Listener-supported KSUT delivers NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners, on-air and online, from its studios on Southern Ute lands in Ignacio, Colorado.

KSUT is an independent, non-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors and is not a tribally owned station or service.

© 2026 KSUT Public Radio
NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tiny British Island Swaps Feudalism for Democracy

The tiny island of Sark in the English Channel has been known as the Western world's last bastion of feudalism. The island's 40 landowners automatically became members of its parliament. On Wednesday, the parliament on the three-mile-wide island voted to embrace democracy — to a point.

Now the assembly will be half landowners — and half what we might have called "serfs" once upon a time. All will have to win election.

Melissa Block talks with Sark resident Paul Armoghie, a member of the assembly, about the historic decision.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.