The Politics Industry

Business strategist Michael E. Porter and political innovator Katherine M. Gehl argue that the American political system works exactly as designed, just not for ordinary citizens. Instead of a public institution run on impartial constitutional rules, they see a private industry dominated by a duopoly of Democrats and Republicans, where the players compete in unhealthy ways, problem-solving has almost no link to getting reelected, and the country's economic and social challenges go unmet. Applying business analysis, including Porter's Five Forces framework, they find the strongest lever for change in two areas: how elections work and how laws are made. Their remedy is Final Five Voting, which they set against more familiar proposals, among them term limits and campaign finance reform.

Mark Cuban named it in a What I'm Reading post, alongside Competing in the Age of AI.