Can democracy exist without trust?
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0:00 - 0:03I'm afraid I'm one of those speakers
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0:03 - 0:06you hope you're not going to meet at TED.
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0:06 - 0:08First, I don't have a mobile,
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0:08 - 0:10so I'm on the safe side.
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0:10 - 0:12Secondly, a political theorist
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0:12 - 0:14who's going to talk about the crisis of democracy
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0:14 - 0:18is probably not the most exciting topic you can think about.
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0:18 - 0:21And plus, I'm not going to give you any answers.
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0:21 - 0:25I'm much more trying to add to some of the questions we're talking about.
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0:25 - 0:27And one of the things that I want to question
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0:27 - 0:29is this very popular hope these days
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0:29 - 0:31that transparency and openness
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0:31 - 0:36can restore the trust in democratic institutions.
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0:36 - 0:39There is one more reason for you to be suspicious about me.
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0:39 - 0:43You people, the Church of TED, are a very optimistic community.
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0:43 - 0:46(Laughter)
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0:46 - 0:51Basically you believe in complexity, but not in ambiguity.
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0:51 - 0:53As you have been told, I'm Bulgarian.
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0:53 - 0:55And according to the surveys,
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0:55 - 0:59we are marked the most pessimistic people in the world.
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0:59 - 1:00(Laughter)
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1:00 - 1:04The Economist magazine recently wrote an article
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1:04 - 1:07covering one of the recent studies on happiness,
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1:07 - 1:11and the title was "The Happy, the Unhappy and the Bulgarians."
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1:11 - 1:13(Laughter)
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1:13 - 1:17So now when you know what to expect,
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1:17 - 1:18let's give you the story.
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1:18 - 1:23And this is a rainy election day in a small country --
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1:23 - 1:27that can be my country, but could be also your country.
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1:27 - 1:30And because of the rain until four o'clock in the afternoon,
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1:30 - 1:33nobody went to the polling stations.
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1:33 - 1:35But then the rain stopped,
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1:35 - 1:37people went to vote.
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1:37 - 1:40And when the votes had been counted,
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1:40 - 1:47three-fourths of the people have voted with a blank ballot.
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1:47 - 1:50The government and the opposition,
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1:50 - 1:53they have been simply paralyzed.
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1:53 - 1:55Because you know what to do about the protests.
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1:55 - 1:57You know who to arrest, who to negotiate with.
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1:57 - 2:02But what to do about people who are voting with a blank ballot?
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2:02 - 2:07So the government decided to have the elections once again.
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2:07 - 2:09And this time even a greater number,
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2:09 - 2:1483 percent of the people, voted with blank ballots.
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2:14 - 2:17Basically they went to the ballot boxes
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2:17 - 2:20to tell that they have nobody to vote for.
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2:20 - 2:25This is the opening of a beautiful novel by Jose Saramago
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2:25 - 2:27called "Seeing."
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2:27 - 2:29But in my view it very well captures
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2:29 - 2:33part of the problem that we have with democracy in Europe these days.
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2:33 - 2:36On one level nobody's questioning
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2:36 - 2:40that democracy is the best form of government.
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2:40 - 2:43Democracy is the only game in town.
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2:43 - 2:45The problem is that many people start to believe
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2:45 - 2:48that it is not a game worth playing.
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2:48 - 2:52For the last 30 years, political scientists have observed
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2:52 - 2:56that there is a constant decline in electoral turnout,
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2:56 - 3:00and the people who are least interested to vote
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3:00 - 3:05are the people whom you expect are going to gain most out of voting.
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3:05 - 3:08I mean the unemployed, the under-privileged.
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3:08 - 3:10And this is a major issue.
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3:10 - 3:13Because especially now with the economic crisis,
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3:13 - 3:15you can see that the trust in politics,
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3:15 - 3:18that the trust in democratic institutions,
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3:18 - 3:20was really destroyed.
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3:20 - 3:23According to the latest survey being done by the European Commission,
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3:23 - 3:2889 percent of the citizens of Europe believe that there is a growing gap
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3:28 - 3:35between the opinion of the policy-makers and the opinion of the public.
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3:35 - 3:39Only 18 percent of Italians and 15 percent of Greeks
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3:39 - 3:42believe that their vote matters.
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3:42 - 3:46Basically people start to understand that they can change governments,
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3:46 - 3:48but they cannot change policies.
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3:48 - 3:51And the question which I want to ask is the following:
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3:51 - 3:55How did it happen that we are living in societies
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3:55 - 3:57which are much freer than ever before --
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3:57 - 4:00we have more rights, we can travel easier,
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4:00 - 4:02we have access to more information --
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4:02 - 4:06at the same time that trust in our democratic institutions
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4:06 - 4:08basically has collapsed?
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4:08 - 4:10So basically I want to ask:
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4:10 - 4:15What went right and what went wrong in these 50 years
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4:15 - 4:16when we talk about democracy?
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4:16 - 4:20And I'll start with what went right.
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4:20 - 4:23And the first thing that went right was, of course,
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4:23 - 4:26these five revolutions which, in my view,
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4:26 - 4:30very much changed the way we're living and deepened our democratic experience.
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4:30 - 4:36And the first was the cultural and social revolution of 1968 and 1970s,
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4:36 - 4:38which put the individual at the center of politics.
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4:38 - 4:41It was the human rights moment.
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4:41 - 4:45Basically this was also a major outbreak, a culture of dissent,
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4:45 - 4:49a culture of basically non-conformism,
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4:49 - 4:51which was not known before.
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4:51 - 4:53So I do believe that even things like that
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4:53 - 4:57are very much the children of '68 --
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4:57 - 5:00nevertheless that most of us had been even not born then.
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5:00 - 5:03But after that you have the market revolution of the 1980s.
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5:03 - 5:07And nevertheless that many people on the left try to hate it,
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5:07 - 5:11the truth is that it was very much the market revolution that sent the message:
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5:11 - 5:13"The government does not know better."
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5:13 - 5:16And you have more choice-driven societies.
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5:16 - 5:23And of course, you have 1989 -- the end of Communism, the end of the Cold War.
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5:23 - 5:25And it was the birth of the global world.
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5:25 - 5:27And you have the Internet.
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5:27 - 5:30And this is not the audience to which I'm going to preach
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5:30 - 5:32to what extent the Internet empowered people.
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5:32 - 5:35It has changed the way we are communicating
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5:35 - 5:37and basically we are viewing politics.
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5:37 - 5:40The very idea of political community totally has changed.
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5:40 - 5:42And I'm going to name one more revolution,
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5:42 - 5:44and this is the revolution in brain sciences,
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5:44 - 5:46which totally changed the way
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5:46 - 5:49we understand how people are making decisions.
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5:49 - 5:52So this is what went right.
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5:52 - 5:55But if we're going to see what went wrong,
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5:55 - 5:58we're going to end up with the same five revolutions.
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5:58 - 6:02Because first you have the 1960s and 1970s,
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6:02 - 6:03cultural and social revolution,
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6:03 - 6:07which in a certain way destroyed the idea of a collective purpose.
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6:07 - 6:12The very idea, all these collective nouns that we have been taught about --
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6:12 - 6:15nation, class, family.
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6:15 - 6:17We start to like divorcing, if we're married at all.
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6:17 - 6:21All this was very much under attack.
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6:21 - 6:25And it is so difficult to engage people in politics
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6:25 - 6:28when they believe that what really matters
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6:28 - 6:30is where they personally stand.
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6:30 - 6:33And you have the market revolution of the 1980s
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6:33 - 6:39and the huge increase of inequality in societies.
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6:39 - 6:41Remember, until the 1970s,
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6:41 - 6:45the spread of democracy has always been accompanied
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6:45 - 6:49by the decline of inequality.
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6:49 - 6:51The more democratic our societies have been,
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6:51 - 6:55the more equal they have been becoming.
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6:55 - 6:57Now we have the reverse tendency.
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6:57 - 7:00The spread of democracy now is very much accompanied
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7:00 - 7:02by the increase in inequality.
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7:02 - 7:05And I find this very much disturbing
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7:05 - 7:09when we're talking about what's going on right and wrong
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7:09 - 7:11with democracy these days.
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7:11 - 7:13And if you go to 1989 --
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7:13 - 7:16something that basically you don't expect that anybody's going to criticize --
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7:16 - 7:20but many are going to tell you, "Listen, it was the end of the Cold War
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7:20 - 7:26that tore the social contract between the elites and the people in Western Europe."
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7:26 - 7:27When the Soviet Union was still there,
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7:27 - 7:31the rich and the powerful, they needed the people,
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7:31 - 7:33because they feared them.
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7:33 - 7:36Now the elites basically have been liberated.
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7:36 - 7:39They're very mobile. You cannot tax them.
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7:39 - 7:41And basically they don't fear the people.
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7:41 - 7:44So as a result of it, you have this very strange situation
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7:44 - 7:48in which the elites basically got out of the control of the voters.
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7:48 - 7:50So this is not by accident
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7:50 - 7:53that the voters are not interested to vote anymore.
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7:53 - 7:55And when we talk about the Internet,
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7:55 - 7:58yes, it's true, the Internet connected all of us,
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7:58 - 8:04but we also know that the Internet created these echo chambers and political ghettos
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8:04 - 8:09in which for all your life you can stay with the political community you belong to.
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8:09 - 8:11And it's becoming more and more difficult
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8:11 - 8:14to understand the people who are not like you.
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8:14 - 8:16I know that many people here
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8:16 - 8:21have been splendidly speaking about the digital world and the possibility for cooperation,
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8:21 - 8:25but [have you] seen what the digital world has done to American politics these days?
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8:25 - 8:29This is also partly a result of the Internet revolution.
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8:29 - 8:31This is the other side of the things that we like.
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8:31 - 8:33And when you go to the brain sciences,
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8:33 - 8:38what political consultants learned from the brain scientists
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8:38 - 8:41is don't talk to me about ideas anymore,
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8:41 - 8:43don't talk to me about policy programs.
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8:43 - 8:49What really matters is basically to manipulate the emotions of the people.
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8:49 - 8:51And you have this very strongly
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8:51 - 8:55to the extent that, even if you see when we talk about revolutions these days,
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8:55 - 9:01these revolutions are not named anymore around ideologies or ideas.
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9:01 - 9:04Before, revolutions used to have ideological names.
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9:04 - 9:06They could be communist, they could be liberal,
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9:06 - 9:08they could be fascist or Islamic.
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9:08 - 9:12Now the revolutions are called under the medium which is most used.
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9:12 - 9:15You have Facebook revolutions, Twitter revolutions.
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9:15 - 9:19The content doesn't matter anymore, the problem is the media.
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9:19 - 9:22I'm saying this because one of my major points
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9:22 - 9:27is what went right is also what went wrong.
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9:27 - 9:30And when we're now trying to see how we can change the situation,
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9:30 - 9:33when basically we're trying to see what can be done about democracy,
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9:33 - 9:36we should keep this ambiguity in mind.
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9:36 - 9:39Because probably some of the things that we love most
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9:39 - 9:42are going to be also the things that can hurt us most.
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9:42 - 9:45These days it's very popular to believe
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9:45 - 9:48that this push for transparency,
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9:48 - 9:54this kind of a combination between active citizens, new technologies
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9:54 - 9:58and much more transparency-friendly legislation
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9:58 - 10:01can restore trust in politics.
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10:01 - 10:04You believe that when you have these new technologies and people who are ready to use this,
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10:04 - 10:08it can make it much more difficult for the governments to lie,
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10:08 - 10:11it's going to be more difficult for them to steal
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10:11 - 10:14and probably even going to be more difficult for them to kill.
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10:14 - 10:16This is probably true.
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10:16 - 10:19But I do believe that we should be also very clear
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10:19 - 10:25that now when we put the transparency at the center of politics
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10:25 - 10:28where the message is, "It's transparency, stupid."
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10:28 - 10:32Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions.
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10:32 - 10:37Transparency is politics' management of mistrust.
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10:37 - 10:41We are assuming that our societies are going to be based on mistrust.
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10:41 - 10:44And by the way, mistrust was always very important for democracy.
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10:44 - 10:46This is why you have checks and balances.
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10:46 - 10:50This is why basically you have all this creative mistrust
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10:50 - 10:53between the representatives and those whom they represent.
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10:53 - 10:58But when politics is only management of mistrust,
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10:58 - 11:01then -- I'm very glad that "1984" has been mentioned --
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11:01 - 11:05now we're going to have "1984" in reverse.
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11:05 - 11:07It's not going to be the Big Brother watching you,
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11:07 - 11:10it's going to be we being the Big Brother
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11:10 - 11:11watching the political class.
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11:11 - 11:15But is this the idea of a free society?
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11:15 - 11:16For example, can you imagine
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11:16 - 11:23that decent, civic, talented people are going to run for office
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11:23 - 11:24if they really do believe
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11:24 - 11:28that politics is also about managing mistrust?
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11:28 - 11:31Are you not afraid with all these technologies
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11:31 - 11:33that are going to track down
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11:33 - 11:37any statement the politicians are going to make on certain issues,
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11:37 - 11:41are you not afraid that this is going to be a very strong signal to politicians
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11:41 - 11:45to repeat their positions, even the very wrong positions,
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11:45 - 11:49because consistency is going to be more important than common sense?
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11:49 - 11:51And the Americans who are in the room,
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11:51 - 11:54are you not afraid that your presidents are going to govern
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11:54 - 11:57on the basis of what they said in the primary elections?
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11:57 - 11:59I find this extremely important,
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11:59 - 12:03because democracy is about people changing their views
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12:03 - 12:07based on rational arguments and discussions.
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12:07 - 12:10And we can lose this with the very noble idea
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12:10 - 12:12to keep people accountable
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12:12 - 12:15for showing the people that we're not going to tolerate
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12:15 - 12:17politicians the opportunism in politics.
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12:17 - 12:20So for me this is extremely important.
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12:20 - 12:23And I do believe that when we're discussing politics these days,
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12:23 - 12:25probably it makes sense
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12:25 - 12:29to look also at this type of a story.
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12:29 - 12:32But also don't forget, any unveiling is also veiling.
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12:32 - 12:36[Regardless of] how transparent our governments want to be,
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12:36 - 12:38they're going to be selectively transparent.
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12:38 - 12:40In a small country that could be my country,
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12:40 - 12:42but could be also your country,
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12:42 - 12:44they took a decision -- it is a real case story --
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12:44 - 12:47that all of the governmental decisions,
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12:47 - 12:49discussions of the council of ministers,
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12:49 - 12:52were going to be published on the Internet
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12:52 - 12:5724 hours after the council discussions took place.
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12:57 - 12:59And the public was extremely all for it.
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12:59 - 13:01So I had the opportunity to talk to the prime minister,
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13:01 - 13:03why he made this decision.
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13:03 - 13:05He said, "Listen, this is the best way
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13:05 - 13:09to keep the mouths of my ministers closed.
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13:09 - 13:12Because it's going to be very difficult for them to dissent
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13:12 - 13:15knowing that 24 hours after
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13:15 - 13:17this is going to be on the public space,
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13:17 - 13:21and this is in a certain way going to be a political crisis."
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13:21 - 13:22So when we talk about transparency,
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13:22 - 13:24when we talk about openness,
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13:24 - 13:26I really do believe that what we should keep in mind
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13:26 - 13:29is that what went right is what went wrong.
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13:29 - 13:34And this is Goethe, who is neither Bulgarian nor a political scientist,
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13:34 - 13:36some centuries ago he said,
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13:36 - 13:39"There is a big shadow where there is much light."
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13:39 - 13:41Thank you very much.
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13:41 - 13:43(Applause)
- Title:
- Can democracy exist without trust?
- Speaker:
- Ivan Krastev
- Description:
-
Five great revolutions have shaped political culture over the past 50 years, says theorist Ivan Krastev. He shows how each step forward -- from the cultural revolution of the ‘60s to recent revelations in the field of neuroscience -- has also helped erode trust in the tools of democracy. As he says, "What went right is also what went wrong." Can democracy survive?
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:04
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Can democracy exist without trust? | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Can democracy exist without trust? | ||
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