kept multiple sets of waitinglists and veterans were having difficulty securing ap-pointments at hospitals and clinics.

O’Gorman, watching as these scandals were un-folding, wanted to transition from advocating policyto understanding how to implement the programsthat she helped become law. “I wanted to go bothto Harvard Kennedy School and the Stanford Busi-ness School to learn about how services could bedelivered. How you could take some of the lessonslearned in the business community such as user ex-perience and design thinking, and bring them intothe government space.”

At HKS, O’Gorman enrolled in Ash Center resi-dent faculty affiliate Marshall Ganz’s highly regardedPublic Narrative class, which she describes as a high-light of her experience at the School. “I was kind offorced to look back at those stories that made methink about politics,” said O’Gorman. “For a longtime I thought I was accidentally interested in poli-tics—that I had just been part of this Obama gener-ation—that I didn’t have real experiences before then

that had shaped why that moment captured me.And, through Public Narrative, I recalled momentswhere people had my back when I was facing reallydifficult times. And then I saw systems fail them. Ormoments when I was feeling lost or stuck, and ateacher was there for me. I started to realize whycommunity and why [my hometown of] Cleveland isso important to me. And why I wanted to go home.”

O’Gorman then served as a teaching fellow forGanz where she built upon her lessons from his pub-lic narrative class and her own professional back-ground to help coach students working on a numberof different community organizing projects as partof Ganz’s class on organizing. “She has been an in-credibly effective coach and invested an enormousamount of effort in developing the leadership skillsof others,” said Ganz.

With a newly minted MPA in hand, O’Gorman hasheaded back to Cleveland, Ohio, where she is excitedabout the possibility of helping to shape the city’sfuture economic trajectory. “How do you actuallycreate an inclusive economic development plan thatcan spur the entire city forward,” she asks. It’s aquestion for which she’s surely going to try her hard-est to find an answer.

“How do you actually create an inclusive economic developmentplan that can spur theentire city forward?”

Kate O’Gorman MPA ‘17

2017 Martha H. Mauzy Award Winner

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NEWS IN DEPTH


Rebuilding Our Democracy Through Redistricting Reform

In 2010, disenchantment with the sluggish pace ofthe country’s economic recovery and concern aboutPresident Obama’s signature health care reform lawled to Republicans up and down the ballot scoringsignificant electoral gains across the country. Perhapsnowhere was that landslide victory more powerfulthan in Wisconsin. Milwaukee County Executive ScottWalker, a Republican, beat his Democratic opponentto capture the governor’s mansion in Madison.Badger State Republicans also won majorities in theWisconsin State Assembly and Senate, giving themfull control of the state government.

Their 2010 victories could not have come at amore opportune time for Wisconsin Republicans asstates across the country would soon begin the once-a-decade process of redrawing legislative bound-aries. For the Wisconsin GOP, the redistrictingprocess was a unique opportunity to lock in their po-litical gains for years to come by drawing highly par-tisan legislative maps. The results were striking. In2012, Republicans secured 60 of the 99 seats in theWisconsin Assembly despite winning only 48.6 per-cent of the two-party statewide vote.

For William Whitford, professor of law emeritusat the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state’sgerrymandered legislative districts disenfranchisedWisconsin voters. "In a democracy citizens are sup-posed to choose their legislators. In Wisconsin, leg-islators have chosen their voters,” he wrote in alawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wiscon-sin's legislative districts. Over several years, Whit-ford’s lawsuit wended its way through the federalcourts before ultimately landing on the docket of the

Supreme Court, which this fall heard oral argumentsin Gill v. Whitford challenging the constitutionality ofWisconsin’s partisan gerrymandering.

The Whitford case, along with a slew of redistrict-ing reform initiatives proposed or enacted in statesacross the country, is part of a renewed push to tamethe anti-democratic impulses inherent in partisangerrymandering. In May, through its Innovations inAmerican Government Award, the Ash Center recog-nized the importance of redistricting reform when ithonored the California Citizens Redistricting Com-mission with its Roy and Lila Ash Innovation Awardfor Public Engagement in Government (see page 10).

As part of its ongoing efforts to disseminate bestpractices on redistricting reform, the Ash Center spon-sored a convening of scholars, practitioners, and ad-vocates at Harvard to discuss political and legalstrategies for helping to restore integrity to the onceesoteric process of drawing legislative maps. Nearly300 people filed into the ornate Ames Courtroom atHarvard Law School on a brisk morning in Novemberfor a daylong conference featuring scholars, legal ex-perts, activists, partisans, and other panelists provid-ing unique insight into the history of gerrymandering,the role of race in redistricting, the current crisis of theUS census, and examining the landscape for reform.

“Reform is possible,” intoned Miles Rapoport,Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at theAsh Center and principal organizer of the conference.Dean Douglas Elmendorf framed the day’s proceed-ings with an exhortation to help protect the sanctityof the vote and defend the strengths of our democ-racy: “The right to vote is, as you know, at the heart

of democracy, and this right is devalued if our votesdon't matter. It is not enough to have the vote. It'snot enough to count votes. Votes need to count.Votes need to matter for the outcome.”

Attendees heard from a variety of speakers in-cluding Alex Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling, Jr. Profes-sor of History and Social Policy and Ash Centerfaculty affiliate, who gave a presentation on the tortuous history of gerrymandering; DemocraticParty redistricting specialist Kelly Ward and ChrisJankowski, her GOP counterpart, who spoke abouthow both political parties are likely to approach re-districting after the next Census; and WashingtonPost columnist E.J. Dionne, who moderated a panelexamining reform initiatives sprouting up in statesacross the country.

“The conference was an important opportunityfor all of us—scholars, practitioners, activists, citi-zens—to engage in this issue and to fight for a ro-bust American democracy,” said Rapoport. Whetherthe Supreme Court ultimately sides with Whitfordand strikes down Wisconsin’s partisan maps or al-lows the practice of gerrymandering to continue,most attendees of the conference seemed to feelthat the moment has come to restore integrity to themapmaking process. “There is a real robust move-ment for reform and change—whether through liti-gation, ballot initiatives, legislative reforms, andpublic demonstrations,” said Rapoport. “The esotericprocess of mapmaking has deeply affected the de-cisions that create the conditions under which we alllive our lives.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

The Ash Center’s redistricting conference was

held in the ornate Ames Courtroom at Harvard

Law School; Democratic campaign strategist

Kelly Ward MPP ‘06 discusses how the party is

approaching 2020; Professor Alex Keyssar

lectures on the history of gerrymandering; Chris

Jankowski, a GOP political operative, reflects

on post-2010 redistricting

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RESEARCH BRIEF

Fellows FocusMeet Our New Fellows

Ford Foundation Mason Fellows The Ford Foundation Mason Fellow-ships are awarded to meritorious mid-career students with financial need anda demonstrated interest in the overar-ching issues of concern to the Ash Cen-ter to study at HKS for an intensive,one-year master’s degree in public ad-ministration. Mason Fellows come fromdeveloping, newly industrialized, andtransitional economy countries. TheCenter is sponsoring the following stu-dents for this academic year:Prabhat Kumar, MC/MPA ’18, NepalGlen Mpani, MC/MPA ’18, ZimbabweRawan Zeine, MC/MPA ’18, Jordan

Roy and Lila Ash Fellow The Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship inDemocracy supports students with astrong interest in the broad questionsof democratic governance, a capacityfor leadership, a commitment to searchand inquiry, and a dedication to ad-vancements in social justice and serv-ice to citizens around the world. Thisyear’s Roy and Lila Ash Fellow is: Ashley Spillane, MC/MPA ’18, United States

Dalio Scholars The Dalio Fellowship is awarded eachyear to Chinese students with financialneed. Leading candidates will beproven leaders in philanthropy or willdemonstrate clear philanthropy sectorleadership potential.Vanessa Ningzi Piao, MPP ‘19Yuheng Wen, MPP ‘19

Post-Master’s Research FellowsThe Center annually appoints a selectnumber of recent HKS graduates foran opportunity to conduct independ-ent research under the guidance ofAsh Center faculty. Their projects areclosely aligned with the Center’s re-search agenda and include such topicsas social movements, democratization,government innovations, and state-so-ciety relations. This fall, we welcomedthe following six new fellows:Rodrigo Diamanti, MPA ‘17Shira Miller, MC/MPA ‘17Cecilia Nicolini, MC/MPA ‘17

David Razu Aznar, MC/MPA Mason Fellow ‘17Kinga Tshering, MC/MPA Mason Fellow ‘17Hamada Zahawi, MC/MPA ‘17

China Programs Senior FellowsThe Center’s China Programs on occa-sion welcomes and hosts senior facultymembers whose research agenda alignswith the China Programs’ areas of re-search. This fall, the Center welcomedthe following two Senior Fellows:Yasheng Huang, International ProgramProfessor in Chinese Economy and Busi-ness, MIT Sloan School of ManagementChristine Wong, Director, Centre for Con-temporary Chinese Studies, Universityof Melbourne

China Public Policy Postdoctoral FellowshipsThe Center’s China Programs offerstwo postdoctoral fellowships in thefield of contemporary Chinese publicpolicy to recent PhDs of exceptionalpromise. The China Programs wel-comed the following two new post-doctoral fellows for AY2017–18:Chengpang Lee, PhD in Sociology, Uni-versity of ChicagoJunpeng Li, PhD in Sociology, ColumbiaUniversity

Democracy Fellowships The Center’s Democracy Fellowshipswelcomes doctoral candidates as wellas postdoctoral and senior scholars inresearch areas related to democraticgovernance. This year, the following newDemocracy Fellows joined the Center:Joshua Forstenzer, PhD in Philosophy,University of SheffieldClarissa Hayward, Associate Professor ofPolitical Science, Washington UniversityMarkus Holdo, PhD in Political Science,Uppsala UniversityMaria Maroto, PhD Candidate, Political Sci-ence Institute, Catholic University of ChileCharles Petersen, PhD Candidate, Amer-ican Studies, Harvard UniversityThamy Pogrebinschi, Senior Researcher,WZB Berlin Social Science ResearchCenterCarolyn Roush, PhD in Political Science,Vanderbilt University

Aksel Sundstrom, PhD in Political Sci-ence, University of GothenburgAlice Xu, PhD Candidate, Departmentof Government, Harvard University

History and Public Policy FellowshipsThe Initiative on History and PublicPolicy at Harvard Kennedy School,based at the Ash Center, seeks to at-tract outstanding doctoral and post-doctoral fellows who are engaged incutting-edge historical research thatis informed by, or seeks to illuminate,issues of contemporary public policy.In AY2017–18, the Center welcomedthe following four fellows:Tatiana Cruz, PhD Candidate, Universityof MichiganYakov Feygin, PhD in History, Universityof PennsylvaniaJulian Gewirtz, PhD Candidate, HarvardUniversityAroop Mukharji, PhD Candidate, HarvardKennedy School

Innovations in Government FellowshipsThe Ash Center occasionally hostsscholars and practitioners to exploreissues pertaining to innovations in gov-ernment. This fall the Center welcomedthe following four fellows:Herman Bolhaar, Chairman, Board ofProsecutors General, the NetherlandsMaria Jesus Garcia Garcia, Professor, Uni-versity of Valencia, SpainAlyson Gounden Rock, Joint Research Fel-low, CPL and WAPPP, HKSKai Wegrich, Professor of Public Admin-istration and Public Policy, HertieSchool of Governance, Germany

Asia Fellowships ProgramThe Ash Center’s Asia Fellowship Pro-gram allows academics as well as prac-titioners the freedom to pursue inde-pendent research projects on publicpolicy issues related to Asia, with thehelp of the Center’s Rajawali FoundationInstitute for Asia and other Harvard re-sources. The Center welcomed 26 newAsia Fellows this fall. For a complete list-ing of this year’s fellows, please visit theAsh Center website at ash.harvard.edu.

Technology and DemocracyNon-Resident FellowshipsThe Technology and Democracy Fel-lowship is part of an Ash Center initia-tive to explore technology’s role in im-proving democratic governance—witha focus on connecting to practice andon helping HKS students develop cru-cial technology skills. The Center wel-comed six new fellows this semester.Fatima Alam, Researcher on Trust andSafety, GoogleTiffani Ashley Bell, Founder and Execu-tive Director, The Human UtilityJeff Maher, Consultant, Commonwealthof Massachusetts Digital TeamMarina Martin, Public Interest Technol-ogy Fellow, New America FoundationAaron Ogle, Director of Product, Open-Gov FoundationMjumbe Poe, Cofounder and Chief Tech-nology Officer, FixList

Program on Crisis LeadershipFellowshipsThe Program on Crisis Leadership(PCL) offers fellows appointments toacademics and senior practitionersconducting research on issues relatingto emergency preparedness, crisis response, and disaster recovery. Thisfall, PCL welcomed Dr. Simon O’Rourke,Police Inspector, Counter Terrorism & Emergency Response Command,Western Australia Police.

Democratic Governance Program Visiting FellowshipsThe Ash Center occasionally hostsscholars and professionals from thegovernment, academia, and nonprofitsector to address issues related to de-mocratization, public participation, andsocial movements. This fall the Centerwelcomed the following visitors:Leonardo da Silveira Ev, PhD Candidate,Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,BrazilKanoko Kamata, Executive Director,Community Organizing JapanHaroldo Ramanzini Junior, Assistant Pro-fessor, Federal University of Uberlan-dia, Brazil


RESEARCH BRIEF

Fellows SpotlightChristian Zionism, the Religious Right, and Donald Trump:History’s Role in Contemporary Politics

“Make America great again,” DonaldTrump’s 2016 presidential campaignslogan, might not sound religious tothe average political observer. One his-torian, however, hears a different tune.

“Looking at his [Trump’s] lan-guage, and particularly even some-thing that most of us would agree isnot really religious, like "Make Americagreat again,” you’ll see that it actuallyhas a historical background,” says DanHummel, history scholar and Ash Cen-ter History and Public Policy FellowAY2016–17.

Starting in the 1970s, the religiousright emerged as an important politicalconstituency, and with it came a newtype of revivalism that focused onrestoring the morals of the nation—not the individual soul. Hummel ex-plains that this revivalist nationalismbecame embedded in the contempo-rary politics of Christian America and,by 1980, Ronald Reagan drew uponthe movement with his presidentialcampaign slogan, “Let’s make Americagreat again.” By using revivalist lan-guage about American decline, par-ticularly moral and religious deterio-ration, Reagan implied that histhen-potential presidency would re-new the country spiritually.

Hummel recalls Reagan’s sloganand the words of religious figures likeBilly Graham and Jerry Falwell whenhe hears Trump’s rhetoric. As Hummelwrites in a 2016 Religions academicjournal article, “We can observe agradual secularization of revivalist nationalism, one that could even ac-commodate a non-evangelical figurelike Donald Trump.” He concludes,“Trump is the most recent in a longline of deft leaders—media savvy,charismatic, at home in front of acrowded stadium—who have contin-ued to rely on revivalist forms to shapeand share their message.”

Trump’s language is just one exam-ple of how historical references cancast a new light on modern politics andpolicy. Hummel has long understoodthat religion plays an important part inpolitics and that it influences many of

our actions. In his role as a historian,he has worked to reveal how religiouspolitical movements, like revivalist na-tionalism, have changed over time.

Hummel is principally an expert inChristian Zionism, a religious move-ment with both biblical and modernroots. Growing up an evangelical Chris-tian, Hummel had a reservoir of knowl-edge about Israel and the Church’ssupport for the state from a youngage. That knowledge was expandedduring his undergraduate, graduate,and doctoral studies on the history ofUS-Middle East relations and diplo-macy, ultimately culminating in a dis-sertation about the rise of ChristianZionist activism after 1948.

Since the 1940s, Christian Zionismhas become a global movement witha vast network of organizations. BothAmerican and global Christian Zionismhave promoted a theological, political,and cultural transformation in Christianattitudes toward Jews and Israel whichhas shaped US-Israel diplomacy andJewish-Christian relations around theglobe. Hummel has documented themovement’s growth and changes,working in both American and Israeliarchives, in Hebrew and English.

Before 2016, Hummel’s documen-tation ended in 1980, a modern timeperiod for most historians. However,Hummel knew that there was a growinginterest in Christian Zionism and thathis work had contemporary implica-tions. At that point, he joined the AshCenter’s History and Public Policy fel-lowship program and was encouragedto take the next step with his work. Un-der the guidance of Moshik Temkin, As-sociate Professor of Public Policy andAsh resident faculty affiliate, and otherhistorians at Harvard Kennedy School,Hummel tackled present issues andchanges in the movement.

While at the Ash Center, Hummelwrote about “the new Christian Zion-ism,” the shift of Christian Zionismfrom an Anglo-American movementto a global movement with strongroots in countries like Brazil, Nigeria,and South Korea. Hummel notes,

“There's an interesting history in howa movement that used to be largelyAmerican has become a global move-ment.” The change in the movementis evocative of the way other historianstalk about the 20th century as theheight of American influence. Today,global powers outside of the US areinfluencing policy regarding Israel asthey do on a number of other issues.Hummel remarks, “The Christian Zion-ist lobby in America today is not nearly,I would say, as influential as a lot ofpeople think they are.” Hummel un-derstands the lobby instead as onepart of a complex and increasingly in-ternational movement.

Now a Kingdon Fellow at the Uni-versity of Madison-Wisconsin, Hummelhas not stopped thinking about themodern implications of his work andhis forthcoming book, A Covenant of

the Mind: Evangelicals, Israel, and theConstruction of a Special Relationship(University of Pennsylvania Press), willaddress Christian Zionism through thepresent. He sees value in continuingto draw a connection between historyand public policy. “I think a lot of pol-icymakers and people in the policy-making process just don't know thehistory,” Hummel says. “A historical ap-proach to public policy problems cangive us a sense of what has workedbefore and why, and that is so impor-tant to understanding if a policy in thefuture will perform the same way ithas in the past.” He concludes, “A his-torical approach can also help us un-derstand the diverse and often unfa-miliar reasons why people supportdifferent policies and outcomes basedon factors including religious belief.”

ABOVE

US President Donald Trump meets

with Israeli President Reuvin Rivlin

in Jerusalem in May 2017

LEFT

Dan Hummel, History and Public

Policy Fellow AY2016–17

C


RESEARCH BRIEF

On the Bookshelf

A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed GovernanceStephen Goldsmith, Neil KleimanBrookings Institution Press and Ash Center, 2017

At a time when trust is dropping precipitously andAmerican government at the national level has fallen into a state of long-term, partisan-based grid-lock, local government can still be effective— indeedmore effective and even more responsive to theneeds of its citizens. Based on decades of direct ex-perience and years studying successful modelsaround the world, the authors of this intriguing bookpropose a new operating system (O/S) for cities.Former Mayor of Indianapolis and Director of theAsh Center’s Innovations in American GovernmentProgram Stephen Goldsmith and New York Univer-sity Professor Neil Kleiman suggest ways for citiesto build on the giant leaps that have been made intechnology, social engagement, and big data.

Calling their approach “distributed governance,”the authors offer a model that allows public officialsto mobilize new resources, surface ideas from un-

The Cold War: A World HistoryOdd Arne WestadBasic Books, 2017

In this work, Odd Arne Westad greatly expands ourinterpretation of the Cold War, both geographicallyand chronologically, arguing that it must be under-stood as a global ideological confrontation, withearly roots in the Industrial Revolution and ongoingrepercussions around the world.

With The Cold War, Westad offers a new per-spective on a century when great power rivalry andideological battle transformed every corner of ourglobe. From Soweto to Hollywood, Hanoi, and Ham-burg, young men and women felt they were fightingfor the future of the world. The Cold War may havebegun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had itsdeepest reverberations in Asia, Africa, and the Mid-dle East, where nearly every community had tochoose sides. And these choices continue to defineeconomies and regimes across the world.

Today, many regions are plagued with environ-mental threats, social divides, and ethnic conflictsthat stem from this era. Its ideologies influence China,Russia, and the United States; Iraq and Afghanistan

conventional sources, and arm employees with theinformation they need to become preemptive prob-lem-solvers. This book highlights lessons from themany innovations taking place in today’s cities toshow how a new O/S can create systemic transfor-mation. By weaving real-life examples into a coher-ent model, the authors have created a step-by-stepguide for all those who would put the needs of citi-zens front and center.

have been destroyed by the faith in purely militarysolutions that emerged from the Cold War.

When asked about changing perceptions of theCold War and the implications for his new book,Westad noted of today, “We get to have a muchbroader, much more contemporary view of what thisconflict was about in terms of understanding howmany aspects of it, not just the military, not just thestrategic, [but] economic, cultural, political [forces]in a broader sense, created the world that we live intoday.” Westad offers an engaging new history ofhow today's world was created.

Read more in our profile on page 8.

itors explore the challenges of recognizing and ad-dressing novel situations, developing and maintain-ing situational awareness, mobilizing surge capacity,multi-organizational coordination, and relations be-tween political and operational leaders. Illuminatingthese and a number of other difficult and complextasks the public health community faces whenreadying for and responding to disasters, PublicHealth Preparedness is intended for a wide range ofreaders, including senior practitioners enrolled incontinuing education and executive education pro-grams; graduate students studying public policy, ad-ministration, health, and planning; public healthprofessionals and specialists in related fields; andconcerned citizens. For more on other publicationsdeveloped by the Program on Crisis Leadership, including additional case studies on this topic, visit hks.harvard.edu/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/publications.


RESEARCH BRIEF

Strengthening Electoral IntegrityPippa NorrisCambridge University Press, 2017

Many elections around the world fail to meet inter-national standards. Even small flaws in contests canerode public confidence, which is difficult to restore.New electoral risks metastasize, including fromlapses in cybersecurity, disinformation campaigns,and the rise of populist authoritarianism.

What works to fix common problems? And whatsolutions prove most effective? This final volume ina trilogy from the Electoral Integrity Project con-fronts head-on the resigned pessimism surroundingrecent efforts to strengthen elections and, morebroadly, to reverse the decline of democracy world-wide. Most aid is invested in the riskiest contexts,while expectations are commonly inflated. Agenciesneed better evidence to evaluate programs. Elec-toral problems need more than technical fixes, aspolitical will is often lacking.

To counter the prevailing ethos, Ash Center fac-ulty affiliate Pippa Norris presents a pragmaticdemonstration of several common types of electoralassistance that, in fact, work. Success should not be

exaggerated. Not everything works, by any means.But Norris shows that programs are most effectivewhere international organizations and bilateraldonors support local stakeholders—including in theirefforts to reform electoral laws, strengthen women’srepresentation, foster independent journalism, reg-ulate money in politics, and improve voter registra-tion. Norris writes that aid agencies would do wellto match their strengths and weaknesses to the op-portunities and threats they face on the ground.

Though challenging, Norris encourages us not toabandon our attempts to strengthen free and fairelections at home and abroad. Since 1948, the inter-national community and Western leaders have beencommitted to the values of freedom and democracy.At a time of authoritarian resurgence, far from cyn-ical retreat or fatalistic resignation, it is even moreimportant for democrats to redouble efforts to de-fend electoral integrity.

The Electoral Integrity Project can be found atelectoralintegrityproject.com.

Public Health Preparedness: CaseStudies in Policy and ManagementArnold M. Howitt, Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, DavidW. Giles, eds.American Public Health Association Press, 2017

This new volume, edited by Arnold Howitt, Herman“Dutch” Leonard, and David Giles of the Ash andTaubman Centers’ Program on Crisis Leadership,contains 15 Harvard Kennedy School case studies onpublic health emergency preparedness and re-sponse. Offering detailed accounts of natural disas-ters, infectious disease outbreaks, and acts ofbioterrorism that have occurred in the United Statesand Canada from the 1990s through present day, thebook includes chapters on Superstorm Sandy, the2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2014 Ebola outbreak,SARS, the 2001 anthrax attacks and hoaxes, the 1995Chicago heat wave, and several other major emer-gencies and hazards. An introductory chapter, aswell as overviews of and discussion questions foreach case, provide readers with an analytical frame-work and emphasize key concepts to help facilitatethe use of the material in classroom instruction.Among other core themes of crisis response, the ed-

hks.harvard.edu/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/publications

hks.harvard.edu/centers/research-initiatives/crisisleadership/publications

https://www.electoralintegrityproject.com/


RESEARCH BRIEF

Citizen Voices, Community Solutions: Designing Bet-ter Transparency and Accountability Approaches toImprove HealthThe Transparency for Development TeamAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, August 2017

The Transparency for Devel-opment project, led by theAsh Center in collaborationwith Results for Develop-ment and the University ofWashington, is undertakingone of the world’s most am-bitious research efforts intocitizen-led accountabilityprograms intended to im-prove health and health care. This paper details theprogram at the heart of the research. The programitself is designed to help citizens working to improvetheir public health care across a range of unique po-litical and social environments; the paper describesthe program and the design process that led to it.That design process was purposefully extensive andcollaborative, involving intellectual contributions byresearchers and practitioners at the three major part-ner organizations as well as partners in Tanzania(the Clinton Health Access Initiative) and Indonesia(PATTIRO). The authors hope that the paper providesinsight into the questions and tradeoffs that gov-ernments and civil society organizations around theworld may face in designing flexible, adaptive com-munity-led efforts to improve global health care.

Gender and Political Mobilization Online: Partici-pation and Policy Success on a Global PetitioningPlatformJonathan Mellon, University of Oxford and WorldBank; Hollie Russon Gilman, School of Internationaland Public Affairs, Columbia University and AshCenter; Fredrik Sjoberg, World Bank; TiagoPeixoto, World BankAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, July 2017

Connectivity has increased exponentially in the lasttwo decades, yet democratic growth has stalled andcivic spaces have shrunk. While the full potential of“civic technologies” remains largely unfulfilled, un-derstanding the extent to which they may further

democratic goals is morepressing than ever.

This is precisely the taskundertaken in this original andmethodologically innovativeresearch. The authors exam-ine online petitions which, al-beit understudied, are one ofthe fastest growing types ofpolitical participation acrossthe globe. Drawing from an impressive dataset of3.9 million signers of online petitions from 132 coun-tries, the authors assess the extent to which onlineparticipation replicates or changes the gaps com-monly found in offline participation, not only withregards to who participates (and how), but also withregards to which petitions are more likely to be suc-cessful. The findings, at times counterintuitive, pro-vide several insights for democracy scholars andpractitioners alike.

What Does General Secretary Xi Jinping DreamAbout?Tony SaichAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, August 2017

Written in advance of Octo-ber’s Chinese CommunistParty (CCP) 19th Party Con-gress, at which General Sec-retary Xi Jinping was con-firmed for a second five-yearterm, this timely analysis ar-gues that the period of easyreforms in China has ended,and the time of difficult re-forms that touch core political interests has begun.The resulting challenges facing Xi span political, eco-nomic, and international spheres. Leadership mustboth maintain a domestic focus to strengthen eco-nomic growth and avoid the “middle-income trap,”while also engaging in a host of regional and globalactions to cement China’s position on the world stage.Internally, Xi has consolidated significant politicalpower, and this has created marked tension amongvested interests and competing centers of influence.Externally, for the first time in several centuries, thelargest economy in the world is not Western and willbe under a leadership that does not share the same

New Papers from the Ash Center

consensual values and political structures as those inthe West. Xi has outlined several priorities, including:increased CCP control over state and society; the pro-motion of traditional Chinese culture; the importanceof Marxism as a guiding principle; historical revision-ism and censorship; the promotion of nationalism;and the pursuit of an aggressive national anti-cor-ruption campaign. Given these goals and sets of chal-lenges, the outcome in China is uncertain and thereexist a range of possible scenarios.

New Case Study Series: Operational Excellence inGovernmentJane WisemanAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, 2017

In 2017, the project publishedthree case studies, which areavailable at innovations.har-vard.edu/opex:

Atlanta's Blue RibbonCommission on Waste & Effi-ciency in Government Report:Faced with a $1 billion infra-structure backlog, AtlantaMayor Kasim Reed estab-lished a commission that he charged with finding ef-ficiencies in the city government that could pay forthe needed infrastructure investments. This casestudy describes how Atlanta identified $92 million inone-time savings and $25 million in annual savingsby improving the efficiency of its operations.

New York City Office Space Optimization: The realestate used by government, from city halls to equip-ment storage facilities, accounts for a substantial por-tion of government budgets and operations. This casehighlights New York City’s optimization of its real es-tate portfolio. In the first three years of this effort,the city reduced office space by 400,000 square feetand saved $15 million in annual rent occupancy costs.

Performance Management and Lean Process Im-provement—Results Washington: This case study de-scribes how performance management strategiesand employee-driven process improvements wereapplied in Washington State government. A total of$33 million in savings and avoided costs have beenachieved, as well as countless hours saved viastreamlined processes, resulting in improved cus-tomer satisfaction.

On the Bookshelf


IN THE NEWS

Event Snapshots

A Conversation with Luigi Di Maio: Understanding the FiveStar Movement and the Role of Direct Democracy in ItalyMay 3, 2017Luigi Di Maio, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies in the Italian Parlia-ment and a leader of the Five Star Movement, one of Italy's opposition politicalparties, joined HKS Academic Dean Archon Fung for a public conversation onthe breakdown of the traditional party structure and the role of direct democ-racy in Italy. Di Maio, on his first official trip to the United States, drew an over-flow audience to the Wiener Auditorium where he discussed the seeminglyimprobable rise of the Five Star Movement, his views on a number of hot-but-ton political issues including the future of the European Union, migration toItaly, and voter disenchantment with the political elite. His speech was viewedby over 150,000 people online.

Fung described the party as “one of the earliest in the current wave of anti-elite, anti-government populist movements that are sweeping so many West-ern democracies right now.” He also noted that many have questioned whetherthe party can transform from an opposition protest party to a party capable ofgoverning should it win Italy’s next round of parliamentary elections.

Di Maio described how the Five Star Movement, or M5S as it is also known,was able to build a base of support among Italians through its online organizingand deliberation efforts, in effect crowdsourcing its policy platform among Ital-ian voters. Audience members, many of them from Italy, also asked pointedquestions about Di Maio and the Five Star Movement’s controversial positionson immigration policy, European integration, and vaccinations.

Black America in the Era of TrumpJune 8, 2017In June, the Ash Center partnered with the HKS Washington DC Alumni Councilfor a conversation titled Black America in the Era of Trump, moderated by Assis-tant Professor of Public Policy Leah Wright Rigueur. The talk drew nearly 100alumni for a discussion with political reporter Darren Sands; former ObamaWhite House senior advisor Heather Foster; and Ashley Bell, the National Direc-tor of African American Engagement for the Republican National Committeeduring the 2016 presidential campaign.

The three panelists fielded a variety of questions about the impact of Presi-dent Trump’s election on the African American community. Ash faculty affiliateWright Rigueur pressed the panelists for their views on how the election impact-ed black activists and advocacy organizations in the wake of President Trump’spolarizing presidential campaign. Panelists also delved into why black turnoutdeclined in 2016, Republican efforts to garner African American support for theTrump campaign, and the strategy of both political parties to rebuild supportwithin the African American community after such a bruising election.

Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative: Mayors Program July 17–19, 2017The new Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, housed at the Ash Cen-ter, convened its first cohort of 40 mayors in July for an executive educationprogram in New York City. For three days, city leaders from Stockholm to SouthBend and Liverpool to Long Beach attended classes and workshops with facul-ty from HKS and Harvard Business School.

The event marked the inaugural program for the initiative, a collaborationbetween Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and BloombergPhilanthropies, the nonprofit foundation created by former New York Citymayor Michael Bloomberg.

For the mayors, the July convening was a valuable opportunity to meet andlearn from their counterparts around the United States and the world while par-

Luigi Di Maio (center) of Italy’s Five Star Movement presents to a full audience in Wiener Auditorium at HKS

HKS alumnus George Arterberry (left) with Assistant Professor LeahWright Rigueur at an event in Washington, DC, to discuss PresidentTrump’s impact on the African American community

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg provides opening remarks at the inaugural Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative’s Mayors Program


IN THE NEWS

ticipating in an intensive classroom experience. The faculty had a learningexperience of their own, hearing from mayors about the problems their citiesface on a daily basis and gaining a tangible sense of the opportunities theseleaders have to improve the lives of their city’s residents. The session kicked offa yearlong engagement of ongoing support for these 40 mayors and their mostsenior staff.

Legislative Leaders at HarvardAugust 7, 2017In August, the Ash Center hosted a group of passionate state legislators fromaround the US and Canada at Harvard University’s Loeb House. The policymak-ers, in Boston for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual Legisla-tive Summit, opted to attend the daylong event to engage with Harvard facultyon core issues of democratic governance.

The day opened with remarks from Archon Fung, HKS Academic Dean, andDan Blue, North Carolina Senate Democratic Leader and President of theNational Conference of State Legislatures. In the morning, David Moss, HarvardBusiness School Paul Whiton Cherington Professor of Business Administration,led an interactive session on American democracy, conflict, and leadership. Theafternoon was filled with an engaging panel discussion about governing andlegislating in divided times. The panel featured Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel PaulProfessor of the Practice of Government and Ash faculty affiliate; Jane Mans-bridge, Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values andAsh faculty affiliate; Miles Rapoport, Senior Practice Fellow in AmericanDemocracy at the Ash Center; Robert Stivers, Republican Senate President inKentucky; and John Cullerton, Democratic Senate President in Illinois. The dayended with legislators sharing experiences—some more successful than oth-ers—of working across the aisle and reflections on future work addressing boththeir challenges and opportunities.

Gender and Security Seminar SeriesFall 2017This fall, Dara Kay Cohen, Associate Professor of Public Policy, launched theGender and Security Seminar Series. The seminars bring leading experts fromacademia and the policy world, working at the intersection of gender, humanrights, and security, to Harvard Kennedy School. Series speakers discuss theirresearch in progress or share their perspectives on current policy debates.

The seminar series addressed issues of national security during the fallsemester, during which Belfer Center Director and former US Secretary ofDefense Ash Carter discussed his decision to open up all military positions towomen, and Dr. Andreas Kotsadam, Senior Researcher at The Frisch Centre andAffiliated Researcher at the Department of Economics at the University of Oslo,discussed whether exposure of men to women in a traditionally male-dominat-ed environment can change gendered attitudes. During the spring semester,the series will tackle issues of international security.

The series is a collaborative effort by four research centers and programs atHKS: the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Ash Center, theCarr Center for Human Rights, and the Women and Public Policy Program.

Reinventing Democracy: Macron’s Victory in FranceSeptember 20, 2017French President Emmanuel Macron swept triumphantly into power earlier thisyear, shaking up the country’s established political order and vaulting his newpolitical party, En Marche, into the majority in the National Assembly. In Sep-tember, two HKS alumnae who played a pivotal role in En Marche’s electoral tri-umph returned to Cambridge for a discussion of Macron’s victory as part of theAsh Center’s Rebuilding Democracy public lecture series.

Guillaume Liegey MPA ‘10 and Brune Poirson MPA ‘17 discussed the reinven-tion of political parties in France in a conversation moderated by Ash Centerresident faculty affiliate Marshall Ganz. Arthur Goldhammer, senior affiliate atHarvard’s Center for European Studies, provided additional regional political

HKS scholars and state legislative leaders discuss partisan politics during a session titled “Governing and Legislating in Divided Times”

Ash Carter, director of the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and former US Secretary of Defense, discusses hisdecision to open up all military positions to women

Panel discussion with, from left to right: Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer; Guillaume Liegey MPA ’10; Brune Poirson MPA ’17; and ArthurGoldhammer, senior affiliate at Harvard’s Center for European Studies


IN THE NEWS

context to the discussion. Poirson, who received her MPA last spring, was a stu-dent of Ganz and was elected to the National Assembly in June. She was thenappointed as Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and InclusiveTransition. Liegey, also a former Ganz student, is the founder of the Europeanpolitical data firm Liegey Muller Pons, and worked as a consultant to theMacron campaign.

Liegey and Poirson discussed the challenges of political organizing in theirhome country and how they helped infuse French politics with Obama-eraorganizing tactics. “How do you get 1.5 million volunteers organized to targetthe right places to get out the vote,” asked Liegey. The two marveled at thesuccess of Macron’s movement. En Marche, recalled Poirson, offered Frenchvoters a sense of optimism and energy that previous campaigns lacked. “It wasso easy to be pessimistic” about the future of France and the European Union,but En Marche helped convince voters that France was ripe for transformation.Panelists also helped place the recent French elections in the context of pop-ulist movements sweeping across Europe and North America. While Macroneschewed the nationalist rhetoric of his principal opponent, Marine Le Pen, orGeert Wilders in the Netherlands, he was nonetheless able to harness a deepdistrust of the entrenched political class in France today in order to propel himto victory.

Organizing for Freedom: Then and Now with HollisWatkinsSeptember 27, 2017Ash Center resident faculty affiliate Marshall Ganz hosted civil rights veteranHollis Watkins for a discussion of Watkins’ new book, Brother Hollis: The Sanko-fa of a Movement Man. Watkins was an active member of the Student Nonvio-lent Coordinating Committee and an organizer of the 1964 Freedom Summer,a massive effort to register African American Mississippians to vote. Watkins,who is Founder and President of Southern Echo, a Mississippi-based leadershipeducation organization, was joined by Eric Leslie MC/MPA ‘14, the founder andlead organizer of Union Capital Boston, an organization working to connectlow-income individuals and families to local resources. During the talk, whichwas part of the Ash Center's Race and American Politics series, Watkins gavethe audience his unique firsthand perspective on how local advocates workedto effectively organize support for the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

Summit on Data-Smart GovernmentNovember 7–8, 2017For two days in November, the Ash Center hosted the first-ever Summit onData-Smart Government. The summit was led by the Center’s Civic AnalyticsNetwork, a peer group of leading chief data officers (CDOs) from the largestcities in the US working to advance the use of data analytics in municipal gov-ernment. Numerous presenters led conversations and workshops on ways gov-ernment can leverage data for public safety, mobility, inspections, and more.Attendees included a mix of practitioners from all levels of government, as wellas students, scholars, and representatives from nonprofits.

In the realm of public safety and health, Tom Schenk, Chicago’s CDO,described the potential for data to enable risk-based restaurant inspections.Oliver Wise, the Director of Performance and Accountability in New Orleans,explained how data in his city was being used to reduce fatalities related tohouse fires. Other presenters discussed the processing of Waze data to analyzeand improve mobility in Louisville, Kentucky and an innovative geospatial datahub in Los Angeles. Further discussions covered urban sensors, the opioid cri-sis, cross-sector partnerships, and data engagement. The event closed with apanel on challenges and opportunities in transportation data.

Resident faculty affiliate Marshall Ganz and Eric Leslie MC/MPA ’14 listen as Hollis Watkins (center), civil rights veteran and author of Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of a Movement Man, leads the audience in song

Oliver Wise, director of New Orleans’ Office of Performance and Accountability, presents during a panel on “Leveraging Cross-SectorPartnerships” at the Summit on Data-Smart Government

The Civic Analytics Network (CAN) is comprised of chief data officers from around the country who are supported by CAN fellows.The network is convened by Professor Stephen Goldsmith

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The Ash Center for Democratic Governance andInnovation strives to make the world a betterplace by advancing excellence and innovation ingovernance and public policy through research,education, and public discussion. By training thevery best leaders, developing powerful new ideas,and disseminating innovative solutions and insti-tutional reforms, the Center’s goal is to meet theprofound challenges facing the world’s citizens.

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