In November 2021, then-Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican, signed into law new congressional maps that would, as before, give Democrats all nine of the state’s House seats—despite ...

Storytelling is the essence of politics. In stable times, politicians can spend their hours detailing how they plan to put a fatter chicken in every pot. But in hard times, they need to craft ...

A s readers of this journal know so well, few eras have been as pivotal for American democracy as the present. After years of petty political strafing, partisan gerrymandering, the bipartisan embrace ...

Black Americans have rarely faced a moment of such swirling currents and counter-currents as this period in history. If we go back to the hope associated with the election of Barack Obama; then ...

We’ve long understood that maintaining democracy requires vigilance. But of late, the struggle has become constant and grueling, with no end in sight. American democracy is broken at a structural ...

The Cold War has a lot to answer for: trillions of dollars of wasteful military spending; a couple of nuclear close shaves, either of which might easily have led to a nuclear exchange, with ...

The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing The Economic Foundations of American Democracy By Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath • Harvard University Press • 2022 • 640 pages • $39.95 Allegiance ...

A year ago at this time we were all flying high, eagerly preparing to meet the challenges of “the middle-out moment.” Then came November’s brutal election. But while our spirits may have crashed, the ...

The Editors of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas are Michael Tomasky (Editor), Jack Meserve (Managing Editor), Delphine d'Amora (Associate Editor), and Claire Schnatterbeck (Assistant Editor).

Throughout his campaign, then former Vice President Joe Biden vowed to “Build Back Better.” Among the foreign policy community, Biden’s promise embodied the hope of a return to a pre-Trump world and a ...

Vice President Joe Biden is fond of a stump speech line that implores his opponents not to profess lofty values without showing their budgets. Budget priorities, Biden argues, reveal whether or not ...

It was about five years ago that I began thinking about a special issue of Democracy on the Constitution. I was frustrated with the Electoral College and the Senate even then, which led me to do some ...