How money corrupts Congress

Policy Talks @ the Ford School Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Paperback editions of Lawrence Lessig's book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It will be available for purchase at the event. Professor Lessig will sign copies of his book during the reception. Join in on the conversation on Twitter: #fordschoollessig This event is co-sponsored by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. From the speaker's bio: Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Prior to rejoining the Harvard faculty, Lessig was a professor at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school's Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. Lessig is an American academic and respected activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright and trademark, and as a founding member of Creative Commons. He has turned his attention to government reform and has called for state-based activism to promote a Second Constitutional Convention. Lessig's book Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It, explains 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. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand by using real-world analogies. He rejects simple labels and uses examples that resonate powerfully on both the Right and the Left. He delves into the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, and reveals the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. In Republic, Lost, Lessig makes the need for reform clear and gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

• campaign finance
• Lawrence Lessig