The Briefing Room BBC Radio 4

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. In terms of population size there are none bigger than the six week exercise that got underway last Friday. The world’s biggest democracy - India - has gone to the polls and prime minister Narendra Modi is hoping – perhaps expecting – to win a third term. He first came to power in 2014 and since then fears about “democratic backsliding” have been growing. So how concerned about that should we be?

Step inside The Briefing Room and together we’ll find out.
Guests:
Yogita Limaye, BBC's South Asia Correspondent
Rohan Venkat, editor of “India Inside Out” newsletter
Louise Tillin, Professor of Politics in the India Institute at King’s College London
Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House.
Production team: Rosamund Jones and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineers: Hal Haines and Sarah Hockley

David Aaronovitch and guests explore the thinking behind Iran's decision to attack Israel and ask what the short and long term aims of the Iranian regime are.
Guests:
Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The Economist
Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at International Crisis Group
Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, lecturer specialising in the politics of Iran and the Middle East at Cambridge University
Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” Hamas but after six months of death and destruction in Gaza what do we know about their status?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Jennifer Jefferis, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies program and author of Hamas: Terrorism, Governance, and its Future in Middle East Politics.
Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.
Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
Gershon Baskin, Middle East Director, International Communities Organization and a former Israeli negotiator with Hamas
Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Ibtisam Zein
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar

The state pension system relies on the workers of today paying the pensions of current retirees. But does an aging population and rising costs threaten that model continuing?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Paul Lewis, financial journalist and presenter of Radio 4’s Money Box programme
Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the Financial Times and presenter of the FT's Money Clinic podcast
Sir Steve Webb, formerly Minister for Pensions and current partner at Lane Clark & Peacock
Production team: Drew Hyndman, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes.
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss why do some countries bother holding elections if the outcomes are pre-determined and they also ask why the public bother voting in them?
Guests:
Naomi Hossain, Professor of Development Studies at SOAS
Katerina Tertychnaya, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics & International Relations at the University of Oxford
Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Erica Frantz, Associate Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University
Production team: Ellie House, Ajai Singh and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: James Beard

2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes.
In the third and final programme in this special series we’re focusing on South Africa. It is 30 years since the African National Congress - led back then by Nelson Mandela - first won power. It has had a majority in parliament ever since. But this year it could well be different. If so, does this decline of the ruling party bode well or badly for South Africa?
Guests:
David Everatt, Professor at the Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg
Dr Ayesha Omar, British Academy International Fellow at SOAS
Alexander Beresford, Associate Professor in African Politics at Leeds University
Professor Cherrel Africa from the University of the Western Cape
Production team: Rosamund Jones and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineers: Hal Haines and Neil Churchill