The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock

We are pleased to invite HKS alumni and their guests to join us in welcoming Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter to DC to present The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy. This innovative analysis looks at our current political reality through the lens of competition to shed new light on the systemic challenges we face and propose bold and pragmatic solutions.

The presentation will begin promptly at 5:30 and will be followed by brief Q&A. 

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Background: In 2016, Katherine Gehl invited Michael Porter, of Harvard Business School, to join her ongoing work on political innovation—as dysfunction in Washington continued to deliver poor results and high dissatisfaction with the U.S. political system. Katherine had applied Michael’s tools for understanding industry competition for the first time to politics, to uncover the root cause of the dysfunction—the failed political competition the parties have created (captured in the “Gehl Porter Politics Industry Theory”). This new lens reveals the reforms that will be necessary to truly realign America’s political system with the public interest. Together in 2017, Katherine and Michael published their ground-breaking research and analysis on—and most importantly a prescription for—our political system in the Report, Why Competition in the Politics Industry Is Failing America: A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy. Katherine and Michael are co-chairs of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers. Their work continues, and is informing, engaging and motivating businesspeople and leaders from across America in the reform movement.