His focus is not on bad people doing bad things, but on how incentives across a range of institutions have created corruption, with deleterious consequences for the nation ... Lessig examines a range of ways to de-corrupt institutions. As with so many efforts, it is hard to find remedies that are realistic and practical. Still, some of Lessig’s ideas are not just pie in the sky.
Readers concerned about the integrity of the country's core institutions will be enlightened—and perhaps even inspired to take action—by this erudite analysis.
In this provocative analysis ... Lessig judiciously uses specifics to buttress his case ... This treatise is a conversation-starter, not a guide to solutions; readers interested in those will find a more detailed and action-oriented analysis in Steven Brill’s Tailspin.
The author is more convincing in his case against 'institutional corruption' than in finding the solution. As he writes in the chapter on the media, where he suggests that journalism might better become more transparently partisan, some readers might think his proposal 'seems just nuts' ... Yet the book has value in showing how much that ails America isn’t illegal or even unethical but systemic. The diagnosis rings truer than the cures.
