Arts & Ideas

Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship


Listen Later

With the success of the far right Alternative for Deutschland party in the German elections, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris making their pitches to American voters to be their leader and the Conservatives in this country voting for their: we look at Carl Schmitt, the German political theorist of democracy, crisis and dictatorship, to see if he can help us make sense of the present moment.

Anne McElvoy's guests are:

Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, is a British German politician. A former Labour politician she now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords
David Runciman is former Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and now hosts Past Present Future: The History of Ideas Podcast. His most recent book is called The History of Ideas : Equality, Justice and Revolution
Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Katya Adler is the BBC's Europe Editor

Plus Charles Tripp, emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern politics at SOAS is chair of the judges for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

Books on the shortlist announced this week are:
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues by Ross Perlin
Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway
The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 by Marcy Norton
Divided, Racism, Medicine and why we Need to DeColonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo
Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics and its Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell

The winner of the prize of £25,000 will be announced on October 22nd 2024. And Free Thinking will be looking at some of the other non fiction book prize shortlists over episodes this Autumn

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can find past episodes of Free Thinking available on BBC Sounds and as the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Arts & IdeasBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2

4.2

279 ratings


More shows like Arts & Ideas

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,412 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,843 Listeners

Start the Week by BBC Radio 4

Start the Week

162 Listeners

Front Row by BBC Radio 4

Front Row

125 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,914 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

308 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

500 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,782 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,050 Listeners

World Book Club by BBC World Service

World Book Club

365 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,925 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,081 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

602 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

866 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

293 Listeners

Bookclub by BBC Radio 4

Bookclub

236 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

128 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

186 Listeners

Backlisted by Backlisted

Backlisted

582 Listeners

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle by BBC World Service

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

4,121 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

743 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,989 Listeners

Close Readings by London Review of Books

Close Readings

67 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

321 Listeners