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Research and dissemination are hallmarks of the Ash Institute’s continuing effort to catalyze innovation and explore the principles and processes of democracy. The Institute builds knowledge through an open exchange of ideas and experiences, bringing together government innovators, practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and advocates from around the world to address pressing concerns for improving the lives of citizens. |
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December 2, 2008: Innovation in National Security Post 9-11
At this JFK Forum event, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell will address innovative practices in national security in the nation’s post September 11th climate. McConnell’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently was honored as a 2008 Innovations in American Government Award winner for its Intelligence Community Civilian Joint Duty Program. The Program instills a new model of collaboration within the intelligence community by requiring personnel to serve a period of duty outside of their parent agency as a prerequisite for senior level promotion. All 16 agencies, including those within the six cabinet departments that make up the intelligence community, participate in the program. For more information, please visit the JFK Forum's site. | ||
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December 1, 2008: Reforming Juvenile Justice: Lessons from Missouri’s Award-Winning Program
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November 19: China's Environment in a Globalizing World
Sponsored by Harvard Kennedy School of Government China Caucus China Salon Speaker Series, this seminar features Jianguo Liu, visiting scholar in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Liu is a guest professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability, and a Michigan State University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. The event will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. ET in Taubman Building, Room 401. For more information, please contact Carol Yu. | ||
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November 12, 2008: 16th Annual U.S. – Japan Symposium
Members of the Kansai Keizai Doyukai, a delegation of prominent Japanese business executives from major corporations across the Osaka-Kyoto region, will convene for the 16th Annual U.S. – Japan Symposium. Sponsored by the Institute’s Asia Programs, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and the Japan Society of Boston, the event will examine the changing roles of Japan and the United States under the next president. | ||
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November 2008: Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP) Forum
Hosted by the Ash Institute’s Vietnam Program, this first annual dialogue initiative with senior Vietnamese government policymakers will be attended by a delegation of Vietnamese officials led by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai. The forum features research-based discussion with Harvard faculty and senior executives from leading multinational firms. Organized by Harvard Kennedy School and Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the event will address key policy challenges confronting Vietnam in the context of current trends in the world economy. | ||
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November 5, 2008: China's Innovation Strategy Seminar
In this interactive seminar, Duan Peijun of China's Central Party School offers insights into China's strategy for innovation. Duan Peijun is the dean of the teaching research section of strategy study and serves as the executive director of the Research Center for Social Development as well as the deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Philosophy Department. He has lectured and trained numerous government officials in China. The session will take place in Littauer Room 130 at 6 p.m. | ||
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October 9-10, 2008: China Goes Global
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Informal Institutions and Rural Development in China
China's successful transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy, with rapid growth in rural areas 1980s, is a consequence of the impact of both formal and informal institutions. Hitherto, most work undertaken on this issue has focused on formal institutions. This book shows the great importance of informal institutions on the economic and social development of rural China. It examines the relationship between informal institutions and rural development in China since the end of the 1970s, focusing in particular on three major informal institutions: village trust and rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), guanxi community and 'integrating village with company' (IVWC) governance. It argues that informal institutions, traditions and customs are all critical factors for facilitating modernization and social and economic development, enabling, the integration of trust, reciprocity, responsibility and obligation into economic and social exchange processes, and considerably lowering risks and transactions costs. It does this by analysing case studies that illustrate how informal institutions function and support development in rural China. Author Biliang Hu recently won the prestigious 2008 Zhang Peigang Development Economics Award for this publication. |
Beginning in 2004, the Institute initiated an annual research grant competition open to all Harvard Kennedy School faculty. While the current application deadline for HKS research and retreat grants has passed, applicants are encouraged to contact Bruce Jackan for details. Visit the following links for additional information concerning the Ash Institute's research grant competition:
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Dr. Lan Xue China is currently making the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, from a rural and agricultural society to an urban and industrial society, and from a governance structure based on individual will and charisma to one based on democratic principles and the rule of law. While the first two transitions have made significant progress over the past two decades, the latter one has not. There are increasing concerns that if China’s political reform does not keep pace with its economic reform, China may be turned into a society characterized by corruption, inequality, and social tension. Professor Xue's research will document the current incremental reforms in the public policy process in China, investigate the roles different social institutions have played in these processes, and assess the impacts and limits of these reforms on the political development in China in terms of building infrastructure for democracy. |
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Dr. Kay Schlozman
Research Scholar, 2006 - 2007 Political arrangements can have consequences for equal citizenship in various ways: for example, by controlling who is considered a citizen or which citizens have the right to participate fully in governing; by facilitating or inhibiting the conversion of market resources into political influence; by creating circumstances in which some votes count more than others; by affecting the likelihood that citizens will be able to elect candidates of their choice; by fostering the representation of particular interests. Through a comparative approach that places American practices in the context of political arrangements in other democracies -- both long-established ones and, where appropriate, emerging ones -- Professor Schlozman's research focuses on the political institutions, procedural rules, and representative arrangements that have implications for democratic equality among citizens. |