This essay sets out to compare democratic legitimacy in three federal systems: United States of America (USA), European Union (EU) and Germany. The main question of the essay concerns the institutional design of the USA, EU and Germany's federal systems and how it is likely to affect democratic legitimacy. This main question is divided into four subqueries that lead the empirical analysis. These are: 1) What does the federal system's electoral process look like?, 2) How many voters do the federal systems have per mandate?, 3) In what ways do laws, rules and decisions create restrictions on the democratic process of the different systems?, and 4) Are there any changes and trends in development that may lead to weaker / stronger democratic legitimacy in the three federal systems? The essay is based on the assumption on legitimacy as a political concept and that it refers to whether people accept the political system's authority. The method for this essay is a comparative study using ‘most similar system design’. The empirical section includes collected material related to democratic legitimacy and the democratic process of the three federal systems, in relation to Robert Dahl's traditional democratic theory demonstrating five criteria a democratic process should achieve. It is difficult to measure to what extent the criteria in the traditional democratic theory are achieved, thus the empirical outcome is not comprehensive. However, it is possible to discuss the outcome and draw conclusions by studying the extent of legitimacy in the systems, in relation to each other. The empirical study thus shows that the German democratic process is more likely to fulfill a democratic process according to Robert Dahl’s democracy theory than the other two systems. USA tend to show more extensive restrictions for fulfilling the requirements of a democratic process than the other two systems. EU:s results is similar to USA, but does not have the same extensive restrictions. Therefore, Germany demonstrates a higher degree of democratic legitimacy than USA and EU do. USA demonstrates a lower degree of democratic legitimacy and EU:s democratic legitimacy is similar to USA. Our hypothesis, that the institutional structure of the system affects the outcome of democratic legitimacy, is thus confirmed in the study results.

The present research attempts to assess the likely revenue, trade and welfare implications of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The study adopts a partial equilibrium model based on the World Integrated Trade Solution 2010 database and the Software for Market Analysis and Restrictions on Trade (WITS-SMART) as the methodological approach. The findings of the research reveal that the COMESA FTA will be beneficial to the DRC in terms of an increase in exports of US$371.57 million and consumer welfare gain amounting to US$28.49 million. Moreover, The WITS-SMART simulation results indicate that around US$322.10 million of trade will be created in the DRC as a result of the COMESA FTA. Notwithstanding the fact that trade creation will have a positive effect on welfare, as the Congolese consumers would benefit from lower prices, some local industries in the DRC may be threaten of closure due to the lack of competitiveness. In addition, the simultation results show that the country will experience a huge fiscal revenue loss amounting to US$107.01 million due to the implementation of zero per cent tarrif rate on imports duty from the COMESA trading partners. Finally, the simultation results indicate that an equivalent value of US$49.47 million of trade will be diverted from more efficient and low cost non-member states to high cost suppliers from the COMESA region. In light of these results, the research recommends that the DRC’s government needs to come up with a strategic plan in order to protect the national industry that would be negatively affected by the trade-creation effect. In order to mitigate the expected revenue loss, the implementation of the COMESA FTA in the DRC should be accompanied by fiscal reforms to improve the tax-collection system from sales or value-added taxes (VAT) and domestic excise. Regarding the trade-diversion effect, the inefficient producers from the COMESA region could be displaced through building new capacities in short, medium and long term based on comparative advantage in order to address supply constraints in these sectors affected by trade diversion.

M.A. / The aim of this study was to explore the democratisation process that unfolded in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1990 to 2006 with a view to establishing whether Huntington’s model of democratisation as set out in his Third Wave: Democratisation in the Late Twentieth Century (1990) is useful in analysing the Congolese transition. Huntington’s model is essentially based on the experiences of democratisation in the so-called third wave of democratisation that occurred in countries in Southern and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. In line with Huntington’s analysis of the democratisation process elsewhere, the study examined, among other things, the triggering factors of the democratisation process; the modes and characteristics of the transition and the factors favouring and obstructing the development of democracy in the Congo. The study has found grounds for some minor deviations from Huntington’s observation of experiences elsewhere. These pertain to the sequence of the democratisation process, the complexity of the problem in the Congo and the role of the military. Whereas Huntington posited that one of three modes of transition occurred in a particular country – transformation, replacement and transplacement – all three modes transpired in a dialectical sequence in the Congo. In addition, the democratisation process in the Congo was intensely militarised since it involved not only the government and what one could call the ‘classical’ opposition, but also an ‘armed opposition’ encompassing several rebel groups and militias backed by foreign armies, each with its own agenda. Furthermore, when the military was confronted with the pressure to democratise elsewhere, it was generally instrumental in the democratisation process. In the Congo, to the contrary, it is the powerlessness of the military that constituted an obstruction to the democratisation process in the country. The weakness of the generals in the Congolese army results from their vassalisation by politicians who utilised army officers for their political ends. However, in an overall evaluation of the applicability of Huntington’s model to the Congolese democratisation process, it can be stated that, despite the above minor differences, Huntington’s model serves as a useful tool in analysing the democratisation process in the country, irrespective of the complexity of the Congolese experience. The model serves to elucidate the causes, patterns, power dynamics in the democratisation process, and also identifies potential problems in the consolidation of democracies. Its usefulness in analysing the Congolese transition makes it an equally useful tool in analysing the democratisation processes in other African countries.

This study is devoted to the activities of the urban liberals and their rural allies in their attempt to wrest control of the state party from the conservative Democrats.

Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013 / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

Orientador: Pedro Ganzeli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T16:39:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FagundesJunior_SergioJose_M.pdf: 46506805 bytes, checksum: e41c42acad29901f63551fc252e3e67d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A gestão democrática da escola pública é de fundamental importância para a construção de uma sociedade igualitária e justa. O envolvimento de toda a comunidade escolar nos processos de decisão, tanto nos aspectos pedagógicos como nos administrativos, apresenta-se como um fator necessário para a gestão democrática na escola. Assim, este trabalho busca analisar a implementação de uma política municipal de educação, na cidade de Bragança Paulista, no período de 2006 a 2009, a qual se propôs à construção da escola democrática. Utilizamos como procedimento metodológico a análise de um programa de gestão para a Rede Municipal de Educação que teve como objetivo implantar a gestão democrática. Nossa análise verificou a presença de incongruências entre o proclamado e a realidade observada. / Abstract: The democratic management of public schools is crucial to building an egalitarian and fair society. The involvement of the whole school community in the decision-making, both in teaching and administration aspects, is presented as a necessary factor for the democratic management at school, so this paper seeks to examine the implementation of a city policy of education, in the city of Bragança Paulista, in the period of 2006 through 2009 which proposed the construction of a democratic school. We used as a methodological procedure the analysis of a management program for the Municipal Education Network aimed to implement democratic management. Our analysis showed the presence of inconsistencies between the announced and observed reality. / Mestrado / Politicas, Administração e Sistemas Educacionais / Mestre em Educação

While the Arab Spring has resulted in numerous different political outcomes across the Arab world, conventional theories of democratization are lacking in explaining these divergent outcomes. Developing a theory of democratization, strategic importance and external intervention, I examine the relationship between national strategic importance and democratization. I argue that strategically important states will be targeted by external actors in attempts to stifle or thwart democracy because democracy may upset the status quo that foreign actors benefit from. I do not find support for the hypothesis that strategic importance and democratization share a general negative relationship, however, I find moderate support that strategic importance is related to the timing of regime breakdown, democratic breakdown and democratic transition. Furthermore, in examining the cases of Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, I highlight key moments of external intervention and influence that impacted the democratization attempts of each case.

The Arab Spring put several revolutions in motion in the Middle East and North Africa. However, Tunisia was the only country that succeeded with a democratization process, making the country a fairly new democracy. Simultaneously, independent research networks and organizations whose main focus is democracy and democratic values such as Freedom House, V-Demand the Arab Barometer are presenting worrying information about democracy around the world. Democracy is in crises - evident by the remarkable decline or erosion in democratic norms and practices. While scholars have already begun investigating the causes of democratic deconsolidation or backsliding in the context of western democracies, notably those of western Europe and the US, still little is known with regards to new democracies from other parts of the globe. To fill this research gap, this qualitative case study focuses on Tunisia, with the core objective to investigate whether or not Tunisia is experiencing democratic deconsolidation. By using the three criteria described by the political scientist Yascha Mounk in his deconsolidation theory, the result suggests that while democratic values are still quite strong amongst the Tunisian citizens, it is evident that a majority of the Tunisian citizens are experiencing institutional dissatisfaction and low institutional trust.

Academics, experts and politicians have come to the conclusion that democracy is in trouble. The contemporary understanding is that new competitive pressures from the outside and unruly publics from the inside have drastically changed the way politics is enacted. Where it was previously provoked by ideological programs it is now engulfed in issues, and where it used to be framed by established democratic institutions it is now characterized by informal governance arrangements. In this environment, it is argued, only the reformed institution can bridge the gap between politics and democracy and restore legitimacy to the decision-making process. In Swedish planning, these reforms have positioned the citizen as the point of departure for democratic politics, manifested in procedural citizen dialogues and in authorities’ relinquishment of political responsibilities. But when unplanned publics do emerge, they are intuitively dismissed as NIMBYs and obstacles to the planning process – preemptively foreclosing opportunities for public democratic enactment. The aim of this paper is to analyze this process by examining the public controversy surrounding the ongoing redevelopment of Slakthusområdet in southern Stockholm. It draws heavily on Noortje Marres’ work. She suggests that politics pursued outside of established institutions could be occasions for democracy since the activity might indicate that issues are finding sites that are hospitable to their articulation as matters of public concern. However, her issue-focused reasoning also positions the citizen as the focal point for democratic politics, meaning that those who fail to accept this role inevitably have themselves to blame. Her work is therefore supplement­ed with Laurent Thévenot’s understanding of how forms, that is, ideals, rules, and procedures, can be just as important as issues in informing the decisions among actors. Through interviews with those involved, this paper highlights the ease in which the city disarticulates the attempts at public democratic enactment, a proficiency largely stemming from its “reformed” management form. Moreover, while the public finally managed to settle their issue at stake, it came with the substantial cost of eroded faith in democracy. Drawing on this, the paper concludes that both issues and forms, publics and the public sector, are crucial in facilitating the enactment of democratic politics.

In the Manifesto on Values (2001), Ubuntu is depicted as one of the ten democratic values and the Department of Education (DoE, 2001) portrays it as one of the most important values to promote citizenry. Ubuntu provides a sense of belonging to a wider community and encourages a child citizen to live as a responsible and constructive member. Utilising a qualitative research mode of inquiry, with an action research approach enabled me to collaboratively design of a socially constructed learning experience, with subject specialists. We explored the value of creative drama to teach Ubuntu as an abstract concept to Grade 3 learners. The focus of this study was on conceptualisation and not the implementation. These learners were exposed to creative drama, however for this study they did not actively engage in any creative drama activities. The main data generation techniques that had been used in this study were semi-structured interviews with a panel of subject experts, after which they had also completed a rubric to convey the strengths and weaknesses of the designed learning experience. This was done in a cyclic manner; as embedded in action research to strengthen the idea of action research already mentioned. From the study and the results of the study, it had become evident that creative drama could be used to strengthen school learners’ understanding of Ubuntu and to incorporate it in their everyday lives to become progressive child citizens and leaders within South Africa. By using the input and knowledge of expert participants, it had also become evident that learning could be made fun and would most likely then be more effective. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / Early Childhood Education / MEd / Unrestricted