The Citizen

By Matt Bieber, Features Columnist, MPP/MDiv ‘13 Timothy Patrick McCarthy is core faculty and director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He also served as a founding member of Barack Obama’s National LGBT Leadership Council. McCarthy’s books include: The Radical Reader:  […]

The Citizen solicited feedback from students in the forum on the following question: What’s your reaction to the Massachusetts House passing a bill licensing casino gambling?   “I see no problem. There will be regulations to minimize the negative effects.” Manuela C. Faria   “There are pros and cons. It’s a huge source of revenue, […]

By Andrew Kurtzman, MPP ’12 and Bryana Tucci, MPP ‘13 In an honest discussion of policy to promote economic growth, Obama’s jobs plan cannot be regarded as a feasible solution. It was rebuffed by no fewer than six Senate Democrats on the day following its introduction and for good reason, as we will discuss. However, […]

Fighting Corruption in India By Sujoyini Mandal, Opinions Columnist, MPP ‘13 For the very first time, India has witnessed an outburst of citizen protests chiefly via social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Anti corruption campaigns led by the hunger strike of social activist Anna Hazare have captured the Indian imagination within and outside the nation’s […]

By David T. Ellwood, Dean and Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, 18 students and a handful of faculty began an experiment that provided professional training for public servants at a time when no such program yet existed. The notion was borne of the then nearly radical idea […]

By Carli Hetland, Assistant Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13 In recent years, Western journalists have vilified Chinese engagement with Africa, branding a growing Chinese presence through escalating alarmist taglines, such as “Into Africa: China’s Grab for Influence and Oil,” “Arming and Alarming,” and “Will China Rip Africa’s Face Off?” This writer is not one of them. […]

By Zachary Rosenfeld, Assistant News Editor, MPP ‘13 Troy Davis – a death row inmate in Georgia who for many had come to personify the injustice and racial skew of the American death penalty – was executed by lethal injection on the evening of Wednesday 9/21. Anti-death penalty activists worldwide collectively held their breaths as […]

By Imran Sarwar, News Writer, MPP ‘13 Microfinance has lost its halo. Once touted as the instrument for economic advancement of the poor, an enterprise model that was not only self-sustainable but also socially responsible, the microfinance sector’s efficacy is now in doubt. Microfinance started out as the work of nonprofit organizations and then shifted […]

By Shloka Nath, News Editor, MPP ‘13 In what is likely to be seen as a significant boon for Venezuelan democracy, Leopoldo López – HKS alum, technocrat and former mayor of the affluent Chacao district of Caracas – recently launched his campaign to contest President Hugo Chavez in elections next year. Previously barred from seeking […]

By Khaleel Seecharan, News Writer, MC/MPA ‘12 Last month, President Obama proposed a ten-year plan aimed at shaving of $3 trillion dollars of the United States deficit.  Coming on the heels of the acrimonious debt ceiling agreement that paralyzed the nation over the summer, Obama hopes to submit this plan to the bi-partisan committee that […]

By Christopher Gustafson, Humor Columnist, MPP ‘12 Folks, have you ever seen a commercial where a random person performs a feat of learned skill, only to then say that his/her only qualification to perform said feat of learned skill was that (s)he “stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night”? Needless to say, I have […]

By Alex Remington, Sports Writer, MPP ‘13 Kevin Durant is making a movie. Deron Williams is going to play in Turkey. The D-League, prohibited from employing NBAers during a lockout, is planning for a season with a much smaller talent pool. Training camp, which was supposed to start yesterday, was indefinitely postponed. All over the […]