Nwanevu: A democracy is a system in which the governed govern. You can read a lot of political theory, you can read the classics — I don’t think you get a definition that is more succinct than that. Another formulation is Lincoln’s government “of, by, and for the people.”

And so, in a democracy, the people themselves are the people who govern. It’s not entrusted as a responsibility to some alien authority, some external power, some other hierarchy. People take on the responsibility and burden and promise of governing themselves. That’s the core idea.

Douthat: And how do you know that America in 2025 is not by the people and for the people, that the governed are not actually governing?

Nwanevu: So I think there are three characteristics of any democratic system. The first is political equality. People are equal in standing when they come to make a collective choice. So when it comes to the Senate, for instance, we have one of the most malapportioned upper houses in the world. I think only Argentina and Brazil, among our peers, are more malapportioned than ours.

The second characteristic is responsiveness. There’s real authority among the public — when they come together to make a collective choice, things happen. And the last thing I would say is majority rule. But I think, as I write, in very, very basic ways, our system flouts all three of these things.