Summary
Renowned social theorist Roberto Unger believes that left-of-centre progressives - his own political side - lack the imagination required to tackle the fundamental problems of society. In the run-up to the US presidential elections of 2012, he declared that his former student Barack Obama "must be defeated". Professor Unger argued that President Obama had failed in his first term in office to advance the progressive cause. There was, Unger maintained, effectively no difference between the Democrat and Republican political programmes.
In front of an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Roberto Unger discusses with presenter Jo Fidgen the reasons for his critical appraisal of the progressive left in the United States and Europe. He sets out what he believes its alternative agenda should be and gives his verdict on another of his former students: Ed Miliband.
Roberto Mangabeira Unger is the Roscoe Pound professor at Harvard Law School. He served as a minister in the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2007-2009. His books include: "The Left Alternative"; "Democracy Realised"; and "The Self Awakened". His new book, published next year, will address a new theme: "The Religion of the Future".
#LSEProgressive
Producer: Simon Coates.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:41.0 | In this program, recorded in front of an invited audience at the London School of Economics |
| 0:46.3 | and Political Science, Joe Fijin is in conversation with the renowned Brazilian progressive |
| 0:52.3 | political thinker, |
| 0:54.0 | former government minister and Harvard University legal scholar Roberto Unger. Welcome to the London School of Economics and Political Science. |
| 1:14.1 | I'm Joe Fijon and as you've heard I'm joined by an audience for this week's special edition of Analysis. |
| 1:20.2 | I'm going to be talking to Professor Roberto Mangabera Unger. |
| 1:24.0 | He taught Barack Obama at Harvard Law School |
| 1:27.0 | and stayed in touch with him after that. |
| 1:29.0 | Yet, last year, he declared that President Obama had to be defeated in the 2012 election. |
| 1:36.0 | And earlier this year he warned the British Labour Party that progressives, like its leader |
| 1:40.6 | Ed Miliband, must have something new to say. |
| 1:45.0 | So Roberto Unger, what is a progressive in your view? |
| 1:49.7 | A progressive is someone who wants to see society reorganized part by part and step by step so that |
| 1:58.8 | ordinary men and women have a better chance to live a larger life. |
| 2:04.0 | We'll hear more about that in a moment. |
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