Can Kevin McCarthy Outlast an Ancient Roman Emperor?

Didius Julianus’ 66-Day Reign Shows What Happens When a Compromised Ruler Runs Out of Things to Give His Allies

On January 7, cameras recorded a beaming Kevin McCarthy as he ascended the rostrum of the House of Representatives and raised the speaker’s gavel. If one knew nothing about the previous few days, they might imagine this image captured the ceremonial coronation of a speaker who, like every other speaker for 100 years, had known the job was theirs for months.

A slightly wider angle shot of the House rostrum shows a more complicated scene. Mr. McCarthy is the only one smiling. The seven clerks gathered around the dais all sit …

by Edward Watts | January 23, 2023

Let’s Respond Like Romans to the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol

How 5th-Century Senators Took Responsibility, Accepted Punishment, and Restored Trust in Government After a Damaging Insurrection

by Michele Renee Salzman | January 6, 2022

How should we respond when our capital is attacked?

One enduring answer to that question lies in the ways that Romans responded after the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths and …

The 1929 Law That Turned Undocumented Entry Into a Crime

By Treating Migrants as Felons, the Undesirable Aliens Act Reinforced a Punitive Approach to Unauthorized Immigration

by Benjamin Gonzalez O'Brien | November 27, 2018

Too often, discussions of modern immigration policy are ahistorical, focusing on recent events while ignoring the past policies that led us, as a country, to where we are today.

That’s especially …

Imagine a Democracy Built on Lotteries, Not Elections

We Already Randomly Select Our Juries. Why Not Do the Same With Congress?

By Terrill Bouricius, David Schecter, Campbell Wallace, and John Gastil | April 5, 2016

Legislatures, and the elections that populate them, have so many flaws that we might be better off picking our representatives at random.

Before you chuckle, first consider how far we’ve …

The Cane That Struck Against Slavery

For Eight Years, Congress Refused to Hear Petitions on Abolition. John Quincy Adams Received This Gift in Recognition of His Battle Against the ‘Gag Rule.’

by Harry R. Rubenstein | October 6, 2014

The history of American democracy is often best revealed not in the nation’s founding documents, but in the activism and struggles of countless individuals to create a more perfect union. …

Are U.S. Presidents Lame?

Untangling Whether the White House Has Too Much Power—Or Too Little

April 4, 2013

It’s routinely called the most powerful job in the world, but the U.S. presidency can seem astonishingly impotent. Ideas proposed in the State of the Union go nowhere once they …

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