Can a Broken Democracy Fix Itself?
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
10/27/22
•37m
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After the tragedy of the Pinochet years, Chile had evolved into one of the most successful countries in the Americas in economic terms, but perhaps more importantly, in terms of the health of its democracy. Right and left-wing parties and presidents alternated power, the judicial system worked, corruption was low, Chilean political leaders were respected at home and abroad. All of that came to a screeching halt in 2019 when protests escalated into widespread violence.
Chile was suddenly at, what in almost any other country, would have been a revolutionary moment. However, instead of a civil war, the Chileans launched an inclusive political process to write a new constitution. They wanted a fundamental rethink of political rights, obligations, institutions and processes. Fast forward to September of this year, and the new constitution that was three years in the making was overwhelmingly rejected in a national referendum.
What happened and what happens next? What lessons can others learn from Chile's efforts to reimagine its democracy?
Isabel Aninat, Dean of the Law School of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, in Chile has been a keen observer of the constitution-writing process and, more generally, of Chilean politics. She is fundamentally optimistic that Chilean democracy is headed in a good direction. What do you think?
Previous Episode
Worth Repeating: Can We Unearth Solutions to the Climate Challenge?
October 20, 2022
•36m
Rapidly accelerating climate change is uniquely modern — but climate change is not. The planet has warmed and cooled in the past, even during mankind’s time. What can we learn from those events that might help us cope with the extremes that are our present and future? Can indigenous people who understand nature differently than most of us teach us how to cope with today’s terrifying challenges?
Our guest on this week’s New Thinking for a New World podcast, Tero Mustonen, is a climate scholar who combines indigenous knowledge with academic research. He is also a leader of the SnowChange Cooperative that works with indigenous people and climate issues throughout the Arctic, and currently the head of his town of Selkie in North Karelia, Finland.
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This episode was originally published on September 23, 2021.
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Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Europe Looks at a Complicated Future
November 3, 2022
•52m
Europe is under considerable stress from the Ukraine war, a deep energy crisis, inflation, roiled financial markets, looming recessions, social unrest, and political turmoil—on top of longstanding tensions between northern and southern countries over economics and western and eastern countries over cultural and social issues.
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