Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

It's time to write a new social contract

It's time to write a new social contract

Frazier, a student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, runs The Oregon Way, a nonpartisan blog.


Our social contract is broken. Under the contract's terms, "consent at the ballot box confers both democratic credentials and democratic legitimacy," as described by Hélène Landemore in her book "Open Democracy." The contract breaches are numerous and obvious.

The first breach: democratic credentials. Have you ever stopped to wonder how a member of Congress can claim to represent all 747,000 (more of less) of their constituents? Even in the best-case scenario, in a district that hasn't been gerrymandered and in a place with high voter turnout, the member will have only received direct electoral support from a small fraction of the whole eligible electorate. For Landemore (and the rest of us) that begs the question: "How can the authorization of some, even a large majority, confer the authorization of all?"

The second breach: democratic legitimacy. Under our current electoral framework and contract, there's an assumption that simply by virtue of being a member of the public you've consented to the winner of an election representing your views, speaking on your behalf, wielding your sovereign power. Increasingly, though, that concept of hypothetical consent rings hollow; in the words of Landemore, "hypothetical consent is, simply put, no consent at all."

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

For democratic legitimacy to exist the representative, per Hanna Pitkin, "must (1) be authorized to act; (2) act in a way that promotes the interests of the represented; and (3) be accountable to the represented." Our current elections clearly don't confer this sort of legitimacy. First, only a small segment participates in "authorizing" the representative to act by participating in elections. Second, our elected officials are frequently forced, predominately by special interests, to act counter to the interests of those they claim to represent. Third, our elections, due to lack of participation and excessive influence of partisan and monied entities, are a poor means of holding officials accountable.

How, then, can and should we rewrite the contract? The answer isn't direct democracy, which is "always at risk of being hijacked by individuals with time, money, and intense preferences," per Landemore. Nor is the answer as simple as taking money out of politics, or some variant of a plea for marginal changes to our current system. At a minimum, we need to adopt reforms capable of establishing democratic credentials and democratic legitimacy.

A transition to proportional representation is the easiest (though admittedly difficult) step to take to realize democratic credentials and legitimacy. If the social contract really has been breached, then this reform has the chance to restore the bonds between we the people and our elected representatives. As outlined by Lee Drutman, proportional representation could work by electing the top three voter-getters in each congressional district.

On democratic credentials, the election of more representatives would provide the election winners with a much sturdier democratic credential to act on the behalf of their (effectively fewer) constituents. On democratic legitimacy, proposal would (1) permit House members more authority to act by virtue of fewer voters feeling as though they had not provided their consent for that representative to act; (2) make it easier for representatives to act in the interest of the specific voters that elected them; (3) increase the ability of voters to hold their officials accountable through more competitive elections and a greater capacity to monitor the fidelity of the official to their interests.

Proportional representation is not a wild step; in fact, a move to proportional representation would bring the United States into alignment with most democracies. Some, such as Drutman, even argue that proportional representation would allow Congress to get back to its Golden Era (roughly 1950-70), in which both the Democrats and Republicans contained conservative and liberal factions — thus effectively creating a four-party system in which cross-partisan compromises were possible.

The people, as sovereigns, should demand more from their social contract. The current terms have woefully fallen short of the aspirations of the people. Decades of underperformance justify the meaningful consideration of a new approach. Proportional representation is the most tenable approach that sufficiently warrants the people entrusting their power to their representatives.

Read More

While Pledging To Clean Up Toxic Chemicals, EPA Guts Hundreds of Environmental Grants

EPA Administrator Zeldin speaks with reporters on Long Island, NY.

Courtesy EPA via Flickr.

While Pledging To Clean Up Toxic Chemicals, EPA Guts Hundreds of Environmental Grants

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration promised to combat toxic “forever chemicals,” while conversely canceling nearly 800 grants aimed at addressing environmental injustices, including in communities plagued with PFAS contamination.

In a court filing, the Environmental Protection Agency revealed for the first time that it intends to cancel 781 environmental justice grants, nearly double what had previously been disclosed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Policy Changes Could Derail Michigan’s Clean Energy Goals

New clean energy manufacturing plants, including for EV batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines, are being built across states like Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio.

Steve/Adobe Stock

Policy Changes Could Derail Michigan’s Clean Energy Goals

In recent years, Michigan has been aggressive in its approach to clean energy: It’s invested millions of dollars in renewable energy infrastructure, created training programs for jobs in the electric vehicle industry, and set a goal of moving the state to 100% carbon neutrality by 2050.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials aim to make the Great Lakes State a leader in clean energy manufacturing by bringing jobs and investments to local communities while also tackling pollution, which continues to wreak havoc on the environment.

Now Michigan’s clean energy efforts have seemingly hit a wall of uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s administration takes ongoing actions to roll back federal climate regulations.

“We’ve seen nothing less than an unprecedented, all-out assault on our environment and our democracy,” said Bentley Johnson, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters’ federal government affairs director.

The clean energy sector has grown rapidly in the United States since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Congress appropriated $370 billion under the IRA, and White House officials at the time touted it as the country’s largest investment in clean energy.

According to Climate Power, a national public relations and advocacy organization dedicated to climate justice, Michigan was the No. 1 state in the nation in 2024 in its number of clean energy projects; from 2022-2024, the state announced 74 projects totalling over 26,000 jobs and roughly $27 billion in federal funding.

Trump has long been critical of the country’s climate initiatives and development of clean energy technology. He’s previously made false claims that climate change is a hoax and wind turbines cause cancer. Since taking office again in January, Trump has tried to pause IRA funding and signed an executive order to boost coal production.

Additionally, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March that the agency had canceled more than 400 environmental justice grants to be used to improve air and water quality in disadvantaged communities. Senate Democrats, who released a full list of the canceled grants, accused the EPA of illegally terminating the contracts, through which funds were appropriated by Congress under the IRA. Of those 400 grants, 15 were allocated for projects in Michigan, including one to restore housing units in Kalamazoo and another to transform Detroit area food pantries and soup kitchens into emergency shelters for those in need.

Johnson said the federal government reversing course on the allotted funding has left community groups who were set to receive it in the lurch.

“That just seems wrong, to take away these public benefits that there was already an agreement — Congress has already appropriated or committed to spending this, to handing this money out, and the rug is being pulled out from under them,” Johnson said.

Climate Power has tracked clean energy projects across the country totaling $56.3 billion in projected funding and over 50,000 potential jobs that have been stalled or canceled since Trump was elected in November. Michigan accounts for seven of those projects, including Nel Hydrogen’s plans to build an electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Plymouth.

Nel Hydrogen announced an indefinite delay in the construction of its Plymouth factory in February 2025. Wilhelm Flinder, the company’s head of investor relations, communications, and marketing, cited uncertainty regarding the IRA’s tax credits for clean hydrogen production as a factor in the company’s decision, according to reporting by Hometownlife.com. The facility was expected to invest $400 million in the local community and to create over 500 people when it started production.

“America is losing nearly a thousand jobs a day because of Trump’s war against cheaper, faster, and cleaner energy. Congressional Republicans have a choice: get in line with Trump’s job-killing energy agenda or take a stand to protect jobs and lower costs for American families,” Climate Power executive director Lori Lodes said in a March statement.

Opposition groups make misleading claims about the benefits of renewable energy, such as the reliability of wind or solar energy and the land used for clean energy projects, in order to stir up public distrust, Johnson said.

In support of its clean energy goals, the state fronted some of its own taxpayer dollars for several projects to complement the federal IRA money. Johnson said the strategy was initially successful, but with sudden shifts in federal policies, it’s potentially become a risk, because the state would be unable to foot the bill entirely on its own.

The state still has its self-imposed clean energy goals to reach in 25 years, but whether it will meet that deadline is hard to predict, Johnson said. Michigan’s clean energy laws are still in place and, despite Trump’s efforts, the IRA remains intact for now.

“Thanks to the combination — I like to call it a one-two punch of the state-passed Clean Energy and Jobs Act … and the Inflation Reduction Act, with the two of those intact — as long as we don’t weaken it — and then the combination of the private sector and technological advancement, we can absolutely still make it,” Johnson said. “It is still going to be tough, even if there wasn’t a single rollback.”

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Keep ReadingShow less
A Missed Opportunity

Broken speech bubbles.

Getty Images, MirageC

A Missed Opportunity

en español

In a disappointing turn of events, Connecticut has chosen to follow the precedent set by President Donald Trump’s English-Only Executive Order, effectively disregarding the federal mandates of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Keep ReadingShow less
The DOGE and Executive Power

White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The DOGE and Executive Power

The DOGE is not the first effort to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in government. It is the first to receive such vociferous disdain along what appears to be purely political lines. Most presidents have made efforts in these areas, some more substantial than others, with limited success. Here are some modern examples.

In 1982, President Reagan used an executive order to establish a private sector task force to identify inefficiencies in government spending (commonly called the Grace Commission). The final report included 2,478 recommendations to reduce wasteful government practices, estimated savings of $429 billion over the first three years and $6.8 trillion between 1985 and 2000. Most of the savings required legislative changes, and Congress ignored most of those proposals.

Keep ReadingShow less