Progressives routinely criticize features of America’s Constitution, like the Senate and the Electoral College, as “undemocratic.” But a new AEI Press book, Democracy or Republic? The People and the Constitution by Jay Cost argues that these criticisms misunderstand the republican nature of our government. The promotion of consensus, not pure majority rule, is the foundation of our constitutional republic.

Conservatives’ skepticism toward systemic electoral reform is a mistake. So argues Kevin R. Kosar in a new AEI report, which suggests that the right set of reforms could improve voter confidence, candidate quality, and policy outcomes.

Why did Russia invade Ukraine? Vladimir Putin and Western critics of aid to Ukraine have often blamed NATO expansion for “provoking” the invasion. Frederick W. Kagan, Nataliya Bugayova, and Kateryna Stepanenko sort through the misinformation and lay bare the war’s true causes.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Adam J. White explains why the agency’s independent spending power is dangerously unconstitutional.

President Joe Biden’s new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director is trying to rebuild Americans’ trust in her institution and scientific expertise more broadly. But M. Anthony Mills in the New York Times suggests that this will be hard to accomplish without “careful and perhaps even painful self-scrutiny” into the deeper roots of Americans’ loss of confidence in institutions.