The Politics Industry

What Hacker News says

1. pbronezNov 2024
   I recommend reading The Politics Industry by Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter for a thorough (but accessible) systems-first analysis of the American political system + recommendations for reforms.

   https://gehlporter.com/

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2. tadmilbournOct 2022
   I found The Politics Industry by Katherine Gehl super enlightening and well-researched on this very idea (https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Industry-Political-Innovatio...). The basic premise is that the current "market dynamics" of Politics (when viewed like any other industry) actively disincentivizes results. Painting with a somewhat broad brush, it doesn't making sense for a politician to make progress on immigration reform because that lessens its saliency for raising money and turning out the base.

   The solution proposed is a combination of "Final-Five" open primaries with ranked-choice voting in the general election. This is what just happened in Alaska and is on the ballot in Nevada in November.

   Which reminds me...if you're a Nevada voter, vote YES on ballot question 3!

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3. robfigDec 2020
   It seems to me that US politics took a turn for the worse in the past 20 years, and my response has been to disengage. Randomly, I picked up The Politics Industry by Michael Porter and Katherine Gehl, and I found it pretty convincing:

   (a) The system of elections and legislation is responsible for the poor outcomes we see. It's not the specific personalities.

   (b) That system's rules were written by the Republican and Democratic parties to entrench their power. It is NOT encoded in the constitution or otherwise set in stone. Both parties are winners with the status quo -- they do very well financially by drumming up tribalistic competition instead of cooperation and problem solving.

   (c) The result of the current rules is that a politician's ONLY job is to appeal to primary voters, which is why they take an ideologic or hard line stance. "Reaching across the aisle" results in a primary challenger that costs them their job.

   As an "average voter" that thinks the best route is probably somewhere in the middle (the world is complicated, and government is neither omnipotent nor impotent), me and everyone like me are not represented.

   They present a surprisingly straightforward remedy:

   (1) Adopt non-partisan primaries with Final Five ballots, which a couple states have already passed variants of (Final Four just passed in Alaska!)

   (2) Ranked choice voting to remove the Spoiler reason ("don't throw your vote away") that keeps independents or third parties out.

   I came away optimistic about the future. Highly recommended!

   Here's their site if you'd like to learn more: https://gehlporter.com/

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