Why my 20th book might be my most important.

For the last several years, Katherine Gehl and I have been working together to bring a new perspective to understanding politics in America. This research is presented in our forthcoming book “The Politics Industry” to be published through Harvard Business Review Press on June 23. The book takes a fresh, deep, and historical look at the structure and nature of competition in the US political system. We seek to identify the root causes of the growing dysfunction over the last several decades, which have resulted in our inability to address many of our most important national challenges, including coordinating a timely, appropriate, and coherent national response to our current health crisis. 

Over my career, I have written on various topics, including economic theory and policy, competition and competitive advantage, national and state competitiveness and economic development, health-care delivery, and business strategy. “The Politics Industry” is my 20th book, and it may be my most important. Our analysis reveals that politics is the most powerful constraint to a prosperous, healthy nation and world. I have come to believe that none of my other work will ever be able to reach its full potential without structural changes to the nature of the American political system.  

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can change it. 

Based on a structural understanding of how this complex system works, we put forward a strategy for reducing the extreme partisanship and division through practical changes, starting with election and governing rules. We also describe how political reform happened in America before, and how it is happening now in many states. We discuss what we have learned about political innovation efforts and what works.

While this is very much a book about politics, I want to assure you that we have gone to great lengths to ensure that the book is not political, and not partisan. Katherine and I personally cover the political spectrum. Katherine was a Democrat who now calls herself a “politically homeless centrist independent,” and I am a lifelong Massachusetts Republican.

As we have engaged with diverse groups across the country about this work, we find a hunger and a sense of urgency to understand how our political system actually works, and what would change it. Katherine and I are ready to take action. I hope you will join us.