The Politics Industry

Katherine Gehl, co-author of the book entitled, The Politics Industry, How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy, drops in to talk about the ideas that she and co-author Michael Porter present in the book.

Believe it or not, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are multi-billion dollar private industries within a public institution. Together, they’ve consolidated virtually absolute control over all political offices throughout our country. They’ve created an unassailable duopoly that efficiently quashes any third-party competition with extreme prejudice. And what do we citizens get from this duopoly? We get a political system that produces an endless supply of mayhem and partisan fights, producing little, if any, significant legislation. Is the system broken? “The system is working,” Katherine says, “it’s working exactly according to its design.” The problem is that it’s not designed to serve its customers; it is designed to work only in its own self-interest.

In this podcast episode, Katherine describes how the “Five Forces” business framework, originally developed to describe and analyze the nature of competition in for-profit industries, can be used to restructure our political system, thus creating an environment where multiple political parties compete to better serve its customers (citizens). Katherine goes on to explain how the practical and fundamental changes proposed in the book can be implemented at every level of our political system.