AC Grayling, the Master and Professor of Philosophy of London's New College of
the Humanities delves deep into the strengths and weaknesses of democracy in an insightful talk at the British Library. Grayling will clarify the creation, concept and reality of representative democracy, before exploring the justification and pitfalls of democracy. He will also suggest how we can fix the flawed system.
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The talk is
divided into five brief chapters, which each have different focus points. Looking
at five moments in history (namely Periclean Athens,
the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the
Weimar Republic), the philosopher and columnist will draw comparisons to
show when other governments and nations faced the challenges we are
encountering now, if and how they solved them, and what the fallout from their
actions was.
In tackling such big concepts in the space of only an hour, Grayling has
taken on no mean feat. The core of his discussion is stuff of extensive study. Though the talk may be limited in depth, it does offer a more manageable, bite-size appraisal of democracy, though history to present day.