A Woman Had 50 Random People Give Her 25 Million Euro Fortune Away? Should We Look to Citizen Councils to Make Decisions for Society? Is there a "Best" Way for Deciding On How to Help Others? episode artwork

EPISODE · Oct 10, 2024 · 32 MIN

A Woman Had 50 Random People Give Her 25 Million Euro Fortune Away? Should We Look to Citizen Councils to Make Decisions for Society? Is there a "Best" Way for Deciding On How to Help Others?

from The Best Paragraph I've Read... · host Zac & Don

The Best Paragraph I've Read: The concept of a citizen council—a democratic forum with roots in ancient Greece—is straightforward: a selected group of people come together to discuss a matter of public policy, with the goal of making proposals or clarifying public attitudes. Hélène Landemore, a professor at Yale and the author of “Open Democracy,” which argues for a more inclusive system of participatory governance, told me, “Parliaments are now largely defined by partisanship and the logic of power. You’re there to win, not to learn or change your mind.” The members of a citizen council, on the other hand, come without partisan allegiances and are typically more familiar with the realities of daily life. “It’s a very small subset of the population that enters traditional politics, and, once they do, they tend to stay there too long,” Landemore said. “They don’t know the price of a pain au chocolat or a metro ticket. They’re disconnected.” This paragraph comes from the New Yorker. The article is titled: "How to Give Away a Fortune." The article is written by Joshua Yaffa. You can read the whole article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/09/how-to-give-away-a-fortune Zac & Don discuss the idea of citizen councils and whether having 50 random people give away money and make decisions is a good idea. They also talk discuss if there is a best way to give money away.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Oct 10, 2024

Embed this episode

Ready to play

A Woman Had 50 Random People Give Her 25 Million Euro Fortune Away? Should We Look to Citizen Councils to Make Decisions for Society? Is there a "Best" Way for Deciding On How to Help Others?

0:00 32:00

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of The Best Paragraph I've Read...?

This episode is 32 minutes long.

When was this The Best Paragraph I've Read... episode published?

This episode was published on October 10, 2024.

Can I download this The Best Paragraph I've Read... episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!