Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Analysis

Factual: Politics

Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad.

Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Analysis: Roberto Unger

Factual

Roberto Unger

18/11/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, Roberto Unger

Roberto Unger explains why he thinks fellow left-of-centre progressives lack imagination.

Social theorist Roberto Unger talks with Jo Fidgen about why he thinks his fellow left-of-centre progressives lack imagination. Recorded in front of an audience at the LSE.

Renowned social theorist Roberto Unger believes that left-of-centre progressives - his own political side - lack the imagination required to tackle the fundamental problems of society. In the run-up to the US presidential elections of 2012, he declared that his former student Barack Obama "must be defeated". Professor Unger argued that President Obama had failed in his first term in office to advance the progressive cause. There was, Unger maintained, effectively no difference between the Democrat and Republican political programmes.

In front of an audience at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Roberto Unger discusses with presenter Jo Fidgen the reasons for his critical appraisal of the progressive left in the United States and Europe. He sets out what he believes its alternative agenda should be and gives his verdict on another of his former students: Ed Miliband.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger is the Roscoe Pound professor at Harvard Law School. He served as a minister in the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2007-2009. His books include: "The Left Alternative"; "Democracy Realised"; and "The Self Awakened". His new book, published next year, will address a new theme: "The Religion of the Future".

#LSEProgressive

Producer: Simon Coates.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Analysis

Roberto Unger

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4