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Why Do we Need the State?

Is it time to rethink what a modern state is for? With historian Timothy Snyder, social policy researcher Benjamin Leruth and Adrian Wooldridge.

Samira Ahmed is joined by World War Two historian Timothy Snyder who sees Hitler as the ultimate state destroyer, Belgian social policy researcher Benjamin Leruth who has been getting European citizens to be honest about what they really like and loathe about the EU, and writer Adrian Wooldridge who thinks authoritarian Singapore is a model for how to run an efficient state in the 21st Century.

(Photo: Different flags of the world on flagpoles)

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41 minutes

Last on

Wed 7 Oct 2015 01:06GMT

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Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder is the Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in modern East European political history. His books include: The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999; Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist鈥檚 Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine; Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin; and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.

Benjamin Leruth

Benjamin Leruth is a Research Associate working as part of the NORFACE research project entitled 'Welfare State Futures: Our Children鈥檚 Europe' (WelfSOC). This innovative project, co-ordinated by the University of Kent (Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, Dr Heejung Chung and myself), involves international partners from Denmark (University of Aalborg), Slovenia (University of Ljubljana), Norway (NOVA) and Germany (Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences).

Adrian Wooldridge

Adrian Wooldridge is The Economist's management editor and writes the Schumpeter column. He was previously based in Washington, DC, as the Washington bureau chief where he also wrote the Lexington column. His books include: "The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea", 鈥淢asters of Management: How the Business Gurus and their Ideas have Changed the World鈥攆or Better and for Worse鈥 and 鈥淭he Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State鈥.

60 Second Idea to Change the World

60 Second Idea to Change the World

Benjamin Leruth says that for a month every year, both public and private companies and organisations, including the European Parliament should be co-managed by people in their twenties. This would 鈥榬ejuvenate鈥 the thinking in the companies where so much management tends to be rather grey-haired. At the end of the month, everyone in the company (and in the parliament) would have a vote to decide whether to keep or reject the young managers鈥 decisions.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 5 Oct 2015 01:06GMT
  • Tue 6 Oct 2015 08:06GMT
  • Wed 7 Oct 2015 01:06GMT

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Do you think political or business leaders need to be charismatic? Or do you prefer highly competent but somewhat stern people?

We鈥檇 love to hear your views on charm and charisma for a future Forum.

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