Edward Stourton continues to revisit broadcast debates from the archives - exploring the ideas, the great minds behind them and echoes of the arguments in present-day politics.

In this episode, two leading minds thrash out the question of whether democracy works. It was a meeting of logical and lateral thinking in 1976 when celebrity philosopher AJ Ayer discussed the fairness and efficiency of democracy with Edward de Bono, the original lateral thinker.

The 1970s were trying economic times in the UK and the British public was losing faith in its government. Why was it Britain had won the war yet countries such as France and Germany were prospering and we weren't? In this context, Ayer and de Bono explore the fault lines in representative government: do elected politicians actually represent the interests of the population? Are these politicians equipped to do the job? And who makes the big decisions anyway - ministers or civil servants?

Their debate is in part a search for innovative solutions - not unlike the current UK political situation.

In the studio dissecting the debate are Ben Rogers, Associate Fellow at think tank Demos and writer of Ayer's biography, and author Piers Dudgeon, who wrote de Bono's biography.

Producer: Dominic Byrne
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4. Show less