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 Who Runs Your World?
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Who Runs Your World? Saturday 17 September to Monday 3 October on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service
Programme Information - week 38
All times are UK time.
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Who Runs Your World: The Washington Debate
2.00–3.00pm, Sunday 18 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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The season hits the road with debates in Cairo, Delhi and, today, Washington DC, where the big question is: does the USA, with its money, its missiles, its movies and its music, really run the world?
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On the panel, assessing the balance of power between the reach of films, pop culture and lifestyle, as against political and military strength, are:
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 Joseph Nye, Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who coined the phrase 'soft power'
Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, formerly of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, now a Pentagon adviser on national security and counter terrorism
Nancy Snow, author of Propaganda Inc: Selling America's Culture To The World
Kenneth Tomlinson, Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the body that oversees US-funded international broadcast channels including Voice of America and Al Hurra. Ìý
Presenter: Ritula Shah
Producer: Yvonne Murray
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Looking for Democracy: Episode One
9.05 to 9.30am, Monday 19 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Robin Lustig travels to California, Cambodia, Ukraine, Bahrain and Uganda to take a critical look at the democratic system of government, as the World Service continues to ask Who Runs Your World?
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"Democracy is an idea with vast and almost universal appeal," says Lustig. "But what exactly do we mean by democracy and is it all it's cracked up to be? If it is, can introducing democracy be as simple as changing a shirt?"
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Lustig asks if there can be too much democracy and whether it really is synonymous with freedom.
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He questions whether those who live in democracies are always happier and better off than those who don't; explores whether democracy necessarily brings economic benefits and promotes peace; and investigates whether, as President Bush believes, it can be exported.
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California could be voted the most democratic place on Earth: there are elections for almost every public post, including the judiciary and school boards. There have also been dozens of "ballot initiatives", which can be forced upon the electorate if enough signatures are collected.
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But the result is pervasive apathy – with turnout in California among the lowest in the country – and occasional chaos.
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For instance, Californians want cheap electricity, but they don't want the power stations anywhere near them, so the result is black-outs.
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In this first programme, Lustig asks if voters can be trusted to be wise – or consistent.
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Presenter: Robin Lustig
Producer: Dave Edmonds
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The Music Feature – Musical Tribes: Episode One
9.30 to 10.00am, Monday 19 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Music comes under the spotlight as Who Runs Your World? explores the power it wields over young people's lives.
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The series asks how music persuades young people to dress, act and speak in certain ways, and explores what inspires a young person to pledge allegiance to dance, hip hop or rock.
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As it explores six music 'tribes' – Mods, Rockers, Rastas, Hippies, Goths and Hip-Hop Heads – it travels to Japan, New Zealand, Europe and South Africa to hear from psychologists, artists, DJs and young people themselves.
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Presenter: tbc
Producer: Bobby Seiler
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Health Matters – Who Runs Your Health?: Episode One 10.05–10.30am, Monday 19 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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In 1978, the Head of the World Health Organisation announced that there would be "health for all" by the year 2000.
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The reality remains somewhat different.
In Sierra Leone, where the Government spends an average of $27 per person on health, life expectancy is only 38 years.
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In Japan, health spending runs into thousands of dollars per person and people live, on average, into their early eighties.
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As part of the network's Who Runs Your World? season, Health Matters examines why such discrepancies exist, and asks whether the world can afford good health care for all and, if so, who has the power to deliver it.
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In the first programme, Komla Dumour, of Ghana's Joy FM, investigates who has the power over life and death in Uganda.
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Decimated by years of civil war and conflict, the country's health system is slowly improving.
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It has been praised for its approach to the HIV/Aids epidemic and for the Ministry of Health's decision to offer everyone a minimum healthcare package free of charge. Life expectancy, at 49 years, is about average for sub-Saharan Africa. Ìý
However, there are still major problems – chronic shortages of drugs, a lack of trained staff and facilities, low immunisation rates and an over-reliance on foreign aid.
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Komla asks African health experts to take a blank sheet and build a Ugandan health system that would deliver increased life expectancy in for all.
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He asks how much it would cost and who would have to make the decisions to ensure it worked.
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Presenter: Komla Dumor
Producer: Deborah Cohen
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The Word – How To Get Published: Episode One
10.30-11.00am, Monday 19 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service
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Most of us read books and an astonishing number of us are writing them too. But most writers are rejected.
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Only about one per cent of all books written are ever published.
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In a special two-part series of The Word on Monday 19 and 26 September, Harriett Gilbert asks who runs the publishing world.
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Who is it that decides which novels, biographies, poetry and children's books do get published?
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We follow the fortunes of novelist Nii Ayikwei Parks as he tries to make his way through the literary minefield. He has so far been unable to find a publisher for his first book, The Cost of Red Eyes.
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The first step, getting an agent, is often more difficult than finding a publisher. The second is a fine-tuning and redrafting of the novel with the help of a group of fellow writers. Then she must submit the finished work.
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"These days, an editor can green-light a manuscript only to have it rejected by the marketing department," says Hariett Gilbert. "Chains like Barnes and Noble, Borders and even Tesco also have an incredible amount of power."
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Harriett does her best to help, introducing Nii to agents, editors, publishers, booksellers and critics.
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Presenter: Harriett Gilbert
Producer: Jennifer Chevalier
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Looking For Democracy: Episode Two
9.05 to 9.30am, Tuesday 20 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld Ìý
Robin Lustig casts a critical eye over Cambodia's system of government, as he continues to explore different manifestations of democracy around the globe.
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Cambodia has had more than a decade to accustom itself to a system of government introduced by an outside body. It is now widely conceded that the UNTAC supervised elections of 1993 were flawed.
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Desperate not to be mired in internal conflict, UN personnel had mostly left Cambodia by 1995.
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Robin Lustig examines the view that they left behind a country with almost no civil society, where there is debilitating corruption at every layer of government, from the judiciary to politics to the press.
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Presenter: Robin Lustig
Producer: Dave Edmonds
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Go Digital: Episode One
10.05 to 10.30am, Tuesday 20 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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From the invention of the wheel to the digital age, technology has changed the world and transformed human experiences.
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Go Digital presents two special programmes that examine our digital future, as part of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service's Who Runs Your World? season.
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Regular Go Digital presenter Gareth Mitchell and Tilly Asante from Ghana's Joy FM take key issues of today and project 15 years into the future to 2020.
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They ask who owns and controls the technologies that are transforming our existence and whether those technologies increase or decrease our ability to control our lives.
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"The only truism about the information age is that knowledge is power. So who has that knowledge and will it mean more or less power to the people?" asks Asante.
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The world's leading futurologists have predicted the death of television and the rise of virtual entertainment complexes, neural implants and prosthetics capable of changing our bodies and our minds.
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They also predict virus wars and cyber crime, the battle between governments and hacker gangs leading to the break-up of the internet.
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These and other issues are being taken seriously by governments and industry.
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Asante discovers what it's like to be a citizen in 2020, based on what scientists and technologists say is possible in the next 15 years.
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She explores the semantic web, where daily lives are run by technology as smart as humans - or smarter - as computers understand the meaning of information, not just how to process it.
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She goes genetic shopping, checking out bargains suited to her following the widespread introduction of DNA and biometric scanning in the consumer world, and examines smart surveillance, in which her every move is recorded and tracked by the gadgets she's come to find indispensable. She asks who might use this information and why?
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Regular Go Digital presenter Gareth Mitchell talks to futurists employed at the cutting edge of technology and innovation about the likelihood and consequences of the various situations.
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They'll assess the extent to which Tilly is in control of her life and discuss who controls the technologies that are dominating her day.
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Presenters: Gareth Mitchell and Tilly Asante
Producer: Colin Grant
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Looking For Democracy: Episode Three
9.05 to 9.30am, Wednesday 21 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Robin Lustig travels to Ukraine to take a critical look at the democratic system of government, as he continues to asks people around the globe: Who Runs Your World?
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Ukraine's Orange Revolution, led by Viktor Yuschenko, was a dramatic expression of people power.
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The conditions were all in place for the campaign of street protests to be effective.
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There was a charismatic leader, a growing and educated middle class, an independent (enough) judiciary – and, a point often overlooked, a renewed pride in the country: a result, not least, of triumph in the Eurovision Song Contest and spectacular success in the Olympic Games – a Ukrainian world boxing champion.
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Robin Lustig examines the extremely high expectations of Yuschenko and what he can deliver.
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He asks if expectations are much more now than if his victory had come about purely via the ballot box, and explores whether those who opposed the protests are now powerless and resentful.
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Presenter: Robin Lustig
Producer: Dave Edmonds
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Discovery – Who Runs The World Of Science?: Episode One
10.05 to 10.30am, Wednesday 21 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Billions of dollars a year are spent on scientific research, the results of which affect everyone's lives.
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However, who decides that vast sums are to be spent on one project rather than another?
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Discovery aims to find out who are the gatekeepers of the scientific community in a two-part special, part of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service's Who Runs Your World? season.
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"Have you ever wondered why scientists know more about one disease than another or why they have documented the life cycle of butterflies but have ignored important agricultural pests?" asks producer Martin Redfern.
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"Or why millions are spent on building vast underground tunnels to study sub-atomic particles at the expense of cheaper projects that bring immediate benefit to the public?
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"It's because the focus of scientific research depends on decisions made by committees of other scientists who award grants for the research projects they choose," he says.
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"When the research is completed, the scientific community decides if the findings can become part of the accepted body of knowledge and, ultimately, improve our lives."
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Discovery speaks to top scientists in various parts of the world who sit on the grant-giving bodies and asks if they think the scientific communities are giving people the research they need.
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It hears from scientists who have novel ideas which they cannot research because they cannot get grants, and also explores the world of scientific publishing, meeting the editors and editorial boards who control what is and isn't published.
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"For scientists to build a career they must have their research published in reputable journals. English is the language of science, so what happens to scientists working in non-Anglophone parts of the world?" says Redfern.
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Scientists in those areas where English isn't common speak of the difficulty of becoming part of the global scientific establishment.
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Discovery talks to scientists who are trying to bypass the establishment and publish their research online.
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Producer: Martin Redfern
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Heart And Soul – Family Power: Episode Two
10.45 to 11.00am, Wednesday 21 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Shazia Khan explores who runs people's religious and cultural worlds at the family and community level, through the eyes of immigrant families in the UK, as the network continues to pose the question: Who Runs Your World?
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She meets grown-up children with different experiences of their parents controlling their lives. They range from an aspiring MP who is happy for her parents to choose her career and marriage partner, to a young widow who resents her parents' opposition to her marriage so bitterly that she never wants to see them again.
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The parents respond in programme two, telling of the importance of keeping up appearances and not losing face in the community. They say why they want to run their children's lives and reveal who influences them.
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Presenter: Shazia Khan
Producer: Kristine Pommert
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Looking For Democracy: Episode Four
9.05 to 9.30am, Thursday 22 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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Bahrain is the subject of today's programme as Robin Lustig continues Looking For Democracy, part of the World Service's focus on power: who has it, who wants it, and how it's used around the world.
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Just a few years ago the Gulf State was known for its brutal repression but under a new ruler, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the state has freed political prisoners and held elections in 2002.
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Women were allowed to vote and run for office (though most still wear shroud-like black abayas).
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The Bush Administration points to Bahrain as a country moving in the right direction.
But many in the majority Shiite population claim the changes have only been artificial.
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The rift between the ruling Sunni elite and the people widened when Bahrain played host to US Navy forces during the last Gulf War.
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Also, as in several other Gulf States, roughly a third of the population are foreigners who have no right to vote.
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Presenter: Robin Lustig
Producer: Dave Edmonds
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Sports International – Fan Power: Episode One
10.30 to 11.00am, Thursday 22 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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When American businessman Malcolm Glazer took over Manchester United recently, it was in the teeth of considerable opposition from the fans, who had little or no say in the outcome despite their protests.
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Does this mean that money men have total control of the game? Perhaps not.
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Sports International investigates the phenomenon of fan power in sport in a two-part series.
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"When Wimbledon Football Club was moved 50 miles north from SW19 in London to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, fans refused to go," recalls Matt Kenyon.
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"Instead they set up their own team – which is gradually moving up the divisions – and harbour hopes of overtaking the old Wimbledon (now known as MK Dons)."
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Fans of Charlton Athletic drove the club's campaign to return to the Valley, their historic ground in South East London; and a supporters' trust now owns Stockport County.
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"But this is only one aspect of fan power," says Matt. "What about calls for a chairman or manager to resign? As the crowd grows more vociferous, the pressure on the team builds.
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"That is a kind of power. And when things turn violent, the crowd can force a game to be called off or postponed."
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Producer: Matt Kenyon
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Looking For Democracy: Episode Five
9.05 to 9.30am, Friday 23 September
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service and bbcnews.com/yourworld
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President Museveni of Uganda has been in office for two decades. Once the darling of the West, he shows no sign of stepping down and many now believe him to be an obstacle to economic and political progress.
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Until now, he has always banned political parties – arguing that a Western model is not appropriate to a developing country and that parties would inevitably divide along ethnic lines, thus entrenching division.
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In the final programme in which he explores different forms of government around the globe, Robin Lustig tests the temperature after a referendum in which voters said 'Yes' to a proposal to allow political parties to compete in future elections.
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Presenter: Robin Lustig
Producer: Dave Edmonds
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