Doomed to fail? The hidden traps foiling Britain’s political system

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We know what political failure looks like in Britain. But why does it happen? Why do governments pass bad laws and ignore looming crises? Ben Ansell, author of Why Politics Fails, tells Ros Taylor why a small number of party members can impose leaders on the rest of us, how self-interest scuppers our decision making, and what happens to a mature democracy when politics stops working. Have we turned a corner since the disastrous Truss premiership? Or are we in for more of the same? “We have moved to an American-style election process.” “More democracy in political parties has led to the many centrists in society feeling misrepresented.” “The breakdown of unions and church membership means now it’s just us and political parties, mediated by Twitter.” BOOK LINK https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444113/why-politics-fails-by-ansell-ben/9780241992760 Presented and written by Ros Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
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0:55.9	theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Ros Taylor.
1:08.0	I regret not to have been successful in those arguments and of course it's painful and not to be able to see through
1:16.0	so many ideas and projects myself
1:19.7	I Cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.
1:26.4	They failed, but why does politics so often fail?
1:32.2	With me is Ben Ansel, the author of a new book on just that subject and the professor of
1:36.7	comparative democratic institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford.
1:40.6	Welcome to the bunker, Ben.
1:41.6	Thank you, Ros, it's lovely to be here.
1:44.0	When I was thinking about this conversation,
	...

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