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Democracy under threat is BRLSI's brand new talks programme.

This talk in the series asks if performance politics is really such a bad thing? Democracy rests on public persuasion, says David Wiles, and persuasion (aka 'rhetoric') rests on technique.

Democracy and theatre emerged together in Athens as twin arts of public speaking. The French revolutionaries embraced oratory in the late 18th century, but the American founding fathers were ambivalent.

Speaker David Wiles is Emeritus Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter.