Political Scientist · Author · Democracy Reformer

Lee Drutman is reimagining American democracy beyond the two-party doom loop—from electoral reform to democratic renewal.

His 2020 book Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop made the case for multiparty democracy and proportional representation, reshaping how reformers think about America's party system. Now Lee's pushing deeper: What if we've been expecting the wrong things from citizens? Liberal democratic theory assumes rational independence. Real humans demand belonging, fairness, status, and agency. Lee's work shows how to build democracy that delivers those—through stronger communities, dynamic partisan competition, and adaptive governance.

"Lee Drutman is one of our most perceptive political thinkers."
— Ezra Klein, The New York Times

"He emerges as one of the keenest observers of America's political pathologies."
— The Economist

"One of the foremost students of American politics today."
— Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University

As senior fellow at New America, co-founder of Fix Our House and the Center for Ballot Freedom, and lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, Lee bridges cutting-edge research with practical democratic reform. His 2015 book The Business of America is Lobbying won the American Political Science Association's Robert A. Dahl Award for scholarship on democracy.

Lee writes the newsletter Undercurrent Events, co-hosts the podcast Politics in Question, and appears regularly on programs from NPR's Morning Edition to The Ezra Klein Show. His work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Politico, National Affairs, and Vox.

Books