The following lecture is by Ivan Krastev, a political scientist and chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, in Sofia, a research and analysis NGO on democracy and trust.
Here are a few interesting quotes from the talk:
Democracy is the only game in town. The problem is [when] people start to believe that it is not a game worth playing.
And when we talk about the internet – yes it’s true, internet connected all of us, but we also know, that the internet created these equal chambers and political ghettos, in which for all your life, you can stay with the political community you belong to. And it’s becoming more and more difficult to understand the people who are not like you.
Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is politics’ management of mistrust.
Are you not afraid, that there will be a very strong signal to politicians to repeat their positions, even their very wrong positions, because consistency is going to be more important than common sense. […] Democracy is about people changing their views, based on the rational arguments and discussions.
