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.