1.8 What’s the Alternative?

The second set of features offers suggestions for how political institutions can be redesigned to help lower the costs of engagement, such that biases favoring those segments of society with greater resources would be reduced. This feature gives us the opportunity to learn about the relationship between the design of political institutions and the quality of democracy. For example, the passage and the enforcement of civil rights and voting rights acts were enormously costly, but the acts expanded participation and made the political system more equal and responsive to previously underrepresented groups. Similarly, institutional change, such as lowering the cost of voting by easing registration requirements, would increase voter participation and presumably the political power of people from lower socioeconomic classes. We also engage in comparative analyses between institutions in the United States and other democracies to explore the idea that democracies can be designed in multiple ways. The goal of these comparative analyses is to encourage students to think critically about the efficacy of American political institutions, know what other options are out there that we could adopt, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various alternatives.

Throughout these sections, we take care to avoid suggestions that are closely identified with one side of the ideological or partisan divide. Still, freedom of choice is considered a given good because in most cases it leads to increased competition and enhanced efficiency in public policy. Democracy embodies freedom by allowing people to choose their leaders and hold them accountable for their actions. The fact that the majority should prevail in most cases maximizes individual preferences. Our founding principle that all people are born equal—embodied by the principle of one person, one vote—personifies the value of equality that has been a driving force for much of our nation’s history. Our analysis and suggestions are not value free but are grounded in the principles of freedom, equality, and democracy that lie above any particular party or ideology.