They Don't Represent Us

Reclaiming Our Democracy

By: Lawrence Lessig

Narrated by: Lawrence Lessig

“This urgent book offers not only a clear-eyed explanation of the forces that broke our politics, but a thoughtful and, yes, patriotic vision of how we create a government that’s truly by and for the people.”—DAVID DALEY, bestselling author of Ratf**ked and Unrigged

In the vein of On Tyranny and How Democracies Die, the bestselling author of Republic, Lost argues with insight and urgency that our democracy no longer represents us and shows that reform is both necessary and possible.

America’s democracy is in crisis. Along many dimensions, a single flaw—unrepresentativeness—has detached our government from the people. And as a people, our fractured partisanship and ignorance on critical issues drive our leaders to stake out ever more extreme positions.

In They Don’t Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with “them”—Washington’s politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also “us.” “We the people” are increasingly uninformed about the issues, while ubiquitous political polling exacerbates the problem, reflecting and normalizing our ignorance and feeding it back into the system as representative of our will.

What we need, Lessig contends, is a series of reforms, from governmental institutions to the public itself, including:

• A move immediately to public campaign funding, leading to more representative candidates
• A reformed Electoral College, that gives the President a reason to represent America as a whole
• A federal standard to end partisan gerrymandering in the states
• A radically reformed Senate
• A federal penalty on states that don’t secure to their people an equal freedom to vote
• Institutions that empower the people to speak in an informed and deliberative way

A soul-searching and incisive examination of our failing political culture, this nonpartisan call to arms speaks to every citizen, offering a far-reaching platform for reform that could save our democracy and make it work for all of us.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

A Powerful Call To Action

In clear, compelling terms, Professor Lessig explains what ails our republic and how we can not only keep it but make it better than ever before.

a guide to the perplexed.

a detailed analysis of the many obstacles that prevent us from achieving a truly representative government.

All Americans should read/listen to this.

Whether you have far right or far left political view or somewhere in the middle. We are all mis-represented with the US political system.

Answers here

This fellow is FOR America that includes all people. A country run by and for the people. It can happen one person at a time OR faster when we share this information.

Good presentation of lessig’s ideas, which I agree with.

What does leaves in our Craig representative moccasin wires, Citizen, action representative, action, legal action and young watch sure that there is a propagation of power. From each American citizen through the legislative executive judicial system which is supposed to represent. He proposes various ways or do use changes to be made, and I agree.