Democracy is a collective activity that entails the creation and operation of collective agency.\u00a0 The importance of collective agency to democracy some important puzzles about the ethics of democracy, especially regarding the status of existing democratic institutions and practices. Foremost among these is the paradox of constitutionalism. On one hand, citizens ought to have the power to change the institutions and practices that structure their interactions and affect the kinds of things democratic communities are able to do with their public power.\u00a0 On the other hand, citizens can only exercise power democratically through institutions and practices that organize their disparate activities into a form of collective agency. How we resolve this paradox\u2014that is, how we understand the normative status of existing democratic institutions and practices in practical deliberation\u2014depends on which model of collective agency we use.\u00a0 This paper argues that the \u201cjoint intentions\u201d model of shared agency is most compatible with mainstream theories of what democracy is for and what it must be able to do. The joint intentions model of collective agency has a number of important implications for the ethics of democracy, including for resolving the constitutional paradox. The joint intentions model of collective agency suggests that we might think of existing institutions and practices as part of a shared plan for democracy.\u00a0 If existing institutions and practices have the normative status of plans then they must have a special status in citizens\u2019 practical deliberations about how to contribute to democracy.<\/p>\n