Is democracy still the 'least worst' form of government?
Moral Maze
BBC
4.4 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After decades of despotism, Syria is facing an uncertain but cautiously hopeful future - though many are sceptical about the sort of government that will replace the dynastic Assad regime. While Syria has endured 13 years of civil war, another shock has been the unravelling of South Korea, formerly a beacon of stability, with the president's short-lived attempt to declare martial law. And then there is Donald Trump looking to pardon the US Capitol rioters, who wanted to overthrow the government on January 6th 2021. Even in liberal democracies, it seems, power is above the law. So much for the moral superiority of democracy?
What does all this say about us? Surveys suggest democracy doesn't matter as much to younger generations. Strongman authoritarians abound and are admired across Europe and beyond. Meanwhile in the UK, the gap between the share of votes won in the 2024 general election and the share of Parliamentary seats is the largest on record.
Is democracy still the best, most efficient and most moral from of government?
Chair: Michael Buerk Panel: James Orr, Ella Whelan, Giles Fraser and Tim Stanley Witnesses: Sam Ashworth-Hayes, Rhiannon Firth, Robert Griffiths and Erica Benner.
Producer: Dan Tierney Assistant producer: Ruther Purser Editor: Tim Pemberton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Good evening, Syria took to the streets this week to celebrate not just the overthrow of a brutal dictator, |
| 0:10.9 | whose rule had killed hundreds of thousands of his citizens and made half the population refugees, |
| 0:16.8 | but a new dawn for democracy in what's been arguably the worst place in the world to live. |
| 0:22.8 | That does seem the very definition of hope over experience. |
| 0:26.5 | The principal rebel group are still officially regarded most of the West as Islamic jihadi terrorists. |
| 0:32.4 | Who will actually wield power is uncertain. |
| 0:35.0 | What they'll do with it in a broken, impoverished country, |
| 0:38.7 | riven by factions and sex with scores to settle, is anybody's guess. Not many would bet on democracy. |
| 0:45.9 | More than a decade after the so-called Arab Spring, there's not a single democracy in the Arab world. |
| 0:51.9 | Democracy once seemed the desirable, even inevitable end point of political |
| 0:55.7 | evolution. But these days it seems under pressure. America's elected a new president set on |
| 1:01.1 | pardoning those who staged an insurrection when a vote didn't go his way. Britain's just had an |
| 1:06.7 | election where a third of the votes ended up selecting two-thirds of the MPs. |
| 1:11.6 | South Korea's democracy went suddenly haywire. |
| 1:15.1 | And authoritarian leaders seem increasingly popular almost everywhere, |
| 1:19.4 | especially amongst the young, who, surveys suggest, |
| 1:22.8 | prefer the idea of a strong man to a debating chamber. |
| 1:26.7 | Is democracy still the best, the most moral |
| 1:29.1 | form of government? That's our moral maze tonight. The panel is Dorian Tim Stanley, |
| 1:33.5 | the feminist author Ella Weillan, James Orr, Associate Professor of the Philosophy, |
| 1:38.4 | the Religion at Cambridge University and the priest and polemicist Charles Fraser. |
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