Lately we’ve been hearing that 99 percent of us are at the mercy of one percent. Even if you don’t believe the numbers work out quite that way, you may well think, in an age of lobbyists and mergers and entrenched interests, that power is in the hands of too few people. But what if the opposite is true? Perhaps what’s really happening to the world is paralysis, and its cause is leaders and institutions with too little power. Today, with changes in our civic infrastructure and breakthroughs in information technology, it’s easier than ever to amass a little power but harder than ever to amass a lot of it. The consequences include minimal global cooperation, aimless governance, and inaction in the face of crisis. Former Foreign Policy editor-in-chief and World Bank executive director Moisés Naím, author of The End of Power, visits Zócalo to discuss the decay of power—and what to do about it.

 

Books will be available through Skylight Books.

 

Photo by Robert Wollemberg.