Downs's article seeks to disprove the popular imagination that the American political system has always been stable and stagnant. Instead, Downs argues, "the United States has survived not by keeping the same system but by transforming its rules at crucial moments."

Now, just as then, "...it is important to fix the [current] political system, to go beyond playing within the rules and instead to improve the rules of the game."

Read the article here: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/greg-downs-democratic-reforms-changing-rules