The Shortest History of Democracy
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a time of grave uncertainty about the future of our planet, the radical potential of democracy is more important than ever.
From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia – and not Athens – to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege, and why. Democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures.
In this vigorous, illuminating history, acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces its Byzantine history, from the age of assembly democracy in Athens, to European-inspired electoral democracy and the birth of representative government, to our age of monitory democracy. He gives new reasons why democracy is a precious global ideal and shows that as the world has come to be shaped by democracy, it has grown more worldly – American-style liberal democracy is giving way to regional varieties with a local character in places such as Taiwan, India, Senegal and South Africa.
In an age of cascading crises, we need the radical potential of democracy more than ever. Does it have a future, or will the demagogues and despots win? We are about to find out.
Produced by Hannah Ward
Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore
If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, buddy. Welcome down to Soats History Up. We're talking about democracy today. |
| 0:04.0 | The short history of democracy. It's going to be very short. It's about half an hour |
| 0:08.0 | podcast. We're going to go from the beginning to the end. Well, I hope we're not the end. |
| 0:12.0 | That's what we're talking about at the moment. From the beginning to the middle |
| 0:16.0 | bit of democracy. The democratic story is hopefully not reaching |
| 0:20.0 | an end at the moment. Well, that can feel like that. I've got John Keane here. He's a professor of |
| 0:26.0 | University of Sydney. He's co-founder and director of the Sydney Democracy Network. |
| 0:32.0 | He's renowned globally. He's creative thinking about democracy. He's the dude. |
| 0:36.0 | Right comes to democracy. And if you want to listen to other podcasts, which I discuss, |
| 0:40.0 | the issue of democracy. It's rise. It's challenges at the moment. You can do so at history |
| 0:46.0 | at TV. All the previous episodes, the podcast were all there without the ads. |
| 0:50.0 | Deep back into our archive seven years ago. We've got hundreds of hours of TV shows. We've got |
| 0:54.0 | excellent Forklens show, which is just smashing records at the moment on there. |
| 0:58.0 | 40 years since the Forklens war. So please go and check that out. If you follow the |
| 1:02.0 | link in the notes of this podcast, click on that little link. It'll take you straight |
| 1:06.0 | there as if by magic. And then you can take part in a democratic exercise. |
| 1:10.0 | Joining history at this grassroots organization for better history on TV. |
| 1:14.0 | Then you'll be being a responsible global digital citizen. So go and do that. |
| 1:20.0 | In the meantime, though, folks, here is John Keane. Enjoy. |
| 1:24.0 | John, thank you very much. Come on the podcast. |
| 1:32.0 | Dan, it's a great pleasure. Of the many things I enjoyed and found stimulating about your work, |
| 1:38.0 | I thought you had the neatest definition of democracy because sometimes when you ask people |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.