I’ve been learning from, and arguing with, Harvard law professor Lawrence
Lessig for a decade now. We have a long-running debate over whether money or
polarization is the root cause of our political ills. But our debate works
because we share a crucial belief: Bad institutions overwhelm good
individuals.
In his latest book, America, Compromised, Lessig is doing something ambitious:
He’s offering a new definition of institutional corruption, then showing how
it plays out in politics, academia, the media, Wall Street, and the legal
system. This is a definition of corruption that doesn’t require any individual
to be corrupt. But it’s a definition that, if you accept it, suggests much of
our society has been corrupted.
Here, Lessig and I discuss what corruption is, how to understand an
institution’s purpose, whether capitalism is itself corrupting, our upcoming
books about the media, how small donors polarize politics, Lessig’s critique
of democracy, why good people are particularly susceptible to institutional
corruption, whether we should ban private money in politics, and ways to
reinvent representative democracy. So, you know, nothing too big or heady.
**Book recommendations:
**
https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-
Told/dp/0465049664/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3J4521U19XBDW&keywords=the+half+that+has+never+been+told&qid=1558477960&s=books&sprefix=a+half+has+never+%2Cstripbooks%2C118&sr=1-2" target="new">
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American
Capitalism
__ by Edward E. Baptist
https://www.amazon.com/Political-Order-Decay-
Industrial-Globalization/dp/1491584874" target="new">
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the
Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Surveillance-Capitalism-Future-
Frontier/dp/1610395697" target="new">
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New
Frontier of Power __ by Shoshana Zuboff
Read more
I’ve been learning from, and arguing with, Harvard law professor Lawrence
Lessig for a decade now. We have a long-running debate over whether money or
polarization is the root cause of our political ills. But our debate works
because we share a crucial belief: Bad institutions overwhelm good
individuals.
In his latest book, America, Compromised, Lessig is doing something ambitious:
He’s offering a new definition of institutional corruption, then showing how
it plays out in politics, academia, the media, Wall Street, and the legal
system. This is a definition of corruption that doesn’t require any individual
to be corrupt. But it’s a definition that, if you accept it, suggests much of
our society has been corrupted.
Here, Lessig and I discuss what corruption is, how to understand an
institution’s purpose, whether capitalism is itself corrupting, our upcoming
books about the media, how small donors polarize politics, Lessig’s critique
of democracy, why good people are particularly susceptible to institutional
corruption, whether we should ban private money in politics, and ways to
reinvent representative democracy. So, you know, nothing too big or heady.
**Book recommendations:
**
https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-
Told/dp/0465049664/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3J4521U19XBDW&keywords=the+half+that+has+never+been+told&qid=1558477960&s=books&sprefix=a+half+has+never+%2Cstripbooks%2C118&sr=1-2" target="new">
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American
Capitalism
__ by Edward E. Baptist
https://www.amazon.com/Political-Order-Decay-
Industrial-Globalization/dp/1491584874" target="new">
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the
Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Surveillance-Capitalism-Future-
Frontier/dp/1610395697" target="new">
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New
Frontier of Power __ by Shoshana Zuboff
Read less