Big ideas

Contributor(s): Professor David Held | Global institutions such as the United Nations risk fragmenting unless they become more democratic and share greater power with developing nations, warns a LSE political scientist Professor David Held. Professor David Held points out that the world today is very different to the post-war era that gave birth to the United Nations in 1945. 'The world has changed dramatically. Power has diffused across the world' he says. 'We have seen the rise of Asia and China and the rapidly developing BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and these are only partially, if at all, represented in many of our global institutions.' In this video, Professor Held claims that, given this transformed world, institutions such as the UN and bodies such as the IMF are flawed in two crucial ways: 'Firstly, many have a system of representation that is anachronistic and too skewed to the old western powers that have had their own way for a long time. Their other flaw is that they depend for their finance on the good will of the powerful countries.

Contributor(s): Professor Bridget Hutter | Citing the example of the health industry, which boasts a vast number of overlapping and sometimes contradictory regulatory bodies, Bridget Hutter, professor of risk regulation at LSE, argues that we need to go back to first principles to examine the real nature of risk and its possible effects on society. In the example of cases such as Baby P, she says, we must remember that it is impossible to completely mitigate risk, particularly in instances where workers are under large amounts of pressure.

Contributor(s): Dr Sam Fankhauser | Economic motives rather than ethical concerns will be ultimately what prevents runaway climate change, argues Dr Sam Fankhauser, an economist based at LSE's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. In a new short video produced as part of the Big Ideas series for The Independent website Dr Fankhauser explains that he doesn't believe that we can prevent the worst effects of climate change on a voluntary basis.

Contributor(s): Professor Luis Garicano | The current financial crisis and boring, defensively played football matches may seem to have little in common, but according to Professor Luis Garicano, Centre for Economic Performance at LSE, both can be understood as failures of the same underlying mechanisms. In this video, Professor Garicano uses the theories of organisational economics to describe how people react to incentives - and how their behaviour can often differ from the intended effect of the incentive. He points out, for example, that the financial system is driven by an incentive structure that encourages and rewards traders for behaviour which is ultimately detrimental to the health of the economy. 'It's clear that bankers were being rewarded for taking excessive risks.' says Professor Garicano. 'The short term nature of their pay - whereby bonuses are accrued over a year - encourages short term, risky decision making. This has to change. Bonuses need to be accrued over longer periods - three or five years. This would mean that if you do something crazy that ends up making you a lot of money this year but, because it is crazy, ends up losing the bank money in five years time, you will not benefit from it.' Professor Garicano goes on to describe how FIFA's attempt to encourage more goal scoring in football matches failed as the result of players responding in unforeseen ways to incentives.

Contributor(s): Professor Emily Jackson | At a time when modern medicine can prolong life, but also the dying process, Professor Emily Jackson, professor of law at LSE, uses the first video in the Big Ideas series to discuss the meaning of death and the moral and legal questions raised by euthanasia. She says that planning and taking personal responsibility for how life ends will become as usual as arranging a pension or a will. Professor Jackson argues for the need for a carefully thought out euthanasia law which provides adequate protection for patients. She says: 'While the government and judiciary prevaricate, those seeking control over the manner in which they end their lives are increasingly finding the means to do so outside the reach, and the protection, of British law.' Several high profile cases have recently focused attention on Dignitas, a Swiss facility which offers assisted suicide for a fee. 'We are exporting our assisted dying cases to Switzerland,' says Professor Jackson. She describes this situation as 'regrettable' - not least because the necessity to be fit enough to travel abroad may result in people choosing to end their lives earlier than they might have wished.

Contributor(s): Professor Julian Le Grand | Despite rocky times in the financial markets, Professor Julian Le Grand, Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE and senior policy advisor to the government between 2003-05, argues that the principle of market competition can still offer solutions to public sector problems in this Big Ideas video. Professor Le Grand says: 'Schools have been given the freedom and opportunity to experiment, innovate and to do their own thing. This can only improve the education standards of the country.' He argues that the government should pick up the idea of a 'pupil premium' in order to give young people from disadvantaged backgrounds greater access and choice of schools: 'At the moment when the school takes on pupils they get a fixed sum of money for each pupil. The idea of the pupil premium is that the amount of money would be greater for those that come from so called poor postcodes.'