Wednesday 16:00-16:30 Laurie Taylor discusses the latest social science research.
21 May 2008 repeat 25 May
Laurie Taylor discusses two new books which raise important questions about the extent to which states and governments should be able to control and influence those who fall within their administration.
POPULATION CONTROL Reduction of fertility is estimated to have contributed to about thirty percent of the huge improvement in living standards in the East Asian tiger economies and there are claims it has averted mass starvation in many developing countries. A new book Fatal Misconception by Professor Matthew Connelly debates the value of control projects and highlights the often extreme human rights violation they entail. Professor Connelly debates the issue with John Cleland, Professor of Medical Demography at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
TORTURE AND DEMOCRACY Does the need for security justify the increasing use of ‘clean torture’, torture such as sleep deprivation, electro-torture and the infamous water-boarding? Despite a number of international condemnations of torture from bodies like the United Nations, the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, some argue in favour of torture as an efficient way of detecting plots that might otherwise lead to the deaths of a great number of innocent citizens. Professor Darius Rejali monumental new work Torture and Democracy documents the history of torture in modern democracy and debates its efficacy.
