The Locke Project translates founding-era through modern American political texts into plain, modern English — without losing the argument, without partisan framing, with comparative context from democracies that made different structural choices.
The founding arguments about American democracy were made in 1787 and 1788 — debates between Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and the Anti-Federalists about faction, executive power, judicial accountability, and the conditions under which a large, diverse republic can sustain itself. These arguments anticipated, with uncomfortable precision, the constitutional crises of the present moment. They are not settled history. They are live debates.
Named for Peter Wiggin's pseudonym in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game — the character who used accessible, pseudonymous writing to shape public understanding of complex political questions. The Locke Project uses the same approach: serious argument made accessible, without partisan framing.
Readers at a 10th–12th grade reading level who want to understand the founding debates without the original 18th-century prose. Teachers who need accessible treatments for American history and civics classes. Citizens who want the argument intact, not summarized away.
This is not sixth-grade civics. The arguments are preserved in full — the complexity is in the prose style, not the substance.
The Locke Project is the primary source layer of a five-site civic information ecosystem.
The diagnosis of twelve structural pathologies threatening American democratic institutions — citing the founding arguments directly
The systems thinking tools that make the founding arguments legible as design problems rather than rhetoric
The deep reading layer — every text referenced in the Locke treatments has an Annotary entry with a reading path
The global news platform where the founding arguments appear as context for current events
The Locke Project actively seeks collaboration with scholars in constitutional law, political science, and history who want their research to reach a general audience. If you have corrections, additions, or expertise relevant to any of the treatments, please write.
© 2026 Brian Ball · No advertising. No sponsorship. No data sales. Ever.