Topics
What Lee works on, and where to start reading on each.
The two-party doom loop and polarization
America now has a true two-party system, with two truly distinct parties, and that binary is driving escalating two-party warfare. The system will not self-correct on its own.
- Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop (Oxford University Press, 2020)
- We Are Still Living in the Doom Loop, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- The moderation debate fiddles with 2% while democracy's dimensionality collapses, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- The Two-Party System Broke the Constitution, The Atlantic, 2020
Proportional representation
Electing the House by proportional representation would end the winner-take-all logic of single-member districts and open space for more than two parties.
- How to Fix America's Two-Party Problem (with Jesse Wegman), The New York Times, 2025
- The Case for More Parties, Boston Review, 2024
- The Case for Proportional Voting, National Affairs, 2018
- Interview: Is It Time to Break the Two-Party System?, The Ezra Klein Show, 2026
- Campaign: Fix Our House
Expanding the House
The House has been frozen at 435 seats since 1929 while districts have tripled in size.
- The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives (with Jonathan D. Cohen, Yuval Levin and Norman J. Ornstein), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2021
Fusion voting and new parties
Some reforms just rearrange the gridlock. Fusion voting builds the new parties that can break the doom loop.
- How fusion voting builds the new parties that can break the two-party doom loop, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- More Parties, Better Parties, New America, 2023
- A healthy democracy requires healthy political parties, Undercurrent Events, 2023
- Organization: Center for Ballot Freedom
Gerrymandering and redistricting
Fair maps require a definition of fair, and there isn't one. Maybe the problem is the districting.
- Why you can't just ban gerrymandering, Undercurrent Events, 2026
- A brief, 237-year history of gerrymandering in America, Undercurrent Events, 2026
- The Supreme Court killed voting rights and escalated the gerrymandering wars, Undercurrent Events, 2026
- What We Know About Redistricting and Redistricting Reform, New America, 2022
- The Best Way to Fix Gerrymandering Is to Make It Useless, The New York Times, 2018
Primaries
Why isn't November the election that matters? Single-member districts are the problem, and primary reform doesn't fix them.
- “Open the primaries” is the wrong answer to the right question, Undercurrent Events, 2026
- What We Know about Congressional Primaries and Congressional Primary Reform, New America, 2021
Congress and congressional capacity
Congress has lost the staff, expertise and independence to govern well, and the parties have centralized what power remains.
- Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline in Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform (edited with Timothy M. LaPira and Kevin R. Kosar), University of Chicago Press, 2020
- Politics Keeps Driving Out the People Who Want to Reform It, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- Why America Has the World's Oldest Politicians, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- Matt Gaetz Is Half Right, The Atlantic, 2023
Lobbying and money in politics
How corporations became politicized and politics became more corporate.
- The Business of America Is Lobbying (Oxford University Press, 2015), winner of APSA's Robert A. Dahl Award
- Campaign finance reform for a multiparty America, Undercurrent Events, 2026
- “On the Advantages of a Well-Constructed Lobbying System” (with Christine Mahoney), Interest Groups & Advocacy, 2017
Third parties and independents
Americans say they want a third party. Under the current rules, they are unlikely to get one.
- So you want to start a new political party that “actually represents the 80% in the middle”? Good luck. An open letter to Elon Musk, Undercurrent Events, 2025
- What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Our Broken Political System, Politico, 2025
- Wish You Had More Political Choice? The Answer Isn't a Third-Party Candidate, Slate, 2023
- Spoiler Alert: Why Americans' Desires for a Third Party Are Unlikely to Come True (with William Galston and Tod Lindberg), Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, 2018