In our book that came out this week, we frame and answer one question: How does one “save” a constitutional democracy? Of course, that question is not really a simple one. Indeed, it’s not really one question.  If you are asking the question as an American voter at the end of October 2018, it has one clear and simple answer—i.e., vote and support candidates who will defend democratic norms!  There’s no need to read a book to figure that out.  But if you are asking the question in the medium term, and if you are committed to preserving democracy as a going concern in a global era of constitutional back-sliding and democratic erosion, we think the question needs more attention and careful reflection.

How to Save a Constitutional Democracy focuses on that medium-term question. It offers a distinctive diagnosis of how democracy is lost, and then roadmaps various pathways along which a reform agenda might proceed. Our aim is thus to map the landscape of democratic prophylaxis with a clear understanding of antidemocratic pathologies  as a guide. In that enterprise, we have already learned a lot from the ongoing efforts of Take Care and Joshua Matz, as well as the academic work of participants in this symposium. Democracy’s defense is a collective enterprise, and this is just as true for its analytic and intellectual side as for the practical labor of organizing. Hence, we are already grateful for what we have learned from participants in this symposium—and anticipate learning more in the days to come.

To contextualize the symposium, here are two core ideas from How to Save a Constitutional Democracy.

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