[Festival of Ideas 2019] Public Policy in a World of Superheroes

In Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity War, intergalactic supervillain Thanos acquired absolute power to act on a social problem – he wanted that there be no deprivation or poverty. Thanos’ proposal, as everyone now knows, was to murder half the population everywhere, so there would be more of everything to go around.

Formulating good public policy means getting the balance right, working with the realisation that you cannot have everything and seeing trade-offs for what they are. A world populated with superheroes like the Avengers [or supervillains like Thanos] does not remove these trade-offs; it simply brings them into sharper focus.

In this lecture, Danny Quah explores how public policy should be undertaken in a world filled with superheroes. Would wise, benevolent policy makers have an easier time in such a world? Or, conversely, would they face more difficult challenges?

This public lecture is part of the Festival of Ideas (FOI) 2019, the inaugural flagship event of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The theme for FOI 2019 is Governance for the Future: Asia's Perspective.

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Speaker:
Danny Quah, Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

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