Exchange to Change January 2017 | Page 8

8 INTERVIEW
frustrations , on the part of very large sectors of the population , were effectively captured by a particular elite that wishes to use those dissatisfactions for its own powergrabbing ends .
E2C : Do you think this decision represents the democratic expression of the will of the British people ?
NH : I ’ m not sure how we could possibly measure what is the legitimate expression of people ’ s will . One of the more interesting ideas that I ’ ve come across would be a rotating system of governance , whereby an individual is picked at random from the population . When your number comes up , as in the lottery , you serve out a term of governance . At this point , that seems slightly more appealing than this very unequal , imbalanced , and money-driven but pseudo-legitimate one-person-one-vote system that we have now . Claims of liberal democracy to be the highest form of human self-organization are preposterous , particularly in the way it ’ s been pursued in places like the US and the UK . I look at it as clearly superior , in consequentialist terms , to fascism for example — but far from the Utopia that it ’ s claimed itself to be .
E2C : What consequences do you think Brexit will have for the UK ’ s development agenda ?
NH : There ’ s legitimate political resistance taking place within and beyond the establishment , and there are very real questions about how ‘ sensible ’ or ‘ legitimate ’ this particular decision was ; I still don ’ t know whether Brexit will really happen . If it does , what I understand is that it could have a very negative impact on British higher education : people being denied the ability to partner , scholars being prevented from coming , British scholars being prevented from going . With regard to the development agenda , it would further entrench the conservative governance , and legitimate a small-island nationalism . But , DFID is already being savaged and so is higher education . The first
Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union ?
Leave 52 %
voter turnout 71,8 %
Stay 48 %
Switzerland
Date : 28 / 02 / 2016 Ref : Swiss referendums
New Zealand
Date : 03-24 / 03 / 2016 Ref : Flag referendum Turnout : 67.78 % Outcome : 56.73 % old flag
43.27 % new flag
Bolivia Senegal
Exchange to change January 2017
Date : 21 / 02 / 2016 Ref : constitutional referendum Turnout : 84.45 % Outcome : 48.71 % for 51.29 % against
Date : 20 / 03 / 2016 Ref : constitutional referendum Turnout : 38.59 % Outcome : 62.64 % for
37.36 % against