Daniel Carpenter, Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and Faculty Director of the Social Sciences at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, will present “Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790–1870” as part of the School of Public Policy’s Spring Speaker Series.

Professor Carpenter’s research interests include American politics and the development of political institutions, particularly in the United States. He also focuses on the political economy of public bureaucracies and government regulation, particularly the regulation of health and financial products.

Carpenter recently launched a long-term project on petitioning in North American political development, examining comparisons and connections to petitioning histories in Europe and elsewhere. Together with colleagues at Harvard, Radcliffe and the Massachusetts Archives, he launched the Digital Archive of Massachusetts Antislavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions in 2015.

Professor Carpenter’s research on petitioning appears in his book Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870 (Harvard University Press, 2021).