Croly explains the requirements for a genuinely popular system of representative government providing progressive liberalism with both a philosophical critique of the founding fathers' political outlook, and a political strategy for replacing it with something more in keeping with a new epoch. Although it was written in 1914, the intellectual structure remains largely intact within the liberal-progressive tradition.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION, INTRODUCTION, I. THE PEOPLE AND THE LAW, II. THE PIONEER DEMOCRACY AND THE CONSTITUTION, III. AGGRESSIVE AND TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY, IV. THE OLD ECONOMIC NATIONALISM, v. THE NEW ECONOMIC NATIONALISM, VI. THE LAW AND ITS BENEVOLENT ADMINISTRATION, VII. THE LAW AND ITS REACTION, VIII. THE LAW AND THE FAITH, IX. THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY, X. THE IDEAL AND THE PROGRAM, XI. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, XII. THE ADVENT OF DIRECT GOVERNMENT, XIII. DIRECT VS. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, XIV. VISIONS OF A NEW STATE, XV. MAJORITY RULE AND PUBLIC OPINION, XVI. EXECUTIVE VS. PARTISAN RESPONSIBILITY, XVII. THE ADMINISTRATION AS AN AGENT OF DEMOCRACY, XVIII. INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY, XIX. SOCIAL EDUCATION, INDEX