10 Questions: Paddy Ashdown - Liberal Democrat (UK)

Who would you vote for a President of the World?
Oh, there can only really be one answer to that, Nelson Mandela. He’s the greatest man of our time. He’s the man who will be seen by history as the greatest and he’s the wisest and most trusted.

Can terrorism destroy democracy?
Well if democrats are foolish enough to spoil the basis of democracy, which is freedom and our civil liberties, then yes. I think it’s not possible for terrorism to destroy democracy in a single bomb, or an outrage of bombs. But it is possible for politicians to be so weak as to believe that the only way to counter terrorism is to adopt their habits of oppression rather than our habits of freedom.

Who rules the world?
Well, no one does and I think that’s our problem. So much power has now moved out of the democratic structures of the nation stage on to the global stage where it is outside of the reach of government and legal regulation. This is the phenomenon of our age; it is one of the great forces of destabilisation; it creates a lawless state at the global level, enabling international organised crime and international terrorism. One of the challenges of our age is to bring greater governance and regulation to the global stage. No one controls power in the places where it has become most prominent.

Why bother to vote?
There is an increasing gap between government and governance. Increasingly government is seen as this far away place that doesn’t listen. So I think there is a desperate necessity to have a new political settlement in which much of the power which is concentrated in the nation states of the world gets passed down to individuals. That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be an element of national govternment, of course their does. But I think the key thing is to pass power down so that people feel they have the tools to manage their own lives. The other thing is the fact that we are living with the politics of contentment; you’re more likely to vote when you’re angry, when you’re fed up and want something changed. By and large we’re living in a stage of prosperity, so voting is bound to be lower.

Are women more democratic than men?
I think that women have some natural attributes which are peculiarly in tune with our time. First of all, I think they understand that there’s a mechanism for resolving problems that doesn’t involve conflict. In a world where weapons have reached the limits of our capacity for destruction, I think the ability to resolve things through consensus rather than conflict is an essential means for our survival. I think they also have a habit for dealing with common sense rather than the power struggles that men are used to. Also I think they are much more naturally gifted at multitasking. All these three facets make women more in tune with our time and they’re also the reason so many men are being disempowered by women, at the lower end of the scale.

Is God Democratic?
No, I don’t think he is. He’s not responsible to anybody. I think that’s quite a ridiculous question really because God, being all powerful, doesn’t have to be governed by anybody else and democracy is about rule of the people.

Is democracy good for everyone?
Well, no. The first reason being that the majority will rule and inevitably if there’s a majority there will be a minority which won’t get there way. The second is, however powerful the majority, it doesn’t have the right to crush the minority. It can’t ignore them. So, on specific issues democracy cannot be good for everyone all the time. On the other hand taken over all democracy has been proven to the best system for protecting the gains made in a prosperous society.

What would make you start a revolution?

Well I don’t believe in revolutions so there isn’t one. I know that there are some people who believe that they can create a better society through bringing up a force of arms. But it almost always results in more misery and more death and ultimately a worse society. Now, would I take up arms if my family were being threatened or I was living in a repressive regime acting in ways I thought to be immoral and unsafe…yes I would.

Are dictators ever good?
They can achieve, for a short period of time, more than democracy. As Winston Churchill once said, democracy is the most inefficient form of government at the same time it is the best. The reason being that taken over time it makes fewer mistakes than others, especially dictatorships. That’s not to say that dictatorships can’t govern by consent. I think Fidel Castro in the large part governs by consent, and that’s an alternative form of government.