Strategies for Democratic Reform: What Works?

ford-logo.pngHahrie was invited to undertake a systemic review of the Ford Foundation's initiative on Promoting Electoral Reform and Democratic Participation in the United States. The Ford Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the US, is undergoing a major redesign of its overall grant-making strategy in an effort to make its work more relevant to 21st century challenges, focusing particularly on inequality. As part of this redesign, the Foundation asked Han to review work it has done to "(1) secure sustained increases in civic participation within historically disenfranchised communities...and (2) to build and strengthen vehicles of collective action that contest for power and increase meaningful participation in elections and other aspects of civic life." Hahrie is working with UCSB graduate student Lisa Argyle on this project. See a blogpost from the Ford Foundation describing the project here.