Concepts: Plain Answers to Basic Civic Questions

On August 3, 2026 we published Concepts at tryagora.org/concepts. There are eight of them, and each answers a single question about how government works.

The first eight: who do you call, who runs your city, who decides your rent, what your member of Congress can do, why a bill does not pass, why your local election is in an odd year, what a public authority is, and why your city has to ask permission.

Why these exist

Participation between elections requires knowing who decides what. Most people do not, and that is a design failure of the system rather than a failure of the people living in it. These are the questions that come up first when someone tries to act on something local and finds they do not know where to direct it.

Concepts sit between our blog posts, which respond to something current, and our longer pieces, which argue a case. A Concept explains one idea and then stops.

What is next

More of them, chosen by what people actually search for rather than by what we assume they need.