Can you believe in the importance of evidence-based public policy AND think that populism can be good for democracy? That's the question I debated with @politicsprof.bsky.social and Stephen Richer this week. The short answer, of course, is yes! The long answer is more rewarding to listen to.

How can democracies get billionaires under control? Join us Tues 12.15pm ET to find out. @pculpepper.bsky.social will join @stephenricher.bsky.social and me to talk about his new book Billionaire Backlash (co-authored with my colleague @taekurono.bsky.social). www.youtube.com/live/Md8F_of...

Chapter on AI and Democracy with Bailey Flanigan, @politicsprof.bsky.social and Charles Stewart 👇

Both parties remain unpopular. www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/u...

Archon Fung @politicsprof.bsky.social makes a related point about society in general: that strife around who gets to speak in the public square (including campuses) has intensified as the ideological divide between the two major parties has grown more profound niemanreports.org/the-future-o...

Psyched to talk to @vanjones.bsky.social about big tech and American politics @4pm ET. In Obama days, most tech moguls were aligned with the Democrats. Now, some very big ones are aligned with Trump and MAGA. Should progressives ally w/ big tech, or fight them? ash.harvard.edu/events/how-d...

This Friday don’t miss the opportunity to hear from @raskin.house.gov, @davidhogg.bsky.social, @cornellbrooks.bsky.social, Marshall Ganz, Theda Skopcol, @politicsprof.bsky.social, @alexkeyssar.bsky.social and more at the Teach-In (at Harvard & livestreamed) Register: www.students4freedom.org/events

Terrific explainer of Orban’s dummymander result this weekend…

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's observation that some ostensibly labor-saving inventions actually require more work than they save, on the blog today, I ask whether the need to correct AI's errors renders its current manifestations a net negative for legal research and writing.

My colleague Stephen Richer, former Maricopa County Recorder, has some reactions to Trump's new mail voting E.O. from the standpoint of an experienced administrator in Arizona, a state whose permitted vote-by-mail timeline Trump seems to imagine he can block.

Pro-AI group to spend $100mn on US midterm elections as backlash grows @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/6a3f...

US publication date is today for the Billionaire Backlash! If you’re in the Cambridge (MA) area, come to Harvard Book Store tomorrow night to hear us chat about the book with the inimitable @politicsprof.bsky.social

Tune in to today's episode of Terms of Engagement, live on YouTube at 12pm ET. Watch here ⤵️ https://www.youtube.com/live/BgMn70uUVHQ?si=Afyd7emojOOaLZGm

Tune in at noon ET to hear Director Nancy Gibbs in conversation with @politicsprof.bsky.social & Stephen Richer about the current state of the media on @harvardash.bsky.social's Terms of Engagement podcast. Join live or watch/listen later.

Civil society fights back Nine Law Firms Surrendered. Four Law Firms Won. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/o...

What's higher ed to do when it loves viewpoint diversity, but viewpoint diversity doesn't love it back? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...

Many of us in the democracy community tried to persuade the Obama folks that small-d democracy should be more of a priority than they made it. My sense then was that they nodded politely, but didn't really get the point. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

“The largest number of people to vote for anything in the history of Maine have said they don’t want super PACs. ... It demonstrates that this is a deeply purple issue; there was no difference in the results in red districts or blue districts." https://bit.ly/4tHG86G

This Culpepper and Thelen article on how consumer identity supports platform power is a stone-cold classic. "Focusing on the critical role played by consumers in explaining the powers platform firms wield in the rich democracies lends insight as well into their distinctive vulnerabilities"

Brilliant, from the Colbert show the other night: Ian McKellen recites a speech, “The Stranger’s Case,” thought to be by Shakespeare in which Sir Thomas More addresses an unruly London crowd that has rioted demanding that strangers from abroad be sent back. “What would you think, to be thus used?”

Join me and @stevelevitsky.bsky.social at our next session of The Breakdown, this Thursday 2/18 at 4pm ET. Register here: ash.harvard.edu/events/the-b...

The pace at which US wealth concentration is rising is simply staggering The concentration of AI wealth into the hands of a few tech barons + plutocratic capture ==> unchartered territory

Important report from @bcburden.bsky.social who runs the @electionscenter.bsky.social on this point. electionlab.mit.edu/articles/opt...

This @bostonreview.bsky.social piece by @adambonica.bsky.social and @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social is an absolute must-read, as are many of the responses to it. Spread this one far and wide.

"I demand the sum of one bm̶illion dollars"

Join Jonathan Rauch, @stephenrich.bsky.social and me to talk about whether the Trump admin is "fascist," what that means, and whether the name matters on the @harvardash.bsky.social Terms of Engagement (Tuesday noon ET). www.youtube.com/live/vGghrgX...

Huge Billy Bragg fan, too.

Like many men of a certain age, I’m a huge Springstein fan. Here’s a new track with some Dylanesque notes.

Normal thing for a major urban American newspaper to have to post.

The fundamental tenet of Robert Peel, who founded the first municipal police force in London, is that the police are the people and the people are the police. Once this connection is destroyed, you are simply an occupying force. This is why ICE should be withdrawn from Minneapolis, today.

Secretary of State Steve Simon’s statement on the outrageous request from the US Attorney General www.sos.mn.gov/about-the-of...

Many of us educators in the democracy space have argued for decades that there should be more civic education courses in K-12, college, etc. But the folks in Minneapolis and your comment make me think the real problem is that leaders of business, media, and politics need more civic education.

Thank you, President Roth. No official at my university (Harvard) can make a statement like yours as an official because our institutional voice policy forbids it. That’s too bad, because the successful defense of democracy just might require leaders of its institutions to speak up and defend it.

Bellingcat analysis of Alex Pretti killing by federal Officers. (T1) officer appears to have taken weapon off of Pretti’s waist, (T2) then walks away with the gun, (T3) and then 2 other officers shoot him, 10 times. If Bellingcat analysis holds up, Pretti was killed after he was disarmed.

Here is the newly-unsealed State Department memo confirming -- finally -- that the detention of Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk was based on an op-ed. No antisemitic activity. No support of terrorism. An op-ed in a student newspaper. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This is what democracy looks like… www.nytimes.com/2026/01/23/u...

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland. They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

[Trump] boasted that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election.” www.reuters.com/world/us/fiv...

DHS Secretary Noem deploys hundreds more federal agents to Minneapolis citing corruption. According to this ranking, MN is in lowest five states in US for levels of corruption. Five most corrupt states: KY, LA, MT, WV, and, yes, Noem’s own South Dakota. www.cato.org/blog/public-...

Very informative - and disturbing - analysis of shooting of Renee Good by @nytimes.com. Evidently, officer was to the left of the SUV, not in front of it, when he fired. The double (triple) tap shots, at maybe 1 or 2 feet away from her, are hard to watch

Minnesota Public Radio says today marks the first and only shooting and homicide in Minneapolis in the year 2026

NPR built a visual archive of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In "Chapter 2: Stop the Steal," we look at how false claims of a stolen election mobilized Trump supporters.

1. Hundreds of corps that pledged to stop donating to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election on 1/6/21 have broken their promise over the last 5 years But we've identified 10 promise keepers: Farmers Airbnb Expedia Nike Clorox Eversource Energy Holland & Hart Qurate Whirlpool Lyft

Very glad that many more of my fellow Americans are democrats (small-d) than imperialists. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Completely consistent. Trump Nat Sec Strat document mentions democracy only 3 times; 2 of those are in the context of Europe. “Democracy” appears 38 times in Biden’s 2022 NSS. Democracy is simply not a priority (might interfere with actual priorities, e.g. oil). www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

Watching the 60 Minutes CECOT segment feels somehow transgressive to me. Very disturbing report on human rights violations. Check it out here, in full broadcast quality, courtesy of @yasharali.bsky.social www.thereset.news/p/breaking-h...

Scary. “The Massachusetts’ US Attorney General’s office has filed charges against the suspect they are seeking for the MIT shooting and the Brown shootings, according to a person familiar with the investigation.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/18/m...

Notable that Trump’s National Security Strategy (Nov 2025) mentions “democracy” just 3 times. Once warning that protecting democracy can be used to justify violating rights, and twice in the context of Europe. “Democracy” occurs 38 times in Biden’s 2022 NSS. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

#2 on the list of striking @pewresearch.org findings from the past year: What I call the "fish diagram." International public opinion of the United States has worsened in Trump's second term, while global opinion of China has improved. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...