The Economist's John Micklethwait Predicts Fourth Revolution at Horizon Lecture Series

9th October 2014, London

International law firm Pinsent Masons hosted the first of its Horizon 2014 business lecture series on Tuesday during which John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist, spoke of his predictions of 'The Fourth Revolution'.

As outlined in his recent book, "The Fourth Revolution: The global race to reinvent the state", Micklethwait presented his view that apathy amongst voters in the EU is a result of the government losing sight of the fundamental role of the state. In the belief that the quality of public services is compromised by an excessive breadth of offering, he encouraged European and US governments to consider the lessons that can be learned from the practices of other nations.

Speaking at Pinsent Masons' headquarters in London, Micklethwait highlighted the efficiency in government operation of services across Asia and the emerging nations, citing Singapore as a nation which, through the dissemination of services via outsourcing companies and providers, is able to provide twice the quality at half the cost.

Micklethwait foresees a revolution in government, driven in part by the general public as technology enables them to become increasingly better informed about the performance of the services provided to them.

David Isaac, Head of the Advanced Manufacturing and Technology sector at Pinsent Masons said: "John identified a range of interesting models to improve government efficiency and to deliver improved services for citizens.  All of these envision a reduction in the size of the state and an increased role for the private sector.  John was, however, at pains to point out that his approach is predicated on emerging trends where a demanding public refuses to accept  poor performance in any form - either from the state of it outsource partners "

For further insight into the content on John Micklethwait's lecture, please visit Out-Law.com.