The case for structural reform.
American self-government is in documented decline. This page lays out the findings, defines Mandate Democracy® term by term, and records the precepts behind it.
A battle for constitutional democracy.
Today it is clearer than ever: We are engaged in a great battle for the future of constitutional democracy in America. Nothing less.
— President, Brennan Center for Justice, NYU Law School
Participate in the actions and passions of your time – or else be judged not to have lived at all.
— Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
No generation may be "Ruled by the Dead."
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison agreed on this point: each generation has the right to determine the shape of its own government. The alternative, in their words, is to be "Ruled by the Dead."
Wherein the people themselves control directly all matters within their reach and competence and only in all others, by elected representatives.
— Thomas Jefferson, founder, University of Virginia
Six findings on the state of the republic.
Still a "Flawed Democracy"
"Differences of opinion in the US have hardened into political sectarianism and institutional gridlock." In 2020, the Functioning of Government score "fell to a new low" (International Democracy Index 2020).
Aristocratic
A privileged, self-perpetuating ruling class supported by plutocracy.
Killing markets
Degrading both the political and the economic marketplaces.
The #2 issue for U.S. millennials
Government and corruption, second only to inequality (World Economic Forum, 2018).
Ruling demographics
Plutocrats. Career politicians. Party functionaries. Lawyers and lobbyists.
A fractured nation
Intentional, fomented civic polarization for vote-pandering and fund-raising.
What Mandate Democracy® means, term by term.
Democracy: the People rule
Demos (the People) plus Kratos (god of power). Sovereign power rests with the people to control their own government.
Representative democracy: a republic
The People act directly for government control, or through enjoined elected representatives.
Mandate Democracy®: direct public control and compelled representatives
Referenda give the electorate direct control, and representatives are bound to carry the results out. The operative terms are defined at right.
Mandate
A decree, an edict that representatives act accordingly. A command to bind representatives.
Mandate Referendum
A fiat: an authoritative electoral pronouncement. It imposes electoral authority over the acts of accountable officials.
Mandate Democracy®
Referenda compliance: an obligation for gaining and holding elected office.
Politically compulsory
- Pre-pledged adherence from candidates
- Coercive enforcement by monitored public and media accountability
- Recall and no-confidence referenda on elected and appointed officials
Citizen initiated and administered
- Freed from the usual state-level initiative blockades: legislatures, petitions, time limits, big money
- Votes on reforms squelched by entrenched parties
Precepts for Mandate Democracy®.
A Republic means a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally…
— Thomas Jefferson
… government is more or less republican…as it has this ingredient of direct action of the citizens.
— Thomas Jefferson
The mother principle [is] that 'governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.'
— Thomas Jefferson
The Constitution of the United States asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty.
— Thomas Jefferson
The scholars concur.
We must extricate & rehabilitate democracy & government… We're entering an era of confrontational politics… We MUST HAVE profound structural change.
— Prof. Terry Moe, Stanford Political Science, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Global [radical] populism is a reflection of ineffective government… There must be an agenda-setting authority: YOU MUST ACT!… Super-majorities want meaningful ACTION.
— Prof. William Howell, Univ. of Chicago, Director, Center for Effective Government
The diagnosis has a mechanism.
See the referendum machinery built to restore the People's control, and the constitutional text it stands on.