<p>Croatia became an independent country 1991 and has since then strived to reach a democracy level, which can lead to membership of the European Union. The purpose of this essay is on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective to illustrate Croatia’s democratic development.</p><p>In order to fulfil the aim, I have applied a qualitative text analysis technique. Through analysis of books and documents, data was collected to accommodate a valid result. I have used consolidated democracy, with its five areas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic), as my theoretical framework to the data, to provide answers and develop an analysis.</p><p>The conclusions show that the consolidate democracy in Croatia has developed a lot since the independence, and Croatia is on its good way to turn into a democratic state like other West-European countries. Croatia has developed and is still developing their political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic areas. A good sign of their democratic development is that Croatia received status as a candidate country in June 2005 for European Union, which shows that Croatia is on the way to complete its transition to consolidated democracy.</p>

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Croatia became an independent country 1991 and has since then strived to reach a democracy level, which can lead to membership of the European Union. The purpose of this essay is on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective to illustrate Croatia’s democratic development. In order to fulfil the aim, I have applied a qualitative text analysis technique. Through analysis of books and documents, data was collected to accommodate a valid result. I have used consolidated democracy, with its five areas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic), as my theoretical framework to the data, to provide answers and develop an analysis. The conclusions show that the consolidate democracy in Croatia has developed a lot since the independence, and Croatia is on its good way to turn into a democratic state like other West-European countries. Croatia has developed and is still developing their political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic areas. A good sign of their democratic development is that Croatia received status as a candidate country in June 2005 for European Union, which shows that Croatia is on the way to complete its transition to consolidated democracy.

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Botswana's democracy has been labeled as ‘the African Miracle’ by the international community. However, in its 50 years of independence, there has been no change in government from the ruling party and the opposition is institutionally weak. The purpose for this study is to analyze the extent of democratic consolidation in Botswana and to try to analyze the challenges in the processes of democratic consolidation. In order to answer the research questions that are put forth in this study, Linz and Stepan’s theoretical framework were used against empirical evidence about Botswana from its independence in 1965 to 2015. The results show that in Botswana the democracy is not consolidated and point toward a more stable democracy than a deeply consolidated democracy. Stable democracy is centered upon the actual functions rather the depth of democracy. The main challenges for further democratic consolidation is the constitutional framework that lack accountability for the executive, the longevity of a dominant party system, the uneven ‘playing field’, the weak opposition, the restrictions and limitation upon the independent media and the civil society. Botswana’s exceptional reputation is exaggerated, while the country have had uninterrupted elections, the depth and quality of the democracy is shallow.

Intelligence, having espionage as its roots, is sometimes misunderstood due to its secret nature. It is due to this that intelligence as a vital component in a state, could be misused by the political regime through less democratic practices that infringe on human rights and the rule of law. The quest of this study (which is not classified, to make the research findings available to both practitioners and scholars of intelligence studies), is to attempt to contribute to the theory and understanding of intelligence studies as a sub-field within the political science in describing, explaining and analysing the intelligence regime. The primary aim is to provide a contextualised and systematic overview of the South African intelligence regime within the framework of the democratisation process in South Africa with specific reference to the period from 1994 to 2014. This study analyses the intelligence regime in South Africa by specifically assessing the role, function and purpose of intelligence through history and within the context of the South African political regime. Therefore, the research problem examined in this study is: given the history and development of South Africa as a democracy, what is the role and function of the intelligence regime during the period 1994 to 2014 – specifically to determine whether intelligence practices were more or less democratic. The theoretical framework formed the basis from which the concepts of state, political regime types and form and degree of government, was explored. It furthermore provided for a comparison of democratic and non-democratic intelligence practices. The study locates intelligence as a reflection of the political regime through the simultaneous typology of both the regime and intelligence, thereby to enable the identification of more or less democratic practices. The notion of a hybrid regime, as having elements of both democratic and non-democratic regimes, presented a fundamental shift in the perception of South Africa‘s democratisation process towards an attempt to reach the goal of being a consolidated democracy. This study draw the conclusion that the role, functions and mandate of an intelligence service within a democracy, should firstly focus on providing the policy-maker with intelligence to be able to make policies; secondly on the identification of threats or potential threats to national security of the state and lastly to protect the constitution. This would ultimately enable the intelligence regime in South Africa to employ more democratic practices which could assist in reaching the goal of democratic consolidation. / MA (Political Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Intelligence, having espionage as its roots, is sometimes misunderstood due to its secret nature. It is due to this that intelligence as a vital component in a state, could be misused by the political regime through less democratic practices that infringe on human rights and the rule of law. The quest of this study (which is not classified, to make the research findings available to both practitioners and scholars of intelligence studies), is to attempt to contribute to the theory and understanding of intelligence studies as a sub-field within the political science in describing, explaining and analysing the intelligence regime. The primary aim is to provide a contextualised and systematic overview of the South African intelligence regime within the framework of the democratisation process in South Africa with specific reference to the period from 1994 to 2014. This study analyses the intelligence regime in South Africa by specifically assessing the role, function and purpose of intelligence through history and within the context of the South African political regime. Therefore, the research problem examined in this study is: given the history and development of South Africa as a democracy, what is the role and function of the intelligence regime during the period 1994 to 2014 – specifically to determine whether intelligence practices were more or less democratic. The theoretical framework formed the basis from which the concepts of state, political regime types and form and degree of government, was explored. It furthermore provided for a comparison of democratic and non-democratic intelligence practices. The study locates intelligence as a reflection of the political regime through the simultaneous typology of both the regime and intelligence, thereby to enable the identification of more or less democratic practices. The notion of a hybrid regime, as having elements of both democratic and non-democratic regimes, presented a fundamental shift in the perception of South Africa‘s democratisation process towards an attempt to reach the goal of being a consolidated democracy. This study draw the conclusion that the role, functions and mandate of an intelligence service within a democracy, should firstly focus on providing the policy-maker with intelligence to be able to make policies; secondly on the identification of threats or potential threats to national security of the state and lastly to protect the constitution. This would ultimately enable the intelligence regime in South Africa to employ more democratic practices which could assist in reaching the goal of democratic consolidation. / MA (Political Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

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This master thesis deals with the affair Spiegel from 1962 and the Czech Television-Crisis from the turn 2000 and 2001. Both cases are compared by the conceptual approach of democratic consolidation from the Juan Linz's and Alfred Stepan's work The Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation (Baltimore, 1996). The analysis aims to find out whether German Federal Republic in 1962 and the Czech Republic on the start of the third millennium fulfilled the first three Linz's and Stepan's criteria of a consolidated democracy. The theoretical chapter highlights some of alternative approaches and discussions about democratic consolidation as an analytical tool in comparative politics.