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A Tale of Two Insurgencies

August 22, 2016

The American Interest | By Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. 



A Simple Way to Measure Health Care Outcomes

December 8, 2016

Harvard Business Review | By John Schupbach (HBS), Amitabh Chandra (HKS), and Robert S. Huckman (HBS). Chandra is Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.



A Prize Worth Celebrating

October 9, 2016

Wall Street Journal | By Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics. In his review of “The Nobel Factor," Glaeser argues that "the best role for the Nobel Prize in economics is not to advance an ideology but rather to reinforce the requirement that economists should play by the same rules as scientists. "



A Moral Conscience for Economics

August 18, 2016

Harvard Magazine | New HKS dean Douglas Elmendorf talks with Harvard Magazine about inequality, the state of economics, and the role of public policy in improving people's lives.



A Look Back At Other Marches In History, and What They Accomplished

January 22, 2017

NPR Weekend Edition | Leah Wright Rigueur of the Harvard Kennedy School joins to discuss the significance of this weekend's Women's March and how it compares to other marches in history.



A Horrible Idea: Trump’s Push for Stop-and-Frisk Nationwide

October 6, 2016

Moyers & company | Before stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional in New York City, historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad spoke out about a program he called an “enduring form of surveillance and racial control.” Interview with Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School [text and video].



A Harvard discussion series highlights the concerns of DACA students

February 23, 2018

Harvard Gazette | Interview with HGSE Professor Roberto Gonzales, one of the organizers of the DACA seminar at Harvard, a series of events exploring questions about the termination of DACA and TPS, deportations, and the current state of immigration policy.



A Guide to Solving Social Problems with Machine Learning

December 8, 2016

Harvard Business Review | By Jon Kleinberg (Cornell), Jens Ludwig (University of Chicago), and Sendhil Mullainathan (Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University). "[As] with all new 'products', there is potential for misuse. How can we maximize the benefits while minimizing the harm?"

"In applying these tools the last few years, we have focused on exactly this question. We have learned that some of the most important challenges fall within the cracks between the discipline that builds algorithms (computer science) and the disciplines that typically work on solving policy problems (such as economics and statistics). As a result, few of these key challenges are even on anyone’s radar screen. The good news is that many of these challenges, once recognized, are fairly straightforward to solve."



A guide to rebuilding the Democratic Party, from the ground up

January 5, 2017

Vox | By Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology. The key priority for progressives should be strengthening the Democratic Party at state and local levels, argues political scientist Theda Skocpol.

"Anti-institutional tendencies in today’s culture make the idea of dismantling the existing order attractive to many people. But social science research has long shown that majorities need strong organizations to prevail against wealthy conservative interests in democracies. The real problem in US politics today is hardly too much unified organizational heft on the center left; it is too little. Unless the Democratic Party becomes stronger and more effective, a radicalized Republican-conservative juggernaut is likely to take over for decades."



A declaration against the war on drugs

July 3, 2016

Washington Post | By Danielle Allen, Professor of Government. "The history of the present War on Drugs is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having as a direct consequence the severing of the connection between African Americans and the rest of the American polity," writes Allen.

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