Hello, my name is Catherine Carr. I'm the podcast producer. Welcome to a special edition

of Talking Politics. This week's episode is a recording of a recent lecture given by

David Runseman called How Democracy Ends. He argues that if democracy fails in the 21st

century, it will be in ways that are new and surprising. David in the panel will be

back next week.

This public lecture was recorded at Churchill College in Cambridge and is based on David's

new book also called How Democracy Ends. It will be published in the spring.

At some point democracy will end. So the first three words of my book are nothing

last forever and nothing does last forever. At some point, some generation of human beings

are going to discover that this way of doing politics no longer works, no longer delivers,

has been replaced by something better, ceases to function. It might not be us, but it

could be us. And whoever it is will be surprised to discover that this thing that they have

grown up used to as the default of their politics is winding down. And I think it could

be us. And when I say generation, there are many generations in this room. So we cover

a broad span, but some of us in this room may well live to see the end of democracy.

I think it's a real question. I have to be honest. Part of the provocation was the election

of Donald Trump. There is a phrase that sounds pretentious, phrase in philosophy that when

an argument reaches its reductio ad absurdum, that is when you ask a question and you get

an absurd answer, you have to conclude there is something wrong with the question. So

if the answer to the question is Donald Trump, and the question is democratic election, there

is something wrong with the question. But it's not just about Trump. I'll say a bit more

about him later. It's about our politics. And by our politics, I'm talking about democracies

...