In the wake of a long, bitter midterm election campaign, Americans are again left with a divided government and the prospect of two more years of partisan gridlock. Meanwhile, critical challenges like economic inequality, housing, healthcare, and the regulation of AI go unaddressed.

Eric Maskin, PhD ’76, Harvard’s Adams University Professor and Professor of Economics and Mathematics believes there is a better way. At a recent event hosted by the Harvard Griffin GSAS Office of Alumni Relations and moderated by Senior Director of Global Outreach Jennifer Flynn, Maskin proposed a range of creative, feasible reforms—from ranked-choice voting and ways to improve it to changes to the Electoral College and adoption of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact—that can bridge ideological and partisan divides and restore hope for American democracy.

Eric Maskin is the Adams University Professor and Professor of Economics and Mathematics at Harvard University. He has made contributions to game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics. He received his AB and PhD from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University. He was a faculty member at MIT from 1977 to 1984, Harvard from 1985 to 2000, and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2000 to 2011. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 2012. In 2007, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (with L. Hurwicz and R. Myerson) for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.

Americans are more politically polarized than at any time since the Civil War. Who we vote for shapes where we live, who our friends are, and even whom we marry. The political party we support seems more central to our identities than ever. But the political scientists Dan Schlozman, PhD ’11, and Sam Rosenfeld, PhD ’14, argue that the prominence of party ID and the polarization that accompanies it are, in large part, a sign that our political parties have actually become weaker.

In their recent book, The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics, Schlozman and Rosenfeld say that both the Democratic and Republican parties have lost their ability to organize, motivate voters, and advocate for ideas, with troubling consequences for our democracy. The good news is that the hollowing out of the parties could be an opportunity to rebuild them and, in so doing, rejuvenate our moribund politics.

According to a July 2026 survey from the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of Americans are very concerned about the cost of healthcare, 66 percent about the cost of groceries and consumer goods, and 64 percent about housing costs. And politicians are responding—at least in their rhetoric. It’s hard to change the TV channel or queue up a YouTube video this election season without being inundated by ads touting a candidate’s pledge to fight for affordability.

The University of Michigan economist, Justin Wolfers, PhD ’01, says that purchasing power has actually increased in recent years. Aside from a short-lived spike in inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer goods in particular have gotten more affordable. So why are we still so angry about rising prices? Drawing on the work of the Harvard economist Stefanie Stantcheva, Wolfers says the reason our feelings don’t match the facts has to do with the terrifying “boss” model of inflation we all carry around in our heads.