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How to Fix Democracy with Annika Savill

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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.

Host Andrew Keen joins Annika Savill, Executive Head of the UN Democracy Fund.

Annika Savill admits that the UN Democracy Fund is “the only UN entity that exists primarily to support “democracy” efforts around the world” and that the term “democracy itself is so controversial within the UN that it is not written in the charter.” She shares that even in countries such as France where democracy serves as a role model to others, we see “huge sways of the population giving voice to their frustration.” She offers the concept of “citizens’ assemblies” as a platform to try to consider particularly vexing issues “in a dispassionate and ‘listening-mode’ manner.” She tells Andrew Keen that, as a former journalist, she is passionate about facts and believes what we see now is “fear taking over fact.”