Power to the People?
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2018
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Anne McElvoy hosts Rod Liddle, associate editor of The Spectator; David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends; Caroline MacFarland, the head of a think tank promoting the interests of ‘millennials’ and geographer Danny Dorling in an assessment of the influence of people power. Democracy was the most successful political idea of the last century but can it survive the digital age? Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead.
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University currently working on a project about the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories in the twenty-first century. David’s books include Politics: Ideas in Profile, The Confidence Trap, and the forthcoming, How Democracy Ends.
Caroline MacFarland is the founder and director of Common Vision (CoVi), an independent think tank with a mission to ‘inspire civic engagement and policy understanding amongst the millennial generation’. Previously, she was managing director at the think tank ResPublica, one of the founding team members of the foundation Power to Change, and a special advisor to the Big Lottery Fund.
Rod Liddle is an associate editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Sunday Times and The Sun. The author of Selfish Whining Monkeys: How we Ended Up Greedy, Narcissistic and Unhappy, Liddle is a former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at Oxford University and the author of Population 10 Billion. His research focuses on housing, health, employment, education and poverty. His recent books include Do We Need Economic Inequality?, The Equality Effect and he co -wrote Why Demography Matters.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.1 | Hello, I'm Anne McHawoy. |
| 0:34.1 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, |
| 0:39.0 | bringing together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
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| 0:51.2 | And while you're there, please do rate and review us. |
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| 0:55.6 | this is the bbc democracy rule by the people has had an erratic journey since his birth in greece |
| 1:07.8 | in the fifth century bc the most inspiring idea in political thinking has driven |
| 1:13.2 | many to risk their lives in pursuit or defence of it. But a health check across the world in |
| 1:19.0 | 2018 might give us cause to think that it's in need of a shot in the arm. The latest Democracy Index |
| 1:25.5 | report concludes that 90 of the countries it tested for applying democratic norms had lower scores than they'd had the year before, and only 5% of the world's population live under a full democracy. |
| 1:39.9 | The election of Donald Trump and a populist stridency emanating from the White House has caused |
| 1:45.1 | some to see America's democracy itself in danger. In Britain, the Brexit vote shook liberal |
| 1:51.1 | elites and radical movements right and left threaten existing power hierarchies. Add to that, |
| 1:57.3 | the firestorms of social media, a desire for instant reaction to our wishes, |
| 2:01.9 | and the strains are apparent. My guest today will give us their thoughts and some remedies. |
| 2:07.3 | They're Rod Little, Sunday Times and Sun columnist and associate editor of a spectator. |
| 2:12.4 | Danny Dalling, Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, and author of a new book, |
... |
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