Government and the Governed
The last of six talks by Sir Douglas Wass , CCB, Permanent Secretary to
HM Treasury and Joint Head of the Home Civil Service until his retirement in spring this year.
Participation - the Sole Bond
The Greek city state, the polis, was small enough to permit all free men to share in the taking of political decisions, and it was an important duty laid upon the citizen to accept the responsibility that this entailed. Representative government, as we know it today, would have been peculiar, indeed a questionable idea ... The challenge today is to make the representative politicalprocessmorepublicly acceptable. And the key lies in seeking to re-establish the Greek ideal in concept if not in precise form.
Producer DAVID MORTON