21st CENTURY DEMOCRACY

Economics
 


detail; illustration for LobbyView.org, a database platform that enables citizens, journalists, and researchers to identify the how, who, and extent of lobbying in legislative politics



In this websection, MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences draws on the expertise of our faculty and colleagues across the Institute to provide research-based insights and resources for strengthening democracy at home and around the world. 

Democracy Homepage
 

                                    
                                         Gallery of Publications

Burchard Scholars program participants and faculty advisors gather for a photo during a Burchard Scholars reception

Burchard Scholars gather to network, connect, and learn

The Burchard Scholars dinner series helps create conversations between academic disciplines.

(from left) Steve Koonin, Kerry Emanuel, and moderator Brad Skow sit at a table in front of an audience discussing climate change challenges. There are bottles of water on the table at which they are seated. The screen behind them features an image of a slide being projected with a web address visible that reads civildiscourse.mit.edu.

A civil discourse on climate change

The forum is the first in a series planned at MIT this year, part of an initiative meant to encourage the open exchange of ideas.

Industrial woman worker

WORK OF THE FUTURE

MIT Economics receives Hewlett Foundation grant to study job quality
 

Shaping the Future of Work Program will advance research agenda and increase multi-disciplinary cooperation: The program "will analyze forces contributing to the erosion of job quality and labor market opportunity for workers without college degrees...and consider institutional, technological, and policy innovations that can change this trajectory."

detail,We the People

STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

A Sampler of MIT Research on U.S. Democracy
 

A distilled selection of key research, news, and media commentaries from the past year on the state of U.S. democracy, from scholars in MIT's humanities and social science fields. What can leaders and We, the People do to sustain our democracy? Prepared for 6 January 2022. 

Joshua Angrist, 2021 Nobel laureate in economic sciences

ECONOMICS

Joshua Angrist wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
 

Cited for work building the foundations of “natural experiments” in economic research, Angrist shares the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with with David Card and Guido Imbens.

portrait of Daron Acemoglu

DEMOCRACY

The permanent struggle for liberty
   

Daron Acemoglu’s new book examines the battle between state and society, which occasionally produces liberal-democratic freedom.

STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

3Q: In Song Kim’s LobbyView.org shines a bright light on Washington lobbying
 

LobbyView.org makes it simple to follow the path of money in politics.