Book Review
The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy
I listened to this book during my 8 hour drive from NYC to NC. It was a powerful and enlightening listen. The information was digestible, and the authors managed to keep a potentially depressing book rather uplifting.
The thesis of the book is that politics is an industry, and it is run by a powerful duopoly. Written by an important economist and an experienced political non-profit activist, this book presents a clear vision of our political infrastructure.
While there have been many books written about the problems with our system, and the policies that could fix it, few books manage to get into the finer details of how policies are passed, and the mechanics and incentives that influence legislators. The book thoroughly disects the factors that control how politicians make decisions, and how our current voting system is creating incentives to become more polarized, disinscentivising problem-solving or bipartisan legislation, and putting reasonable or moderate politicians at a disadvantage.
The authors also manage to present a compelling vision for fixing the system. The book made me realize that the voting system we have now is not set in stone. We have chaged it in the past, and we can change it going forward. The founders of our government did not have the research and knowledge we do today, and could only conceive of a Plurality voting system (what we have now). I also found it fascinating to learn that partisan pramaries have not always been the norm. This is another aspect of our voting process that I took for granted. The book does a wonderful job at giving historical context that helped me to reinvision our system of voting.
The most inspiring part of this book is the authors’ assertion that the relatively small changes they propose (non-partisan final-5 primaries, ranked choice voting, and ending partisan gerrymandering) are somewhat doable. They don’t require a massive overhaul of the system. In fact, a pin-pointed coordinated effort to enact these three changes would make it infinitely easier for all other policies to be passed.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in “fixing the system”, passing broad sweeping reforms to our government, “draining the swamp”, or otherwise ensuring that our representatives are held accountable.
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