Laurie Taylor's BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed

John Keane with Naomi Klein and Neera Cahndhoke, talks of global Democracy deficit - November, 6, 2002.

Click Here to listen to the audio file. Alternatively visit the Thinking Allowed website

Democracy

Laurie Taylor talks Naomi Klein, Neera Chandhoke and John Keane, who have different ideas of how to fill a perceived global democractic deficit.

Media activist Naomi Klein, whose book No Logo unpicked major brand names to show who was being exploited, how and where, explains why she's spending the next six months in Argentina, a country she calls the laboratory of the new democracy precisely because the old version failed the country so badly.

Neera Chandhoke, University of New Delhi, joins forces with John Keane, University of Westminster, to discuss the rights and wrongs of NGOs.

Non-Governmental Organisations, like Africa Now or Water Aid appear to represent the ethical dimension of global governance, providing a counterweight to the needs of state and market - but are they democratic? Unelected and not very transparent, they now command seats at a lot of top tables, but do they genuinely represent the desires of those they seek to represent?