Liberation and Corruption: Why Freedom Movements Fail – with Peter Hain

Veteran activist and politician Peter Hain explores a question that has haunted him for decades: why are liberation and independence movements so often betrayed when their leaders get into government?

In his new book, Liberation and Corruption: Why Freedom Movements Fail, Hain examines why movements born from ideals of justice and freedom often succumb to bad governance and corruption once in power.

Drawing on over 50 years of experience battling corruption – from his early days as a freedom campaigner against apartheid to his time as a UK Labour cabinet minister – he explores what can go wrong when revolutionaries become rulers.

From analysis of Africa, Latin America, Russia, the Caribbean, China and India, Hain reveals the patterns that turn liberation struggles into disappointing outcomes, showing how movements that promised freedom often deliver the opposite.

Join the School for Government and Policy Institute at King’s College London, Policy Press, Peter Hain and others to discuss the challenges of staying true to liberation values and what this means for contemporary movements fighting for a better world.

Speakers:

Lord Peter Hain, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Wales, anti-apartheid activist and former Labour MP for Neath (1991-2015)

Baroness Patricia Scotland KC, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth and Government Minister

Dr Roxana Bratu, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the School for Government, King's College London (chair)