Why democracy matters
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0:01 - 0:04So little Billy goes to school,
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0:04 - 0:06and he sits down and the teacher says,
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0:06 - 0:09"What does your father do?"
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0:09 - 0:13And little Billy says, "My father plays the piano
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0:13 - 0:16in an opium den."
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0:16 - 0:18So the teacher rings up the parents, and says,
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0:18 - 0:21"Very shocking story from little Billy today.
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0:21 - 0:25Just heard that he claimed that you play the piano
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0:25 - 0:27in an opium den."
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0:27 - 0:31And the father says, "I'm very sorry. Yes, it's true, I lied.
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0:31 - 0:35But how can I tell an eight-year-old boy
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0:35 - 0:39that his father is a politician?" (Laughter)
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0:39 - 0:42Now, as a politician myself, standing in front of you,
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0:42 - 0:46or indeed, meeting any stranger anywhere in the world,
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0:46 - 0:49when I eventually reveal the nature of my profession,
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0:49 - 0:52they look at me as though I'm somewhere between
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0:52 - 0:56a snake, a monkey and an iguana,
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0:56 - 1:00and through all of this, I feel, strongly,
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1:00 - 1:03that something is going wrong.
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1:03 - 1:07Four hundred years of maturing democracy,
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1:07 - 1:09colleagues in Parliament who seem to me, as individuals,
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1:09 - 1:13reasonably impressive, an increasingly educated,
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1:13 - 1:18energetic, informed population, and yet
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1:18 - 1:23a deep, deep sense of disappointment.
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1:23 - 1:27My colleagues in Parliament include, in my new intake,
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1:27 - 1:31family doctors, businesspeople, professors,
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1:31 - 1:36distinguished economists, historians, writers,
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1:36 - 1:41army officers ranging from colonels down to regimental sergeant majors.
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1:41 - 1:44All of them, however, including myself, as we walk underneath
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1:44 - 1:48those strange stone gargoyles just down the road,
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1:48 - 1:52feel that we've become less than the sum of our parts,
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1:52 - 1:58feel as though we have become profoundly diminished.
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1:58 - 2:02And this isn't just a problem in Britain.
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2:02 - 2:05It's a problem across the developing world,
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2:05 - 2:08and in middle income countries too. In Jamaica,
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2:08 - 2:11for example -- look at Jamaican members of Parliament,
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2:11 - 2:14you meet them, and they're often people who are
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2:14 - 2:19Rhodes Scholars, who've studied at Harvard or at Princeton,
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2:19 - 2:22and yet, you go down to downtown Kingston,
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2:22 - 2:26and you are looking at one of the most depressing sites
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2:26 - 2:30that you can see in any middle-income country in the world:
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2:30 - 2:33a dismal, depressing landscape
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2:33 - 2:36of burnt and half-abandoned buildings.
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2:36 - 2:39And this has been true for 30 years, and the handover
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2:39 - 2:43in 1979, 1980, between one Jamaican leader who was
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2:43 - 2:47the son of a Rhodes Scholar and a Q.C. to another
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2:47 - 2:50who'd done an economics doctorate at Harvard,
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2:50 - 2:53over 800 people were killed in the streets
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2:53 - 2:57in drug-related violence.
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2:57 - 3:00Ten years ago, however, the promise of democracy
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3:00 - 3:04seemed to be extraordinary. George W. Bush stood up
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3:04 - 3:07in his State of the Union address in 2003
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3:07 - 3:11and said that democracy was the force that would beat
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3:11 - 3:14most of the ills of the world. He said,
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3:14 - 3:18because democratic governments respect their own people
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3:18 - 3:24and respect their neighbors, freedom will bring peace.
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3:24 - 3:27Distinguished academics at the same time argued that
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3:27 - 3:31democracies had this incredible range of side benefits.
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3:31 - 3:34They would bring prosperity, security,
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3:34 - 3:37overcome sectarian violence,
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3:37 - 3:42ensure that states would never again harbor terrorists.
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3:42 - 3:44Since then, what's happened?
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3:44 - 3:47Well, what we've seen is the creation, in places like Iraq
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3:47 - 3:51and Afghanistan, of democratic systems of government
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3:51 - 3:54which haven't had any of those side benefits.
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3:54 - 3:57In Afghanistan, for example, we haven't just had one election
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3:57 - 4:00or two elections. We've gone through three elections,
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4:00 - 4:03presidential and parliamentary. And what do we find?
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4:03 - 4:07Do we find a flourishing civil society, a vigorous rule of law
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4:07 - 4:10and good security? No. What we find in Afghanistan
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4:10 - 4:14is a judiciary that is weak and corrupt,
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4:14 - 4:18a very limited civil society which is largely ineffective,
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4:18 - 4:21a media which is beginning to get onto its feet
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4:21 - 4:24but a government that's deeply unpopular,
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4:24 - 4:28perceived as being deeply corrupt, and security
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4:28 - 4:32that is shocking, security that's terrible.
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4:32 - 4:36In Pakistan, in lots of sub-Saharan Africa,
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4:36 - 4:39again you can see democracy and elections are compatible
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4:39 - 4:43with corrupt governments, with states that are unstable
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4:43 - 4:46and dangerous.
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4:46 - 4:48And when I have conversations with people, I remember
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4:48 - 4:51having a conversation, for example, in Iraq,
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4:51 - 4:54with a community that asked me
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4:54 - 4:57whether the riot we were seeing in front of us,
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4:57 - 5:01this was a huge mob ransacking a provincial council building,
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5:01 - 5:06was a sign of the new democracy.
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5:06 - 5:10The same, I felt, was true in almost every single one
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5:10 - 5:13of the middle and developing countries that I went to,
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5:13 - 5:17and to some extent the same is true of us.
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5:17 - 5:20Well, what is the answer to this? Is the answer to just
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5:20 - 5:22give up on the idea of democracy?
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5:22 - 5:26Well, obviously not. It would be absurd
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5:26 - 5:29if we were to engage again in the kind of operations
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5:29 - 5:32we were engaged in, in Iraq and Afghanistan
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5:32 - 5:35if we were to suddenly find ourselves in a situation
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5:35 - 5:38in which we were imposing
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5:38 - 5:41anything other than a democratic system.
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5:41 - 5:43Anything else would run contrary to our values,
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5:43 - 5:45it would run contrary to the wishes of the people
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5:45 - 5:49on the ground, it would run contrary to our interests.
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5:49 - 5:52I remember in Iraq, for example, that we went through
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5:52 - 5:55a period of feeling that we should delay democracy.
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5:55 - 5:58We went through a period of feeling that the lesson learned
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5:58 - 6:01from Bosnia was that elections held too early
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6:01 - 6:05enshrined sectarian violence, enshrined extremist parties,
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6:05 - 6:08so in Iraq in 2003 the decision was made,
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6:08 - 6:11let's not have elections for two years. Let's invest in
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6:11 - 6:15voter education. Let's invest in democratization.
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6:15 - 6:19The result was that I found stuck outside my office
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6:19 - 6:22a huge crowd of people, this is actually a photograph
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6:22 - 6:25taken in Libya but I saw the same scene in Iraq
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6:25 - 6:29of people standing outside screaming for the elections,
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6:29 - 6:32and when I went out and said, "What is wrong
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6:32 - 6:35with the interim provincial council?
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6:35 - 6:39What is wrong with the people that we have chosen?
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6:39 - 6:41There is a Sunni sheikh, there's a Shiite sheikh,
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6:41 - 6:45there's the seven -- leaders of the seven major tribes,
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6:45 - 6:47there's a Christian, there's a Sabian,
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6:47 - 6:51there are female representatives, there's every political party in this council,
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6:51 - 6:54what's wrong with the people that we chose?"
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6:54 - 6:57The answer came, "The problem isn't the people
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6:57 - 7:03that you chose. The problem is that you chose them."
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7:03 - 7:06I have not met, in Afghanistan, in even the most
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7:06 - 7:09remote community, anybody who does not want
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7:09 - 7:12a say in who governs them.
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7:12 - 7:14Most remote community, I have never met a villager
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7:14 - 7:18who does not want a vote.
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7:18 - 7:21So we need to acknowledge
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7:21 - 7:25that despite the dubious statistics, despite the fact that
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7:25 - 7:3084 percent of people in Britain feel politics is broken,
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7:30 - 7:33despite the fact that when I was in Iraq, we did an opinion poll
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7:33 - 7:37in 2003 and asked people what political systems they preferred,
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7:37 - 7:40and the answer came back that
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7:40 - 7:43seven percent wanted the United States,
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7:43 - 7:45five percent wanted France,
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7:45 - 7:48three percent wanted Britain,
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7:48 - 7:53and nearly 40 percent wanted Dubai, which is, after all,
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7:53 - 7:55not a democratic state at all but a relatively prosperous
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7:55 - 8:00minor monarchy, democracy is a thing of value
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8:00 - 8:03for which we should be fighting. But in order to do so
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8:03 - 8:06we need to get away from instrumental arguments.
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8:06 - 8:10We need to get away from saying democracy matters
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8:10 - 8:13because of the other things it brings.
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8:13 - 8:15We need to get away from feeling, in the same way,
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8:15 - 8:19human rights matters because of the other things it brings,
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8:19 - 8:23or women's rights matters for the other things it brings.
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8:23 - 8:25Why should we get away from those arguments?
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8:25 - 8:27Because they're very dangerous. If we set about saying,
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8:27 - 8:32for example, torture is wrong because it doesn't extract
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8:32 - 8:37good information, or we say, you need women's rights
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8:37 - 8:42because it stimulates economic growth by doubling the size of the work force,
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8:42 - 8:44you leave yourself open to the position where
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8:44 - 8:46the government of North Korea can turn around and say,
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8:46 - 8:48"Well actually, we're having a lot of success extracting
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8:48 - 8:51good information with our torture at the moment,"
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8:51 - 8:53or the government of Saudi Arabia to say, "Well,
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8:53 - 8:55our economic growth's okay, thank you very much,
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8:55 - 8:56considerably better than yours,
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8:56 - 9:01so maybe we don't need to go ahead with this program on women's rights."
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9:01 - 9:05The point about democracy is not instrumental.
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9:05 - 9:07It's not about the things that it brings.
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9:07 - 9:10The point about democracy is not that it delivers
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9:10 - 9:16legitimate, effective, prosperous rule of law.
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9:16 - 9:21It's not that it guarantees peace with itself or with its neighbors.
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9:21 - 9:24The point about democracy is intrinsic.
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9:24 - 9:29Democracy matters because it reflects an idea of equality
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9:29 - 9:34and an idea of liberty. It reflects an idea of dignity,
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9:34 - 9:37the dignity of the individual, the idea that each individual
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9:37 - 9:41should have an equal vote, an equal say,
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9:41 - 9:45in the formation of their government.
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9:45 - 9:49But if we're really to make democracy vigorous again,
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9:49 - 9:52if we're ready to revivify it, we need to get involved
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9:52 - 9:56in a new project of the citizens and the politicians.
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9:56 - 10:01Democracy is not simply a question of structures.
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10:01 - 10:05It is a state of mind. It is an activity.
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10:05 - 10:09And part of that activity is honesty.
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10:09 - 10:12After I speak to you today, I'm going on a radio program
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10:12 - 10:14called "Any Questions," and the thing you will have noticed
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10:14 - 10:18about politicians on these kinds of radio programs
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10:18 - 10:22is that they never, ever say that they don't know the answer
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10:22 - 10:23to a question. It doesn't matter what it is.
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10:23 - 10:27If you ask about child tax credits, the future of the penguins
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10:27 - 10:31in the south Antarctic, asked to hold forth on whether or not
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10:31 - 10:34the developments in Chongqing contribute
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10:34 - 10:36to sustainable development in carbon capture,
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10:36 - 10:39and we will have an answer for you.
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10:39 - 10:42We need to stop that, to stop pretending to be
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10:42 - 10:44omniscient beings.
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10:44 - 10:48Politicians also need to learn, occasionally, to say that
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10:48 - 10:51certain things that voters want, certain things that voters
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10:51 - 10:55have been promised, may be things
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10:55 - 10:58that we cannot deliver
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10:58 - 11:02or perhaps that we feel we should not deliver.
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11:02 - 11:05And the second thing we should do is understand
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11:05 - 11:08the genius of our societies.
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11:08 - 11:12Our societies have never been so educated, have never
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11:12 - 11:15been so energized, have never been so healthy,
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11:15 - 11:18have never known so much, cared so much,
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11:18 - 11:24or wanted to do so much, and it is a genius of the local.
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11:24 - 11:27One of the reasons why we're moving away
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11:27 - 11:30from banqueting halls such as the one in which we stand,
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11:30 - 11:35banqueting halls with extraordinary images on the ceiling
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11:35 - 11:36of kings enthroned,
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11:36 - 11:40the entire drama played out here on this space,
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11:40 - 11:42where the King of England had his head lopped off,
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11:42 - 11:47why we've moved from spaces like this, thrones like that,
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11:47 - 11:50towards the town hall, is we're moving more and more
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11:50 - 11:54towards the energies of our people, and we need to tap that.
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11:54 - 11:57That can mean different things in different countries.
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11:57 - 12:01In Britain, it could mean looking to the French,
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12:01 - 12:02learning from the French,
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12:02 - 12:06getting directly elected mayors in place
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12:06 - 12:08in a French commune system.
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12:08 - 12:11In Afghanistan, it could have meant instead of concentrating
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12:11 - 12:14on the big presidential and parliamentary elections,
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12:14 - 12:16we should have done what was in the Afghan constitution
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12:16 - 12:21from the very beginning, which is to get direct local elections going
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12:21 - 12:26at a district level and elect people's provincial governors.
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12:26 - 12:29But for any of these things to work,
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12:29 - 12:32the honesty in language, the local democracy,
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12:32 - 12:35it's not just a question of what politicians do.
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12:35 - 12:37It's a question of what the citizens do.
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12:37 - 12:42For politicians to be honest, the public needs to allow them to be honest,
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12:42 - 12:44and the media, which mediates between the politicians
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12:44 - 12:49and the public, needs to allow those politicians to be honest.
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12:49 - 12:52If local democracy is to flourish, it is about the active
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12:52 - 12:57and informed engagement of every citizen.
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12:57 - 13:01In other words, if democracy is to be rebuilt,
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13:01 - 13:05is to become again vigorous and vibrant,
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13:05 - 13:09it is necessary not just for the public
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13:09 - 13:11to learn to trust their politicians,
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13:11 - 13:16but for the politicians to learn to trust the public.
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13:16 - 13:20Thank you very much indeed. (Applause)
- Title:
- Why democracy matters
- Speaker:
- Rory Stewart
- Description:
-
The public is losing faith in democracy, says British MP Rory Stewart. Iraq and Afghanistan’s new democracies are deeply corrupt; meanwhile, 84 percent of people in Britain say politics is broken. In this important talk, Stewart sounds a call to action to rebuild democracy, starting with recognizing why democracy is important -- not as a tool, but as an ideal.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:41
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Why democracy matters | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |