Republic, Lost

**Author:** Lawrence Lessig

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

- Why the American government no longer represents ordinary citizens - How money creates a legal but devastating form of corruption - What the Founding Fathers actually intended for Congress - Why transparency and campaign finance limits have failed - What citizen-funded elections could accomplish - How constitutional reform might break the current deadlock - What citizens can actually do to reclaim their democracy

**Who This Book Is For:**

This book is for anyone who has ever felt that the American political system is broken but could not quite explain why. It is for citizens who suspect that their representatives care more about donors than voters, for activists who want to understand the mechanics of political corruption, and for anyone who believes that democracy is worth fighting for. If you have ever wondered why Congress fails to act on issues that enjoy overwhelming public support, or why both parties seem beholden to interests that most Americans oppose, this book will give you the framework to understand what has gone wrong and what it will take to fix it.

There is a moment in the life of every democracy when citizens must ask themselves a difficult question: Does our government still represent us? For most Americans, the answer has become painfully clear. Poll after poll shows that trust in government has collapsed. Only a fifth of Americans believe the government will do what is right most of the time. Three quarters believe that campaign contributions buy results in Congress. Voter turnout remains stubbornly low, driven in part by a widespread belief that ordinary citizens simply do not matter to the people in power. Lawrence Lessig opens *Republic, Lost* with a startling observation: The United States government is corrupt. Not corrupt in the way we usually imagine, with envelopes of cash exchanged in smoky back rooms. Not corrupt in the sense of illegal bribes or explicit quid pro quo deals. The corruption Lessig describes is far more pervasive and far more dangerous because it is entirely legal. This is a book about a specific kind of corruption that Lessig calls "dependence corruption." It is the corruption that occurs when members of Congress become dependent not on the people they represent, but on the funders who finance their campaigns. It is a corruption of the institution itself, not of individual politicians. And it explains why Congress so consistently fails to act in the public interest. The problem is not that politicians are bad people. Most enter public service with genuine intentions. The problem is that the system they enter forces them into a pattern of behavior that serves funders over constituents. A…