Editors' Notes: Representative Assemblies As the Locus of Democracy

Though we could not cover everything, we managed to pull together twenty-two essays in The Reconstruction Papers. As we have begun talking with people about the collection as a whole, and had to summarize the overall project, some themes have stood out. One interviewer noted that housing was a recurring theme in the collection, something that will likely surprise no one that is familiar with Liberal Currents as a publication.

But another theme that cuts across a large number of the essays is the necessity to re-center our system around Congress, that many of the things that have gone wrong with the presidency and the Supreme Court are downstream of Congress's dysfunction.

I have talked about this before, but legislatures are where the twin demands of democracy and rule of law meet and become one. They are both more democratic and more lawful than executives could ever hope to be. I want to drill a bit deeper into this today, as we march month by month towards a major congressional election.