Why is politics failing to solve problems like housing? With Ben Ansell

Why is politics failing to solve problems like housing? With Ben Ansell

The whole world is a series of collective action problems, says Professor Ben Ansell. We want action taken to solve problems, but we want most of the benefits of those actions for ourselves while wanting others to bear the costs. These conflicts are at the heart of the failure of politics to solve many pressing problems, from housing to climate change.


In his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them, he looks in detail at these conflicts and why modern politics leaves us so disappointed.


On today's podcast Ben talks to Hugh Linehan about how politics works on a human level, why trust in politics has declined, the importance of institutions, the evolution of political parties, and why housing is the defining issue of the age.


Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Oxford University. Why Politics Fails is his fourth book.

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Episoder(1009)

Healy-Raes' departure caps a terrible week for the Government

Healy-Raes' departure caps a terrible week for the Government

Hugh, Pat and Ellen are joined by columnist Gerard Howlin to talk about a tumultuous day in Leinster House that capped a terrible week for the governing coalition:The Government faced down a confidenc...

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All agree that the scale of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s defeat in yesterday’s general election is hugely significant, for Hungary, Europe and beyond. But what exactly does the result mean?...

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Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:It was becoming clear towards the end of last week that protests over the price of fuel were coming. But the sc...

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In the final instalment of our series on Labour’s time in government from 2011 to 2016, things get darker as it becomes clear economic progress will not be enough for voters to forgive the party for i...

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Pressure builds on Labour as austerity bites: Collapse, part two

Pressure builds on Labour as austerity bites: Collapse, part two

Inside Politics is coming to Galway in May for a live recording. Get your tickets here.In part two of this three-part series on Labour's harrowing experience in government from 2011 to 2016, Pat Leahy...

6 Apr 43min

Collapse: How Labour went from boom to bust

Collapse: How Labour went from boom to bust

Inside Politics is coming to Galway in May for a live recording. Get your tickets here.When Labour came to power in 2011 Ireland was in the depths of an economic crisis that had several more years to ...

3 Apr 44min

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Oliver Sears, founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland, joins Hugh to talk about his growing alarm at the rise of anti-Semitism in Ireland and what he sees as the failure to take it seriously. They disc...

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Government can't help helping as fuel costs soar; and how many TDs are too many?

This week the Government decided to unveil a €250 million package to help citizens meet the elevated cost of fuel. And this could be just the start of a series of new efforts to keep down the cost of ...

27 Mar 46min

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