The problems of American democracy have earned a great deal of attention recently, with commentators blaming everything from election manipulation and social media to economic instability. In Producing Politics, scholar Daniel Laurison locates the cause of democracy’s woes in a new place: the people who design and work on national political campaigns.

If you come from a particular class background, you’ve probably met these people. Maybe it was at a party or through a friend or college acquaintance. Maybe you even are one, or once were. They are campaign professionals: the consultants, operatives, and staffers who make their livelihood on election bids. Many gravitated to politics as children like their classmates obsessed over professional sports. Yet as baseball or basketball became a hobby for most of their peers, these budding politicos turned their passion into a career.

Laurison makes the novel and compelling argument that campaign professionals have more power to shape democracy and “produce politics” than they’re often given credit for, perhaps even more than the candidates for whom they work. By determining which voters to reach out to, the messages those voters receive, and the issues candidates emphasize on the campaign trail — and once in office, campaign professionals have a profound effect on US politics.