Milestone or Misstep? Corruption, Development, and Democracy After Brazil’s Lava Jato Probe

Publication Date: October 3, 2024

This case explores Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the largest public corruption investigation in history, which led to indictments and convictions of some 359 business executives, government officials, and...

Getting Out the (Missing) Vote: Ohio Organizers Experiment with 'Relational' Contacts

Publication Date: April 8, 2024

In the first two decades of the 21st century, community organizers were increasingly enlisted by progressive foundations to help increase voter turnout among the “low propensity” voters in their communities, especially people of...

Climate Resilience in New York City: The Battle over East River Park

Publication Date: November 28, 2023

What makes climate change different as a policy challenge? Why is it so hard to solve? And how can we balance the need for the right technical solutions with the importance of having the process be as democratic and participatory as possible?The...

Colombia’s Peace Negotiations: Finding Common Ground After 50 Years of Armed Conflict

Publication Date: December 4, 2017

By the time they sat down to negotiate in secret, in February of 2012, the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas had been fighting for almost 50 years. Thousands had died, millions had been displaced. Ending a conflict with such deep...

Peace and Justice in Colombia: Finding a Balance After 50 Years of War

Publication Date: December 4, 2017

The concept of transitional justice has been at the heart of many efforts to end major conflicts in nations where mass atrocities have been committed. A core element in that approach is accountability for the crimes committed by the various...

Building a Community Organizing Organization: Serbia on the Move

Publication Date: August 23, 2017

In Serbia, citizens are reluctant to become politically active but young leaders Babović and Stojicic, the case protagonists, are determined to prod their peers into taking a stronger role in the country’s government. Using community...

Cracking the Monolith: California’s Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (A)

Publication Date: July 10, 2017

In October 2015, two senior California officials: Marybel Batjer, Secretary for Government Operations, and Michael Wilkening, Undersecretary for the Health and Human Services Agency, seized on an idea that had the potential to turn the...

New York City’s Teen ACTION Program: An Evaluation Gone Awry

Publication Date: August 29, 2016

This video-based case explores how an impact evaluation for a promising after-school program in New York City went awry. In 2006, New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg created the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO). Designed as an...