The Politics Industry

Our political system has become big business—and business is booming—yet solutions to big problems seem impossible.

Behold, the political-industrial complex. Rampant lobbying and gerrymandering. Election spending rising exponentially with each cycle. The Democratic and Republican parties competing furiously against each other for advantage, while together—as a duopoly—having a lock on the entire industry.

And yet, who is this system for? Citizens, of course. Tragically, as the political system has transformed into an industry, it has also become totally dysfunctional, incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. Would-be reformers debate endlessly about various ways to "fix the system," such as term limits or revised campaign finance laws, but few of these have been seriously proposed, let alone implemented.

In The Politics Industry, leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl...