Around the world and across time, there have been and there are many many flavors of democratic ideas and ideals. Democracies change and democracy evolves, reflecting shifting political, economic, and social realities. My reading of history and today’s headlines suggests that we are, again, at a crossroads, a moment of transformation when old ideas of democracy are giving way to a new, not-yet-visible framing. The path through uncertain times is strewn with attempts (many that fail) to understand what is passing and define what is to come. Not knowing, volatility, complexity, ambiguity, vulnerability, risk, and disruption are corollaries to travels in uncertain times, and while living in uncharted territory is exciting and inviting for some, it is inevitable that it is deeply threatening to others.
We’ve been here before. On April 19, 2025, my hometown of Lexington, Massachusetts was festooned with flags and played host to huge crowds gathered to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the first battle of the American Revolution. At 5:30am on that fateful day two-and-a-half centuries ago, a large army of British troops marched from Boston to Lexington and Concord to claim ammunition and weapons held by American colonists increasingly displeased with British rule. The King’s men were a highly trained regiment of the greatest fighting force the world had ever seen. They confronted a few dozen men from Lexington and surrounding towns who were determined to stand their ground. The men in Lexington gathered to defend their homes and families, not to make history. No one knows who fired the first shot, but when the shooting was over, eight colonists were dead. Born was the American War of Independence.
Just a little more than a year after that first armed confrontation, on July 4, 1776, the rebels from the thirteen British colonies in America declared their independence. Ultimately, the King’s army was defeated, although there were many times in the war years that this seemed improbable. But even more striking was the colonists subsequent undertaking to invent a revolutionary new form of governance, marked not by royal authority but by divided and limited power where, as Thomas Paine famously put it, “the law is king” and governing was “of the people, by the people, for the people” as Abraham Lincoln was later to describe it. This was the real American Revolution.
Governance has changed since that battle on the Lexington Commons and is changing still. While enemies in the eighteenth century, Britain and the U.S. have since been allied as beacons of democracy. Winston Churchill could have had either his home country or the former colonies in mind when he offered that “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Our two nations have long understood the words “constitutional democracy” differently. For one, the U.S. has a written constitution, Great Britain not.
Today, the challenges our two countries face do not point to either approach – written constitution or no – offering a clear best of the worst forms of government. And I’m struck that the choice of written vs. non-written constitution is an artifact of the time and circumstances of our two nations’ origin stories. We have a written document precisely to proscribe the singular power and authority of King George III. Britain may not have a U.S. style document, but it has the much older Magna Carta, which anticipated the rights and responsibilities of citizens articulated in our 1789 document 574 years earlier. Moreover, our written constitution is hardly the bedrock one might imagine (or hope) it to be. It has been amended 27 times, on average every eight to nine years since it was written, and many of what we take to be foundational principles were not part of the original document. Its adoption in the name of advancing a new gold standard for democracy required assenting to the profoundly undemocratic Electoral College and a Senate that favored some populations over others. It codified and enshrined slavery and defined citizenship by gender and wealth. Women, people who didn’t own land, and those transported to these shores in horrific bondage were not citizens, if even human.
Constitutions, written and not, must define foundational political principles yet be malleable enough to bend to evolving social and economic realities. That’s so much simpler to say than to do. And, both in Britain and in the U.S., today’s struggles of governance are manifest.
On this side of the pond, we are living with a president attempting to rewrite if not overturn our tripartite (executive, legislative, judicial) power sharing. Makes me ask whether our rule of law stands on bedrock or lava.
Britain’s recent Brexit campaign points to another complication. Worldwide environmental changes, global corporations and economic forces, and transnational ideological movements (some of which have taken up arms) raise the very real question about who should be at the table to frame constitutional principles for today. Historically it has been states, 50 within the United States and 193 in the United Nations. I don’t have a good alternative to suggest, but I wonder whether history will record this period as one that saw a new alignment, one suited to today’s realities and not well served by how, historically, we have divided ourselves.
In the end, the distinction between written and unwritten constitutions may matter less than whether people around the globe can come together to invent something new. Change and challenge are all about us. Transformations of this magnitude are never easy. They require living with more questions than answers, even not knowing exactly what or how to question. They require, too, open-minded reflection and open-hearted sharing, public conversations that show respect for different points of view, different tolerance for uncertainty and disruption. But when an old order is no longer serving, it is time to let go and let something new take shape.
John Lennon invited such a sea change and evolution half a century ago.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine, indeed. Our challenge. Our opportunity. Our imperative. Our calling.
A revolutionary note to end on, and an inspirational one. I hope we will get there sooner rather than later. The US, UN, and EU were all formed after moments of tremendous violence. I hope that whatever the next stage in that evolution is, it can come about with much less suffering.
A history lesson, a cautionary tale, and a call to action all wrapped up in prose that sings with clarity and a rhythm that compels reading and rereading. Bravo!