This year's Reith Lecturer is British lawyer Lord Radcliffe. He was Director-General of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, and is most famous for his role in Partition, the division of the British Indian Empire, His work led directly to the creation of Pakistan and India as independent nations. He examines the features of democratic society, and considers the problematic notions of power and authority in his series of seven Reith Lectures entitled 'Power and the State'.
In his final Reith Lecture, entitled 'Power, and the Problem of its Control', Lord Radcliffe considers the elusive nature of power, which can be seen as both inherently corrupting as well as legitimate authority. He argues that power, authority and dominion correspond to something that belongs to a man's inmost self, and argues that power is not a thing in itself, but rather is good or evil according to the vision that it serves. Show less