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(Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
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DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE
Poll finds broad bipartisan support in U.S. for wide range of rights – and fear that rights are threatened
In an election season marked by fierce partisan division, Americans of all political stripes express strong support for rights that reach well beyond those guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, including the rights to affordable healthcare, clean air and water, a quality education, and protection of personal data. That’s one of the key findings in a national survey undertaken by researchers at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. The survey also finds that a majority of those surveyed feel that their rights are under threat, and more respondents say their rights are “not very secure” than “very secure.” The poll of 2,093 adults, conducted in July, is part of a Carr Center project called “Reimagining Rights and Responsibilities in the United States,” overseen by Professor Mathias Risse, the Carr Center faculty director. Senior Fellow John Shattuck, a former U.S. diplomat and director of the project, says the poll reveals surprising bipartisan support for expansive views of American rights and shared values. He points to findings that more than two-thirds of Americans agree that they “have more in common with each other than many people think.”
Also: National Voter Registration Day event, Tuesday, September 22, 3:30pm EDT
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WHAT WE'RE HEARING
“I think the biggest overriding lesson is that it's a mistake to think of democracy as something you achieve once and for all. The right to vote is an ongoing project, a set of principles that always needs to be nurtured and advanced and defended.”
—Professor Alexander Keyssar, speaking on HKS PolicyCast
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FAIRNESS & JUSTICE
What it takes for companies to tackle racism in the workplace effectively
HKS Lecturer Robert Livingston has some guidance for those who want to confront racism in their organization: He argues that it can be tacked effectively “with the right information, incentives, and investment.” Writing in the current issue of Harvard Business Review, Livingston proffers a roadmap based on his many years of academic study as well as consulting on diversity, leadership, and social justice—and sets out a framework for action by organizations. The starting point, he says, is recognizing that there’s a problem. He has developed a model called PRESS which stands for: Problem awareness; Root-analysis cause: Empathy; Strategies for action: and Sacrifice, which Livingston defines as “willingness to invest the time, energy, and resources necessary for strategy implementation.” He emphasizes that an initial recognition that a problem exists is essential: “People’s beliefs and biases must be recognized and addressed as the first step toward progress.” His book on the topic, The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations, will be published in February.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
The Political Buttons Collection at HKS features over 1,500 political buttons from the 20th and 21st centuries. See the digital exhibit “Redefining the Table: Diversifying U.S. Elections,” featuring buttons from candidates from underrepresented groups who have run in recent elections.
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DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE
A lens on Black Republicans, Donald Trump, and America’s “George Floyd moment”
In an interview, HKS Professor Leah Wright Rigueur explains why Republicans have consistently failed to attract Black voters. Rigueur, author of The Loneliness of the Black Republican, recounts the history of the party’s struggles with Black voters; while many people believe that trend began in the 1960s with the civil rights movement of that decade, Rigueur points out that Black voters began leaving the GOP in the 1930s, when the Democratic Party’s New Deal policies helped many Black families survive the Great Depression. Rigueur, who was interviewed by Ezra Klein on Vox, says the Republican Party’s current troubles drawing Black voters come in part from indecision over whether to seek favor with conservative whites or embrace longtime GOP policies and values that date back to the era of Republican President Abraham Lincoln. Now, she says, “Black voters are making a pragmatic vote even in cases where they don’t like Democrats—even in cases where they might be more aligned religiously, spiritually, what have you, with the Republican Party. They will not choose the Republican Party because, one, they believe Republicans are racist and racially antagonistic, and two, there are no [Republican] policies that they see affecting their day-to-day lives for the better.”
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
Professor Justin de Benedictis-Kessner on helping local governments, where society’s burdens increasingly fall. Video interview and Q&A.
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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & SECURITY
Saich on U.S.-China: How other nations can influence China’s global behavior
Professor Tony Saich, a prominent China scholar who is director of the Kennedy School’s Ash Center on Democratic Governance and Innovation, assessed the evolving U.S.-China relationship in testimony to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. At a hearing on “enduring problems and emergency challenges,” Saich presented findings from the Ash Center’s recent survey of Chinese public opinion on how citizens’ perceptions of government performance in China have been influenced by measurable changes in people’s material well-being. Saich spoke at length about the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to promote deeper forms of legitimacy for its rule, and what that means for Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Asked for recommendations for how Congress could respond to the challenges presented by the increasingly fractious U.S.-China relationship, Saich argued that “actions should be taken in concert with other nations as this is what China fears most. There may be more ability to impact China’s behavior globally, especially with respect to the management of new global public goods where the international architecture is not yet fixed.”
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IN THE NEWS
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The recession is testing the limits and shortfalls of the Federal Reserve’s toolkit [Douglas Elmendorf] Washington Post
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Pandemic is hurting, not helping, green energy [Meghan O'Sullivan] Bloomberg
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Poll: Americans united on a slew of issues, despite contentious election season [Carr Center for Human Rights] Politico
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Mass ballot question 2, explained: What you need to know about ranked-choice voting [Lawrence Summers] WBUR
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The crisis of mistrust and COVID-19 and re-imagining tracing and vaccination [Marcella Alsan, Cornell William Brooks] USA Today
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Balance of Power [Jason Furman] Bloomberg
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What values and priorities mean for health reform [Amitabh Chandra] New England Journal of Medicine
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