One size doesn’t fit all: Democracy is not always the best form of government

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2016

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. So said Winston Churchill and who would disagree? One man, one vote, the rule of law, equality and a free press. These are the Enlightenment principles the West has developed over the centuries and fought tooth and nail in countless wars to preserve or to propagate. But is the assumption that democracy always leads to a more liberal and tolerant society correct? Many would argue that it can lead to quite illiberal outcomes especially where there is profound ethnic division. Take for example Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic – the democratically elected president – left a legacy of more than 200,000 dead in Bosnia and ethnically cleansed more than 800,000 Albanians from their homes in Kosovo. And what if democracy were installed in Syria? It’s not hard to imagine the outcome for the minority groups who for decades have enjoyed the protection of Assad’s regime. Is democracy always the best outcome? Arguing in favour of the... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.8	Welcome to the Intelligence Squared podcast.
0:32.8	What a week it's been.
0:34.3	When we woke up to the result of the American presidential election on Wednesday,
0:38.1	we got busy programming in emergency debate
0:40.8	to ask what the result means for America and for the rest of the world.
0:44.4	The debates taking place in London on the 30th of November. We'll be joined by
0:49.4	Jonathan Friedland of The Guardian, Pulitzer winning Historian, An Applebaum, Steve Hilton and many others.
0:56.0	If you're one of our listeners in London, you can buy tickets for the debate at Intelligencesquare.com.
1:01.1	And for our other listeners around the world, you'll of course be able to listen to the
1:05.0	podcast in early December.
1:07.0	Now, here's this week's episode. We hope you enjoy it.
1:10.0	Well, hello, I'm Nick Gowing, and welcome to Cuduggen Hall in London for an intelligence
1:14.4	square debate on democracy. That's a word which means many things to many people around the world.
1:20.8	Different nations, different leaders, political systems, they talk of being
1:24.7	democratic when what they want and mean can sometimes be anything but.
	...

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