Sökformulär

Democratization

Colapso e reconstrução política na Guiné-Bissau 1998-2000 : um estudo de democratização difícil

Upphovsperson: Rudebeck, Lars
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2001
Ämnesord: Democratization, political development, history, elections, political parties, Guinea-Bissau, Political science, Statsvetenskap
In this study of recent developments in Guinea Bissau. Lars Rudebeck seeks to investigate how democratic rule emerges and functions in real life. His analysis extends far beyond the multi-party system and election procedures as he discusses contrasts in people's perceptions of democracy. He assesses their access to influential structures, the roles of civil and political society, of the military, and of international assistance and argues that complex power structures need to be addressed if democracy is to be consolidated.

Africa's development in the 21st century : Reshaping the research agenda

Upphovsperson: Cheru, Fantu
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Economic and social development, Sustainable development, regional integration, Partnership, international economic relations, Globalization, Development strategy, Governance, Democratization, Development research, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
As Africa enters the 21st century, it faces mounting challenges as well as new opportunities. Unlike in the 1980s and the 1990s, however, the conditions for Africa's sustained growth and development are more favourable today than ever before. As a result of economic reforms the overall growth has been in excess of 4.5 percent annually since the mid 1990s. There is greater consensus among Africans now than at any previous time on what needs to be done to accelerate growth, reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. The positive response of Africa's international partners enhances the prospects for sustaining the progress. Africa is also benefiting from a commodity boom and increased investment in infrastructure and the extractive industry sector. But many questions remain unanswered. The most pressing question is how Africa can best benefit from the rise of the Asian giants, China and India.

Somalia : a nation without a state

Medarbetare: Booth, Charlotte | Norberg, Carin
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Somalia, Nation-building, Civil war, conflicts, Democratization, Foreign intervention, Peacekeeping, Political crisis, political history, Peace and conflict research, Freds- och konfliktforskning
Report from four public seminars on the conflict in Somalia, held during October and November 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden with Nuruddin Farah, Somali Novelist, Roland Marchal, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre d’Études et de Recherches Internationales, Paris, Asha Hagi, member of the Somalia Transitional Federal Parliament and civil society activist, Jens Odlander, Swedish Ambassador for the Somali Peace Process, Shane Quinn, Programme officer at the Life and Peace Institute, Sweden, and Sahra Bargadle and Hayan Ismail from the swedish-somali Diaspora. Marika Fahlén, Special Advisor for the Horn of Africa at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs acted as moderator for the panel discussion.The seminars were jointly organized by the Life and Peace Institute, The Nordic Africa Institute and ABF Stockholm.

Chad - towards democratisation or petro-dictatorship?

Upphovspersoner: Eriksson, Hans | Hagströmer, Björn
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2005
Ämnesord: Democratization, Petroleumextraction, Governance, political development, Economic and social development, Chad, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This study provides a background of the socio-political situation in Chad and the oil project, and analyses how the two will develop and interact in the future. A key feature is an analysis of the incentives in the oil project and their possible future changes. Chad is currently undergoing two processes of significant importance for its future development - political democratisation and transformation into an oil economy. For a country plagued with civil war for decades until 1990, and known as one of the poorest and most corrupt states in the world, this is a real challenge. The oil export started in late 2003, and boosted the economy in 2004. To avoid the disastrous experiences of most poor African oil states, unique oil management, control mechanisms and other conditionalities have been imposed by the World Bank - much thanks to pressure from the civil society and the international community. If implemented well, Chad may become a model for how a poor resource-rich country is able to promote socio-economic development and poverty reduction. However, this demands a close and coordinated cooperation between the Chadian government and the civil society, based on accountability and good governance, and with continuous support of the World Bank and the international community. The situation is fragile and progress is uncertain. If a broader economic development is achieved, conditions for an improved democratisation can be created in the long term.The Chadian oil project deserves continued close attention and monitoring.

Fault-lines in South African democracy : continuing crises of inequality and injustice

Upphovsperson: Hendricks, Fred T.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2003
Ämnesord: Post-apartheid, Political transition, political development, Democratization, South Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa has raised questions, on the one hand, about the tension between the imperatives of justice and equality and, on the other, reconciliation. Transforming the decades' old apartheid system under conditions of a political compromise has turned out to be a formidable challenge. This paper is about the complexity of the transformation processgoing on in South Africa. Although too early for a real assessmentof the experiment, the tensions, dilemmas, contradictions, paradoxes and some of the changes have already begun to manifest themselves. In this Discussion Paper, the author gives the full measure of the tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes involved in the transformation of South Africa. Apartheid was more than formal discrimination along racial lines: it was a system of exploitation and oppression in which race, class, gender and other markers of social identity all overlapped. The paper shows how political deals affect the administration of justice, and how they impinge upon the nature of democracy, often by frustrating efforts to realise social goals in the post-authoritarian phase. It also raises the fundamental question of the broader necessities for the long-term survival of democracy in South Africa, which, the paper argues, must include: - addressing the enormous disparities between wealth and poverty and black and white left in the wake of apartheid and - creating a legitimate polity that respects the rule of law.

Transforming elections into opportunities for political choice

Medarbetare: Ibrahim, Jibrin
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2007
Ämnesord: political development, Political power, Democratization, political participation, elections, Civil rights, Conference papers, West Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This monograph presents a well-informed overview and analysis of political transitions, democratic struggles and elections in West Africa. It explores the ways in which various authoritarian regimes across the sub-region have tried to subvert democracy and how the citizens of various countries have struggled against dictatorship and impunity, to achieve the return to democratic rule. Drawing on insights from the Ghanaian model of free and fair elections, Niger's difficult, but successful transtion to democracy, elections in post-conflict Sierra Leone and Liberia, and the struggles for democracy in Nigeria, Jibrin Ibrahim proposes concrete strategies that will empower the people of West Africa to make political choices which will advance and secure their individual and collective socio-economic and democratic rights.

Repressive state and resurgent media under Nigeris's military dictatorship, 1988-98

Upphovsperson: Olukotun, Ayo
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: Nigeria, media, Press, military government, censorship, political opposition, Democratization
This study documents a crucial dimension of the resistance of Nigerian civil society to a repressive and monumentally corrupt military state in the late 1980s and 1990s in Nigeria. Employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework, the study relates how a section of the media defied censorship laws, outright bans, incarceration and the assassination of opposition figures, to prosecute the struggle for democracy. It captures the tensions and contradictions between a pliant section of the media, which sought to legitimise the state and a critical section of the same media, which in alliance with radical civil society, invented rebellious outlets to carry on the struggle against dictatorship.The study seeks to make fresh departures by documenting not only the role of the national media in the throes of democratic struggle, but that of the international media whose role was influential in the years studied.Finally the report offers empirical proof of the mechanisms by which a vibrant civil society can curb the ravages of a predatory state in an African country.

Sidor