Winning Democracy in America

Forget socialist democracy; by virtue of its Constitution, the United States barely has political democracy. If we take expanding democracy seriously — and if we want to implement sweeping social reforms — we need some serious changes.

Illustration by Marco Miccichè

1. End the filibuster The Constitution doesn’t specify the rules of order for the House and Senate. In principle, the filibuster is an expression of a senator’s right to debate. The Senate adopted Rule XXII in 1917, allowing two-thirds of the Senate to invoke cloture, bringing a proposal forward to a vote. After 1975, the […]