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This will not be a speech

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like any one I have ever given.

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I will talk to you today about

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the failure of leadership in global politics

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and in our globalizing economy.

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And I won't provide some feel-good, ready-made solutions.

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But I will in the end urge you

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to rethink, actually take risks, and get involved

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in what I see as a global evolution

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of democracy.

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Failure of leadership.

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What is the failure of leadership today?

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And why is our democracy not working?

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Well, I believe that the failure of leadership is the fact

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that we have taken you out of the process.

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So let me, from my personal experiences,

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give you an insight, so that you can step back

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and maybe understand why it is so difficult to cope

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with the challenges of today and why politics

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is going down a blind alley.

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Let's start from the beginning.

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Let's start from democracy.

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Well, if you go back to the Ancient Greeks,

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it was a revelation, a discovery,

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that we had the potential, together,

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to be masters of our own fate,

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to be able to examine, to learn, to imagine,

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and then to design a better life.

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And democracy was the political innovation

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which protected this freedom,

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because we were liberated from fear

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so that our minds in fact,

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whether they be despots or dogmas,

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could be the protagonists.

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Democracy was the political innovation that allowed us

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to limit the power, whether it was of tyrants

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or of high priests,

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their natural tendency to maximize power and wealth.

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Well, I first began to understand this

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when I was 14 years old.

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I used to, to try to avoid homework,

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sneak down to the living room and listen to my parents

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and their friends debate heatedly.

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You see, then Greece was

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under control of a very powerful establishment

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which was strangling the country,

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and my father was heading a promising movement

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to reimagine Greece, to imagine a Greece

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where freedom reigned and where, maybe,

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the people, the citizens, could actually rule their own country.

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I used to join him in many of the campaigns,

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and you can see me here next to him.

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I'm the younger one there, to the side.

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You may not recognize me because

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I used to part my hair differently there.

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(Laughter)

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So in 1967, elections were coming,

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things were going well in the campaign,

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the house was electric.

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We really could sense that there was going to be

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a major progressive change in Greece.

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Then one night, military trucks drive up to our house.

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Soldiers storm the door.

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They find me up on the top terrace.

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A sergeant comes up to me with a machine gun,

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puts it to my head, and says,

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"Tell me where your father is or I will kill you."

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My father, hiding nearby, reveals himself,

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and was summarily taken to prison.

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Well, we survived, but democracy did not.

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Seven brutal years of dictatorship

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which we spent in exile.

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Now, today, our democracies are again

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facing a moment of truth.

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Let me tell you a story.

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Sunday evening,

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Brussels, April 2010.

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I'm sitting with my counterparts in the European Union.

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I had just been elected prime minister,

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but I had the unhappy privilege of revealing a truth

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that our deficit was not 6 percent,

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as had been officially reported only a few days earlier

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before the elections by the previous government,

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but actually 15.6 percent.

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But the deficit was only the symptom

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of much deeper problems that Greece was facing,

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and I had been elected on a mandate, a mission, actually,

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to tackle these problems,

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whether it was lack of transparency

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and accountability in governance,

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or whether it was a clientelistic state

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offering favors to the powerful -- tax avoidance

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abetted and aided by a global tax evasion system,

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politics and media captured by special interests.

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But despite our electoral mandate,

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the markets mistrusted us.

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Our borrowing costs were skyrocketing,

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and we were facing possible default.

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So I went to Brussels on a mission

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to make the case for a united European response,

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one that would calm the markets and give us the time

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to make the necessary reforms.

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But time we didn't get.

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Picture yourselves around the table in Brussels.

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Negotiations are difficult, the tensions are high,

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progress is slow, and then, 10 minutes to 2,

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a prime minister shouts out,

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"We have to finish in 10 minutes."

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I said, "Why? These are important decisions.

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Let's deliberate a little bit longer."

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Another prime minister comes in and says,

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"No, we have to have an agreement now,

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because in 10 minutes,

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the markets are opening up in Japan,

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and there will be havoc in the global economy."

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We quickly came to a decision in those 10 minutes.

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This time it was not the military,

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but the markets, that put a gun to our collective heads.

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What followed were the most difficult decisions in my life,

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painful to me, painful to my countrymen,

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imposing cuts, austerity,

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often on those not to blame for the crisis.

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With these sacrifices, Greece did avoid bankruptcy

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and the eurozone avoided a collapse.

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Greece, yes, triggered the Euro crisis,

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and some people blame me for pulling the trigger.

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But I think today that most would agree

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that Greece was only a symptom

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of much deeper structural problems in the eurozone,

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vulnerabilities in the wider global economic system,

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vulnerabilities of our democracies.

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Our democracies are trapped by systems too big to fail,

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or, more accurately, too big to control.

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Our democracies are weakened in the global economy

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with players that can evade laws, evade taxes,

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evade environmental or labor standards.

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Our democracies are undermined

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by the growing inequality

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and the growing concentration of power and wealth,

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lobbies, corruption, the speed of the markets

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or simply the fact that we sometimes fear an impending disaster,

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have constrained our democracies,

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and they have constrained our capacity

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to imagine and actually use the potential, your potential,

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in finding solutions.

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Greece, you see, was only a preview

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of what is in store for us all.

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I, overly optimistically, had hoped

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that this crisis was an opportunity for Greece, for Europe,

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for the world, to make radical democratic transformations

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in our institutions.

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Instead, I had a very humbling experience.

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In Brussels, when we tried desperately again and again

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to find common solutions,

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I realized that not one, not one of us,

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had ever dealt with a similar crisis.

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But worse, we were trapped by our collective ignorance.

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We were led by our fears.

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And our fears led to a blind faith

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in the orthodoxy of austerity.

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Instead of reaching out to the common

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or the collective wisdom in our societies,

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investing in it to find more creative solutions,

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we reverted to political posturing.

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And then we were surprised when every

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ad hoc new measure didn't bring an end to the crisis,

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and of course that made it very easy

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to look for a whipping boy

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for our collective European failure,

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and of course that was Greece.

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Those profligate, idle, ouzo-swilling, Zorba-dancing Greeks,

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they are the problem. Punish them!

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Well, a convenient but unfounded stereotype

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that sometimes hurt even more than austerity itself.

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But let me warn you, this is not just about Greece.

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This could be the pattern

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that leaders follow again and again

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when we deal with these complex, cross-border problems,

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whether it's climate change, whether it's migration,

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whether it's the financial system.

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That is, abandoning our collective power

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to imagine our potential,

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falling victims to our fears, our stereotypes, our dogmas,

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taking our citizens out of the process

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rather than building the process around our citizens.

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And doing so will only test the faith

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of our citizens, of our peoples, even more

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in the democratic process.

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It's no wonder that many political leaders,

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and I don't exclude myself,

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have lost the trust of our people.

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When riot police have to protect parliaments,

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a scene which is increasingly common around the world,

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then there's something deeply wrong with our democracies.

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That's why I called for a referendum to have the Greek people

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own and decide on the terms of the rescue package.

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My European counterparts, some of them, at least,

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said, "You can't do this.

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There will be havoc in the markets again."

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I said, "We need to, before we restore confidence in the markets,

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we need to restore confidence and trust amongst our people."

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Since leaving office, I have had time to reflect.

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We have weathered the storm, in Greece and in Europe,

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but we remain challenged.

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If politics is the power to imagine and use our potential,

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well then 60-percent youth unemployment in Greece,

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and in other countries, certainly is a lack of imagination

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if not a lack of compassion.

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So far, we've thrown economics at the problem,

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actually mostly austerity,

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and certainly we could have designed alternatives,

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a different strategy, a green stimulus for green jobs,

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or mutualized debt, Eurobonds which would

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support countries in need from market pressures,

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these would have been much more viable alternatives.

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Yet I have come to believe that the problem is not so much

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one of economics as it is one of democracy.

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So let's try something else.

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Let's see how we can bring people back to the process.

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Let's throw democracy at the problem.

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Again, the Ancient Greeks, with all their shortcomings,

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believed in the wisdom of the crowd

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at their best moments. In people we trust.

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Democracy could not work without the citizens

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deliberating, debating, taking on public responsibilities

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for public affairs.

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Average citizens often were chosen for citizen juries

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to decide on critical matters of the day.

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Science, theater, research, philosophy,

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games of the mind and the body,

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they were daily exercises.

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Actually they were an education for participation,

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for the potential, for growing the potential of our citizens.

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And those who shunned politics, well, they were idiots.

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You see, in Ancient Greece, in ancient Athens,

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that term originated there.

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"Idiot" comes from the root "idio," oneself.

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A person who is self-centered, secluded, excluded,

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someone who doesn't participate or even examine public affairs.

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And participation took place in the agora, the agora having two meanings,

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both a marketplace and a place where there was political deliberation.

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You see, markets and politics then were one, unified,

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accessible, transparent, because they gave power to the people.

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They serve the demos, democracy.

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Above government, above markets

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was the direct rule of the people.

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Today we have globalized the markets

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but we have not globalized our democratic institutions.

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So our politicians are limited to local politics,

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while our citizens, even though they see a great potential,

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are prey to forces beyond their control.

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So how then do we reunite the two halves of the agora?

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How do we democratize globalization?

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And I'm not talking about the necessary reforms

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of the United Nations or the G20.

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I'm talking about, how do we secure the space,

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the demos, the platform of values,

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so that we can tap into all of your potential?

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Well, this is exactly where I think Europe fits in.

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Europe, despite its recent failures,

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is the world's most successful cross-border peace experiment.

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So let's see if it can't be an experiment

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in global democracy, a new kind of democracy.

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Let's see if we can't design a European agora,

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not simply for products and services,

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but for our citizens, where they can work together,

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deliberate, learn from each other,

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exchange between art and cultures,

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where they can come up with creative solutions.

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Let's imagine that European citizens

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actually have the power to vote directly

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for a European president,

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or citizen juries chosen by lottery

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which can deliberate on critical and controversial issues,

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a European-wide referendum where our citizens,

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as the lawmakers, vote on future treaties.

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And here's an idea:

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Why not have the first truly European citizens

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by giving our immigrants,

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not Greek or German or Swedish citizenship,

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but a European citizenship?

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And make sure we actually empower

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the unemployed by giving them a voucher scholarship

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where they can choose to study anywhere in Europe.

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Where our common identity is democracy,

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where our education is through participation,

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and where participation builds trust

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and solidarity rather than exclusion and xenophobia.

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Europe of and by the people,

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a Europe, an experiment in deepening and widening

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democracy beyond borders.

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Now, some might accuse me of being naive,

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putting my faith in the power and the wisdom of the people.

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Well, after decades in politics, I am also a pragmatist.

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Believe me, I have been,

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I am, part of today's political system,

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and I know things must change.

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We must revive politics as the power to imagine,

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reimagine, and redesign for a better world.

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But I also know that this disruptive force of change

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won't be driven by the politics of today.

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The revival of democratic politics

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will come from you, and I mean all of you.

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Everyone who participates in this global exchange of ideas,

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whether it's here in this room

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or just outside this room

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or online or locally, where everybody lives,

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everyone who stands up to injustice and inequality,

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everybody who stands up to those who preach

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racism rather than empathy,

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dogma rather than critical thinking,

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technocracy rather than democracy,

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everyone who stands up to the unchecked power,

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whether it's authoritarian leaders,

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plutocrats hiding their assets in tax havens,

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or powerful lobbies protecting the powerful few.

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It is in their interest that all of us are idiots.

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Let's not be.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Bruno Giussani: You seem to describe a political leadership

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that is kind of unprepared

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and a prisoner of the whims of the financial markets,

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and that scene in Brussels that you describe, to me,

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as a citizen, is terrifying.

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Help us understand how you felt after the decision.

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It was not a good decision, clearly,

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but how do you feel after that, not as the prime minister,

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but as George?

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George Papandreou: Well, obviously there were constraints

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which didn't allow me or others to make

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the types of decisions we would have wanted,

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and obviously I had hoped that we would have the time

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to make the reforms which would have dealt

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with the deficit rather than trying to cut the deficit

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which was the symptom of the problem.

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And that hurt. That hurt because that, first of all,

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hurt the younger generation, and not only,

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many of them are demonstrating outside,

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but I think this is one of our problems.

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When we face these crises, we have kept the potential,

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the huge potential of our society out of this process,

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and we are closing in on ourselves in politics,

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and I think we need to change that, to really find

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new participatory ways using the great capabilities

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that now exist even in technology but not only in technology,

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the minds that we have, and I think we can find solutions

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which are much better, but we have to be open.

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BG: You seem to suggest that the way forward

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is more Europe, and that is not to be an easy discourse

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right now in most European countries.

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It's rather the other way -- more closed borders

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and less cooperation and maybe even stepping out

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of some of the different parts of the European construction.

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How do you reconcile that?

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GP: Well, I think one of the worst things that happened

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during this crisis is that we started a blame game.

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And the fundamental idea of Europe is that

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we can cooperate beyond borders,

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go beyond our conflicts and work together.

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And the paradox is that, because we have this blame game,

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we have less the potential to convince our citizens

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that we should work together,

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while now is the time when we really need

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to bring our powers together.

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Now, more Europe for me is not simply

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giving more power to Brussels.

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It is actually giving more power to the citizens of Europe,

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that is, really making Europe a project of the people.

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So that, I think, would be a way to answer

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some of the fears that we have in our society.

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BG: George, thank you for coming to TED.

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GP: Thank you very much.BG: Thank you.(Applause)