The whole world is a series of collective action problems, says Professor Ben Ansell. We want action taken to solve problems, but we want most of the benefits of those actions for ourselves while wanting others to bear the costs. These conflicts are at the heart of the failure of politics to solve many pressing problems, from housing to climate change.

In his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them, he looks in detail at these conflicts and why modern politics leaves us so disappointed.

On today’s podcast Ben talks to Hugh Linehan about how politics works on a human level, why trust in politics has declined, the importance of institutions, the evolution of political parties, and why housing is the defining issue of the age.

Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Oxford University. Why Politics Fails is his fourth book.