Terms of Engagement

It's axiomatic within most democracy and election administration communities that high voter turnout is a good thing, and higher turnout is a better thing. Secretaries of State brim with pride when over 80% of the state votes in a November presidential election. 

But does this actually matter? Is there any evidence that governance is better if more people vote? Is there any evidence that the political body is healthier if more people vote? 

High voter turnout could be a sign of fight-for-your-life politics or broad discontent with the status quo, or high turnout could sweep in voters who might be passionate about one political contest but know very little about the other items on the ballot.   

Professor Jason Brennan of Georgetown University will join Terms of Engagement on Tuesday, October 6 to discuss these questions. Professor Brennan's published work includes "Against Democracy" (Princeton University Press, 2016) and "Debating Democracy" with coauthor Hélène Landemore (Oxford University Press, 2021).  

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

With the 2026 midterms approaching, a troubling question surfaces: are we living in two completely different realities?

Professor Matthew Baum of Harvard Kennedy School joins Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to examine new research from the Shorenstein Center in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation on Americans’ knowledge of voting regulations in the 2026 Voting Information Trends report.

The findings reveal significant gaps in understanding when asked about their state’s voting regulations:

• 34% of respondents correctly answered questions about their state’s voting rules.
• 36% were unsure.
• 30% answered incorrectly.

With the midterms approaching, this episode offers timely insight into how voters get information—and how different information environments may influence what they believe about the voting process.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Racist appeals in American politics used to require deniability. Increasingly, they don’t. Critics on both the left and the right are writing articles with titles like “The G.O.P. Has Gone Off the Deep End" (Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, September 16, 2026) and "The Republican Party Has a Nazi Problem" (Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, February 23, 2026).

In this episode of Terms of Engagement, Archon Fung and Stephen Richer talk with Saladin Ambar, a political scientist at Rutgers University, about how political discourse has moved from dog whistles to racial invective, what this shift tells us about the fracturing of America and the basis of our democracy, and whether trying to rein such speech in would help or backfire.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Everyone agrees that democracy is in trouble. But almost everyone disagrees on why. Larry Bartels, the Vanderbilt political scientist who wrote “Democracy for Realists” and “Democracy Erodes from the Top,” has spent two decades arguing that the story we tell ourselves about democracy – that informed voters guide government and policy from the voting booth – is a myth. A corollary of his rejection of the “folk theory” of democracy is that the real threats to democratic institutions come from political elites, not from an angry, radicalized public.

In this episode, we ask Larry about his analysis now, in 2026, when the U.S. has been downgraded to “electoral democracy” (from liberal democracy) by V-Dem, Hungary’s Orbán has just lost power, and right-wing populist parties hold hundreds of new seats across Europe. We talk with Larry about the elite-driven backsliding thesis. And what – if anything – can ordinary citizens do when the people who are supposed to be accountable to us are the ones doing the damage?

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

As college campuses gear up for another election cycle, a wave of nonpartisan efforts is registering students, training poll workers, and driving turnout at record levels. Yet these same efforts now face mounting resistance, including a Trump administration investigation into NSLVE, the primary data source tracking campus voting, and partisan accusations that get-out-the-vote work is politically motivated. This episode of Terms of Engagement brings together hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer with Jen Domagal-Goldman, the executive director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Yael Bromberg, a constitutional rights attorney and leading scholar on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, to unpack what’s really happening on campuses today. Domagal-Goldman draws on her work with more than 1,000 colleges and universities to explain what’s driving student engagement and where new obstacles are emerging. Bromberg brings the legal lens, connecting these on-the-ground challenges to constitutional protections for young voters and the legislative push to enforce them. The episode explores what’s at stake for the future of student voting rights and civic participation in higher education.

About our Guests:

Jen Domagal-Goldman is the executive director of the national, nonpartisan ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, a position she’s held since 2019. Prior to joining ALL IN, Domagal-Goldman directed the American Democracy Project, a national civic learning and democratic engagement network of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). She has contributed to a number of civic engagement publications, including co-authoring chapters in Reimagining Democratic Societies: A New Era of Personal and Social Responsibility (2013), Becoming a Steward of Place: Four Areas of Institutional Focus (2014), Student Civic Outcomes in Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Methods (2017), and Leaning into Politics: Higher Education and the Democracy We Need (2024). Domagal-Goldman serves on the National Leadership Council to Advance Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement for All. She earned her PhD in higher education from Penn State, received her MA in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, earned and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester.

Yael Bromberg is a constitutional rights attorney with more than twenty years of experience in community organizing, advocacy, and litigation. She is principal of Bromberg Law LLC, of counsel to the New Jersey labor law firm Weissman & Mintz LLC, and a former chief counsel for voting rights at The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a national organization operating in over 25 states across 85 campuses. At Rutgers Law School she teaches Election Law and the Political Process and supervises the International Human Rights Clinic; she is also a Visiting Associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She previously taught and supervised litigation in the Georgetown University Law Center Civil Rights Clinic and Voting Rights Institute, where she earned an LL.M. in Advocacy with distinction, and at American University Washington College of Law. Her landmark article, “Youth Voting Rights and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment” (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law), has been described as a “groundbreaking study” and a “legal and organizing call for arms.” She is the architect of the Youth Voting Rights Act, comprehensive legislation to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which was introduced in Congress by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Nikema Williams. She also leads A Mellon Foundation–supported research project that engages Bard College and three HBCUs (Prairie View A&M, North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee) in applied legal research. She was named NJ Attorney of the Year (2024) by NJ Globe and received the first inaugural Reclaiming Our Democracy Award from NJ Citizen Action.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

American men’s work rates have fallen relentlessly since the 1950s, with prime-age male labor force participation now approaching Depression-era lows—a trend political economist Nicholas Eberstadt has spent decades documenting. In this episode of Terms of Engagement, Eberstadt joins hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to unpack how this quiet collapse in male employment has shaped not just the economy but American manhood itself, eroding the social role and cultural expectations long tied to work. They discuss links between “un-working” men and the rise of populist politics in the U.S., why this trend remained hidden in official unemployment statistics for so long, and what it reveals about the fraying bonds between work, dignity, and civic life.

About our Guest: 

Nicholas Eberstadt is a political economist at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes extensively on demographics, economic development, and international security. Domestically, he focuses on poverty and social well-being. He has written a number of books including “Men Without Work,” “A Nation of Takers,” and “The Tyranny of Numbers.” He has offered invited testimony before Congress on numerous occasions and has served as consultant or adviser for a variety of U.S. government agencies. Eberstadt earned his PhD in political economy and government and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an AB from Harvard University.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Criminal justice researcher Matthew Cavedon joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss democratic and legal implications of Flock cameras. The company’s roughly 120,000 license-plate reading cameras in the U.S. are now able to log time, location, and vehicle details on a scale that makes comprehensive movement-tracking possible without a warrant. The episode explores documented cases of misuse—including officers using the system to track romantic partners and at least one wrongful detention traced to a system error—the constitutional implications of aggregated, long-term surveillance of ordinary activity, and what control ordinary citizens have over the growth of mass surveillance in America. They also discuss what meaningful oversight would require and why Cavedon sees the stakes as reaching beyond law enforcement into the health of democratic self-governance itself.

About our Guest:

Matthew Cavedon is the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. His work concerns the rights of the accused and jurors, government accountability, and the Second Amendment. His scholarship has appeared in the Arizona State Law Journal, Cato Supreme Court Review, and Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. His commentary has been published by The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, JURIST, and MSNOW. He is a member of the Council on Criminal Justice. A former Georgia public defender and fellow at the Institute for Justice, Cavedon has also has taught law school courses on criminal law and procedure, as well as the First Amendment. He clerked for Chief Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia and Presiding Justice Nels S. D. Peterson of the Georgia Supreme Court. Cavedon, who is based in South Carolina, earned his BA in religious studies at Harvard College and his master’s in theology and JD at Emory University.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

In this episode of Terms of Engagement, Amanda Carpenter of Protect Democracy joins hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to examine how political corruption undermines democratic institutions and public trust, distorts policymaking, and makes citizens increasingly cynical about the democratic process. Carpenter, a former journalist and Capitol Hill staffer, alleges that President Donald Trump has turned the presidency into a vehicle for personal enrichment, including a pay-for-pardons scheme between lobbyists and the White House. She argues that the U.S. should be preparing an anti-corruption infrastructure now to investigate the Trump administration, including civil forfeiture and other asset-recovery tools to claw back any ill-gotten gains. Carpenter says such measures—which would be pardon-proof—could act as a deterrent to public corruption in the future.

About our Guest:

Amanda Carpenter is a writer and editor at Protect Democracy, a cross-ideological nonprofit dedicated to combatting authoritarianism, who works with the group’s advocates and experts to promote its mission, ideas, and key priorities. Before joining Protect Democracy, she was a writer for The Bulwark and CNN Contributor. Prior to that, she worked on Capitol Hill as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s communications director and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint’s speechwriter. She brings over 15 years of political and media experience with her to Protect Democracy.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

What does it take to stand up for what you believe in when your personal safety, security and even liberty are at stake? Ami Fields-Meyer, a political strategist and former senior policy advisor in the Biden-Harris White House, who spent the last two years crisscrossing the globe interviewing more than a hundred dissidents, organizers, and everyday people who chose to speak out despite real risk. That reporting became his new book, co-written with journalist Julia Angwin, “On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear,” which distills those stories into practical lessons anyone can use. From authoritarian drift to cancel culture to corporate retaliation, Fields-Meyer joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss the psychology, mechanics and practicalities of speaking out in tumultuous times.

About our Guest

Ami Fields-Meyer is a New York Times bestselling author, political strategist, and former White House senior policy advisor. His first book, “On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear,” co-authored with Julia Angwin, is a deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian – based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across the world. From 2021 to 2024, Fields-Meyer served as a senior policy advisor in the White House, where he led U.S. policy on civil rights, consumer protection, and technology. He has advised political candidates, leaders of top civil rights groups and major philanthropic foundations, and high-profile public officials. A former senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, his writing on democracy and public policy has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Thomas Hicks was in the middle of booking his travel to an election conference when he received an email from the White House saying was no longer a commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission—the agency he had served for eleven years and chaired. Hicks’ firing is the first in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter, which gave the president power to dismiss independent agency heads. The same email went to his colleague Benjamin Hovland, while the lone Republican on the commission, Christy McCormick, was allowed to resign. Now for the first time since 2014, the agency Congress created after the Florida recount to help America run its elections has nobody at the top at all. Hicks joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss what breaks down when the EAC has no quorum, what worries him about who might fill its four seats before 2028, and to explain what the EAC does—including certifying voting machines, moving federal money to states, and maintaining the national voter registration form.

About our Guest:

Thomas Hicks is an attorney who spent more than a decade as one of the four people responsible for the federal government’s role in American elections. He was nominated by President Obama, confirmed unanimously by the Senate in December 2014, and sworn in as a commissioner of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in January 2015. He went on to chair the EAC three separate times, including in the run-up to the 2020 election and again beginning in February of this year. At the EAC, his signature work was on accessibility, including a pocket voter card in Braille and large print, election security, and recruiting young people and veterans as poll workers. During his career he has also worked as senior elections counsel on the Committee on House Administration—focusing on campaign finance, election reform, contested elections, and oversight of the EAC and the FEC—and as a policy analyst at Common Cause. He earned his bachelor’s in political science and government at Clark University and his JD at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.

About Terms of Engagement

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group