Pod Academy

Numbers have come to dominate our politics and our news cycle. GDP, inflation, CPI, RPI, credit ratings, FTSE, debt ratios, discount rates, the list goes on. While politicians and commentators wield these numbers to justify their decisions and criticise their opponents, not everyone is convinced we should allow numbers to dominate our political discourse. In this podcast, Alex Burd talks to Lorenzo Fioramonti, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Sciences and director of the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation of the University of Pretoria. and author of a new book, How Numbers Rule the World: The Use and Abuse of Statistics in Global Politics.  Note:  An Italian translation is available below this English transcript.   Lorenzo began by explaining his thesis. Lorenzo Fioramonti: We have created a system of accounting, of calculation, of numerical production that is governing all the decisions we take as a society. They dictate the choices that our policy makers take, they dictate