Why democracy needs both electoral renewal and constitutional restraint
Democracy needs oxygen. It requires the regular circulation of political power, the possibility of replacing governments, and the capacity of citizens to express their approval or dissatisfaction through elections. Without this circulation, political institutions risk becoming stagnant and detached from society.
Yet, as with oxygen, more is not necessarily better. Democracy can also suffer from a form of hyperoxia: excessive exposure to immediate political impulses and the expectation that every electoral victory should translate into unrestricted political authority.
The challenge of constitutional democracy is therefore to reconcile two essential principles: democratic responsiveness and constitutional restraint. The American system of midterm elections and staggered Senate terms offers an interesting illustration of this balance.
1. Midterm elections: The circulation of democratic power
The November 2026 US midterm elections once again demonstrate the importance of elections held between presidential contests. Although they do not determine who occupies the White House, they can fundamentally reshape the political balance in Washington.
The 2026 elections have produced a change in congressional control, illustrating how voters can use midterms to express dissatisfaction with the governing administration and alter the legislative environment in which the president operates.
Midterm elections perform three essential democratic functions. First, they provide a mechanism of political accountability, allowing citizens to reward or punish the governing party without waiting for the next presidential election. Second, they redistribute institutional power, potentially producing divided government, legislative negotiation, and stronger congressional oversight. Third, they ensure the peaceful rotation of political authority by reminding elected representatives that their mandate is temporary and subject to repeated democratic scrutiny.
Midterms are therefore more than secondary elections. They are a reminder that electoral legitimacy is neither permanent nor unconditional. The ballot box is not simply the instrument through which power is acquired, but also the means through which it can be questioned, limited, and redistributed.
2. Staggered elections: A counter majoritarian mechanism
The American constitutional design does not rely exclusively on the periodic renewal of political mandates. It also deliberately regulates the pace of political change.
The US Senate is the clearest example. Unlike the House of Representatives, whose entire membership faces election every two years, senators serve six-year terms, with approximately one-third of the seats contested every two years.
This arrangement reflects a deliberate constitutional choice: political change must be possible, but it need not be instantaneous. The framers sought to protect the legislative process from the volatility of temporary majorities and the political passions of the moment.
Staggered elections institutionalise this principle. Even when an electoral wave produces substantial political realignment, the entire Senate cannot be transformed at once. Approximately two-thirds of its members remain in office after each election cycle, preserving institutional continuity while allowing voters to progressively reshape its composition.
The underlying idea is that the democratic will is legitimate, but its translation into political authority can take place over time. A single electoral victory should not automatically entail a complete institutional transformation.
3. The counter-majoritarian function: Protecting democracy from its own impulses
This arrangement reveals a central paradox of constitutional democracy: although democracy is founded on majority rule, constitutional government cannot simply mean the unrestricted exercise of majority power.
Staggered elections contribute to a counter-majoritarian function by introducing time and institutional continuity between electoral preferences and the transformation of political power. They ensure that newly elected majorities coexist, at least temporarily, with representatives chosen under previous electoral circumstances.
This is not necessarily a denial of democracy. Rather, it reflects the understanding that democratic legitimacy depends not only on the immediate expression of popular preferences but also on the stability of constitutional rules.
Winning an election provides a legitimate mandate to govern, but not unlimited authority to transform every institution or remove every constitutional constraint. The staggered Senate acts as a form of institutional memory, preventing the entire legislative branch from being continuously exposed to the political temperature of the latest electoral contest.
Of course, this mechanism also has a cost: institutional continuity can preserve political configurations that no longer reflect current public preferences, delaying democratic change. This is the unavoidable tension between stability and responsiveness.
The purpose of constitutional restraint is therefore not to prevent political change, but to ensure that change does not become synonymous with institutional disruption.
The American system of separation of powers, bicameralism, different electoral cycles, and staggered Senate terms embodies this broader constitutional philosophy. Democracy requires not only the capacity to act, but also the capacity to wait, reconsider, negotiate, and sometimes refrain from acting.
Ultimately, the political present should not possess unrestricted power to erase the institutional past or determine the entire political future.
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