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How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It
Twelve
October 2011
On Sale: October 5, 2011
320 pages ISBN: 0446576433 EAN: 9780446576437 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of
money into our government-driven by shifts in
campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the
Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission-trust in our government has reached an
all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that
money buys results in Congress, and that business interests
wield control over our legislature.
With heartfelt
urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law
professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we
arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with
good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted
by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become
entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and
reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as
powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the
root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of
campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the
human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take
such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms
that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and
real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread
mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting
achievable solutions for regaining control of our
corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this
way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to
its intended greatness.
While America may be
divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can
succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and
that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC,
LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he
gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do
something about it.
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