How to Fix Democracy with Amity Shlaes

Since its origins, democracy has been a work in progress. Today, many question its resilience. The Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action have teamed up with Andrew Keen, author of How to Fix the Future, to launch How to Fix Democracy: a video and podcast series exploring practical responses to the threats facing democracies around the world. Host Andrew Keen interviews prominent thinkers, writers, politicians, technologists, and business leaders who enlighten and challenge us as we seek the answers to How to Fix Democracy.

In this episode, host Andrew Keen sits down with Amity Shlaes, best-selling author, Chair of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, and Presidential Scholar at The King’s College in New York City. Her most recent book Great Society: A New History, presents a critical view of President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign to expand the social safety net and reduce poverty in the United States in the 1960s. Shlaes argues in this interview with Andrew Keen, our first remote interview of the series, that government intervention is not how the United States will economically recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, she recommends tax cuts and finding ways to bolster Wall Street to help the U.S. economy. To remedy this crisis, Shlaes argues, more people need to buy into America.