Analysis

Banks are underwritten by the government in Britain. But should the taxpayer bail out so-called casino banks? In a programme previously broadcast on 1 February 2010 - Edward Stourton talks to the growing band of experts who believe that risk-taking investment banks should be forced to face the consequences of their losses.

In 100 years time, Charles Darwin will be viewed as a better economist than Adam Smith, according to economics professor Robert H. Frank.

In his new book 'The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good', Frank argues that whilst Smith was correct to point out the benefits of competition, Darwin went further by showing how some times competition over rank could produce benefits to the individual at the expense of the group. This insight, believes Frank, applies to the economics of human societies as much as it does to the animal kingdom.

Recorded at The London School of Economics, Prof Frank explains his ideas to Paul Mason and an audience of economists and scientists, as well as the free marketeers he criticises.

Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management and a regular Economic View columnist for the New York Times, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. His books, which have been translated into 22 languages, include The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip Cook); The Economic Naturalist; Luxury Fever; What Price the Moral High Ground?; and Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke). The Darwin Economy is published by Princeton University Press.

Paul Mason is the Economics Editor of BBC 2's Newsnight and is author of Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed.

Do Leaders make a Difference?

We talk much of personal leadership being the key to change in, say, politics or business. But how much can such figures really influence events? Do we overattribute power to individuals such as a prime minister or a media mogul? Have we lost sight of the overall importance of collective action and attitudes, or the trends and events that no individual can resist? Michael Blastland investigates.

Producer: Chris Bowlby

Contributors:

Nick Chater

Professor Pat Thane

Chris Dillow

Angela Knight

Tristram Hunt

Jerker Denrell

Lord Baker

Andrew Roberts

The 2010 general election saw the largest influx of black and minority ethnic MPs to the Commons that Britain has ever seen. There are currently 27 sitting on the Conservative and Labour benches - up from 14 in the last Parliament.

But are we starting to see a 'new black politics'? Some suggest that the radical left-wing politics of the 1980s is no longer relevant in twenty-first century Britain, where there is a growing black middle class, a multitude of different black communities, and where black people are represented at the highest levels.

David Goodhart meets the black politicians adopting a more socially conservative standpoint to their predecessors and also talks to their critics: those who say that some of the country's most vulnerable people have been forgotten by the establishment; that institutionalised racism still exists; and that many of today's politicians do not represent the people they are meant to serve.

Interviewees include:

David Goodhart is editor at large of Prospect magazine and was recently appointed as director of the think tank Demos.

Producer: Hannah Barnes.

Frances Stonor Saunders looks at the role of cultural diplomacy in spreading liberal British values around the world.

The British Council and the BBC World Service, both part-funded by the Foreign Office, are the two most important institutions of British cultural diplomacy.

The British Council organises exhibitions and events at its offices around the world with artists such as Grayson Perry. He feels that the fact his work deals with controversial themes is part of his attraction for the cultural diplomats keen to convey the values of liberalism by saying, "Look what we put up with in our country: a cross-dressing potter who's talking about the evils of advertising."

The BBC World Service is editorially independent but is funded by the Foreign Office.

Frances Stonor Saunders explores the tension between the fact that cultural diplomacy has an official purpose yet the endeavours it seeks to promote need to maintain freedom and independence as a mark of a liberal society.

Contributors include Grayson Perry, Timothy Garton Ash and Sir Sherard Cowper Coles.

As opinion polls reveal that half the British population would vote in favour of withdrawal from the European Union, it seems the political class is catching up with public opinion when it comes to the EU.

While perhaps just dozens of MPs are publicly calling for a referendum on the UK's EU membership, behind closed doors there are many more closet secessionists: at least 40 per cent of Conservative MPs according to one party insider.

"In public I call for renegotiation of the Lisbon treaty. In private I argue for complete withdrawal from the European Union. And there are plenty of others like me," says one anonymous sceptic.

Edward Stourton asks whether the crisis in the eurozone has emboldened more politicians to speak frankly on their attitudes towards EU membership and talks to supporters of withdrawal from both the left and right wings of British politics.

Producer: Hannah Barnes.

Owen Bennett Jones looks at the Shia movement Hezbollah which has a big following in Lebanon but is regarded by some in the West as a terrorist organisation. It has a militia with more weapons than many European armies and wants Islamic rule but is in government with Christian allies. The British government draws a distinction between Hezbollah's military and political wings whereas the Americans do not. The French government would like to see Hezbollah disarm but do not regard them as terrorists. How the West sees the organisation and how it sees itself is central to stability in the Middle East but what exactly is Hezbollah and is it heading for another war with Israel?

Despite a general policy of austerity and cut backs, the budget for development aid has been ring fenced by the coalition government. Frances Cairncross asks whether a more relaxed immigration policy might be a better way for the UK to help the developing world.

The official aid budget is dwarfed by a private form of help for the developing world: remittances sent home by immigrants working in richer countries.

So should governments keen to help the developing world encourage migration and remittances as a replacement for state-funded aid? "They have the key advantage that the people who send them know the people who are supposed to be receiving them... There's less opportunity for corruption and for waste... and they might have lower overhead costs," argues Owen Barder of the Center for Global Development.

Frances Cairncross, rector of Exeter College, Oxford and former managing editor of The Economist, explores the limits of this free market alternative to state-funded development aid.

Contributors include:

Steve Baker

Dilip Ratha

Owen Barder

Hetty Kovach

Devesh Kapur

Onyekachi Wambu

Alex Oprunenco

Professor Paul Collier

Producers: Helen Grady and Daniel Tetlow.

Under Colonel Gaddafi, Libya was subject to the dictator's so-called Third Universal Theory. Hugh Miles asks what sort of ideology is likely to dominate in post-Gaddafi Libya.

Western media have been keeping a close eye on Libya's governing National Transitional Council, and there have been warnings about splits between Islamists and secularists, and about Libya's tribal society. But, as Hugh Miles discovers, amongst Libya's new ruling class there is broad consensus about support for one ideology: capitalism.

Gaddafi's idiosyncratic economic and political philosophy fused elements of socialism and Islam. The suppression of free markets was at times taken to bizarre extremes with, at one point, the banning of the entire retail sector. Support for capitalism is perhaps a reaction to the years in which entrepreneurship was suppressed.

Hugh Miles looks at the background of the new rulers and asks how Libyan Islamic capitalism might work.

This summer's riots provoked much speculation about the factors which prompted so many people to break the law. But philosopher-turned-commentator Jamie Whyte is more interested in understanding why this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. Is it fear of arrest or is it morality that makes most of the people abide by the law for most of the time? In search of the causes of mass civil obedience, Jamie Whyte speaks to leading experts in the fields of philosophy, psychology and anthropology.

Contributors include:

Producer: Simon Coates.