February 27, 2026

Authority

57 minutes

Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, schools, medical settings and in the home? What is the difference between authority and power, how have historical shifts such as the advent of the internet affected public perceptions of authority, and how much should authority feature in the raising of children?

In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme about ideas past and present, Anne McElvoy and guests explore these questions and more.

Justine Greening is a former Conservative Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities

Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media who published a book called The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

Sophie Scott-Brown is a philosopher and historian of anarchism

Peter Hyman is a former headteacher and adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer who writes a Substack, Changing the Story

Tom Simpson is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Producer: Eliane Glaser

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