Archon Fung
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Participation and Deliberation in Democratic Governance

My research and teaching aim to understand whether and how participation and deliberation can make contemporary public governance more fair and effective. On this site, you can take a look at what innovative citizens, officials, and activists are doing to improve public education, policing, the condition of the environment, and even the lives of workers in sweatshops in America and abroad. These projects enable ordinary people get involved in the affairs of state. Government, big or small, Democrat or Republican (or even Communist and Worker's parties in developing countries like Brazil and India), just isn't going to work very well for them unless they do.

These ideas of participation and deliberation seem straightforward, but they are complex, even daunting, in both theory and practice. But when citizens and leaders figure out how to practice democracy effectively in their own corners of social and political life, democracy pays off like nothing else can.

What's new?

Can the wisdom and power of the crowds help to make elections clean and fair? Check out this idea for Popular Election Monitoring at myfairelection.com.


KQED San Francisco radio's Forum did a call-in show in August on deliberative democracy. The occassion for the show was a 3,500 person public deliberation on health care reform in California. I was on with Carolyn Lukensmeyer (AmericaSpeaks), Joe Simitian (California State Senator) and Larry Levitt (Kaiser Family Foundation). You can listen here.


Check out my latest book, Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency (Cambridge University Press). Comments on Full Disclosure:

"Packed with ideas and information, Full Disclosure is, by far, the best book to date on the problem of public transparency. The authors offer a host of indispensable lessons for citizens and policymakers in diverse domains, including education, pollution, national security, and health care. At the same time, Full Disclosure is an important contribution to democratic theory -- and a great read to boot."

Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Dist. Service Prof. of Jurisprudence

University of Chicago Law School


“Sunshine may indeed be the best disinfectant, in Louis Brandeis' words, but only if we know when, where, and how to shine the light. That is exactly the task that Full Disclosure sets itself. This is an important book at an important time, for everyone from mayors to senators to secretary generals.”

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean
Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University


Copyright © 2009 Archon Fung. All Rights Reserved.
If you have bug reports or suggestions, please email archon_fung@harvard.edu.