Lecture at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford

At the invitation of Dean Ngaire Woods, Alain Berset speaks to students of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, then takes questions from the audience and from Swiss students at Oxford. Subject: democracy in the face of inequality.

The title of the lecture: “Boring can be good”. He starts from Oscar Wilde, for whom the Swiss had less expression than their cows, and turns it into a praise of slowness: “Stability is boring, but stability is good.” Direct democracy serves as an “early warning system” against resentment. But it is not an autopilot: “Switzerland also had its Brexit moment”, he says of the 2014 initiative against mass immigration.

He mentions the self-determination initiative, put to the vote a month later, and concludes on equal opportunities: “It is by strengthening others that we strengthen ourselves.”

Speeches on this site

• Discours à l’Université d’Oxford (Blavatnik School of Government) : « Boring can be good » (French-language page)