Reconstitution

How do we govern ourselves when the pace of change outstrips the capacity of our institutions to respond? As artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and global networks reshape every aspect of our lives, democratic systems built for the 18th century are showing signs of strain. In Reconstitution, lawyer, former congressional counsel, and civic technologist Marci Harris argues that we’ve reached a pivotal moment—not of restoration, but reinvention. Reconstitution frames this era as a potential “Third Founding”: a civic season in which Americans can reexamine their governing frameworks with the same boldness the Founders once brought to their own uncertain moment. Drawing from her experience in Congress and over a decade of bridging Silicon Valley and Washington, Harris explores how democratic legitimacy must be maintained—not just through ideals, but through implementation. At its heart, this is a book about systems: legal systems, technical systems, political systems—and the people who design and interact with them. With clarity and depth, Harris likens the Constitution to source code: a powerful architecture in need of thoughtful refactoring to run on modern hardware. She shows how institutional drift, civic disengagement, and technical debt have weakened the interface between citizen and government—and what it will take to rebuild it. Reconstitution offers both diagnosis and blueprint. Combining historical insight, founding principles, and an outcomes-driven framework, it challenges readers to become informed realists—citizens capable of designing democratic systems that are agile, resilient, and worthy of our highest ideals. This is not a book about what went wrong. It’s about what comes next—and who decides.

MARCI HARRIS is the founder of POPVOX, a civic technology platform that helps people engage directly with Congress. A former congressional staffer who helped draft the Affordable Care Act, she now works at the intersection of democracy and digital innovation. Named one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” Marci has been featured in Wired, TechCrunch, and The Atlantic. She recently taught political science and civic systems at San Jose State and the University of San Francisco and has held fellowships at Harvard’s Ash Center, New America, and UC Berkeley. Reconstitution is her first book.