Rethinking Democracy: Would Citizens Do a Better Job than Politicians? (Hélène Landemore)
Hélène Landemore argues that traditional electoral systems fail to represent society fairly and proposes a radical alternative.
In this week’s episode, Amol sits down with Yale political theorist and author of ‘Politics Without Politicians’, Professor Hélène Landemore, to discuss her argument to revive citizen‑led governance. She explains why she believes our current electoral systems fall short of representing the full diversity of the population and lays out a practical roadmap for what she calls an “open democracy.”
Hélène also addresses the most common critiques of her approach and highlights real-world examples of citizen assemblies – how would they work at scale? Who would (and wouldn’t) be allowed on them? And what if people simply aren’t interested?
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Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday. Previous episodes are available on ĢƵ iPlayer
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Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on ĢƵ Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on ĢƵ One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the ĢƵ and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers, Anna Budd and Rufus Gray. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham.
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