About

The mission of IPI is animated by Politics Industry Theory, the groundbreaking body of work pioneered by our founder, Katherine Gehl. Politics Industry Theory looks at America’s political system through an industry-competition lens in order to better understand its structure and problems, and, most importantly, to identity the most powerful and achievable solutions to those problems.

Politics Industry Theory has changed how the national reform community thinks about, talks about, and engages constituencies around “powerful-and-achievable” political change. Katherine’s key contributions to this include the 2017 Harvard Business School report, “Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America,” and the 2020 Harvard Business Review book, “The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy.” Both the report and the book were co-authored with renowned Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter, one of the world’s most influential thinkers on management and competitiveness.

Katherine’s work to better define the politics industry has sparked new strategies and organizations coast to coast who are working to convert theory into action. IPI represents the next and necessary step: capturing the growing demand for political innovation that Katherine created, and putting into to work. Looking forward, IPI is leading the effort to seed and support state-based campaigns for Final-Five Voting, and is broadening the discussion and scholarship around political innovation, from the implementation and evaluation of electoral innovation, to changing the rules and practices of lawmaking in Congress.