By: Philip K. Howard

In his recent speech to Congress, President Joe Biden called upon America to "prove democracy still works."

While many Americans agree with much of what he proposes, making government work requires more than new spending. Failing schools, unaccountable police, decade-long infrastructure permitting and other public failures have convinced most Americans that democracy needs reform, not just greater ambitions.

Two-thirds of Americans, according to a 2019 AP/University of Chicago poll, believe government needs "major structural changes." Yet political realities leave Democrats mute on reforming government. Neither Biden nor the Democrats in Congress will fix the imbedded bureaucratic rigidities because of their political alliances with public unions and other interest groups.

This weakness in Democratic policy presents an opening for Republicans to champion common sense solutions for broken public operating systems. A Republican Party with a positive governing vision can benefit all Americans. Without the pressure of a Republican vision for better government, any version of the Biden infrastructure and jobs plan will be burdened by the legacy bureaucracies that guarantee delay and waste.

Read the full article here.