The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been ravished by internal conflicts for the past two decades. These conflicts have come at a great cost to the people of the DRC, often resulting in a number of human rights atrocities. These atrocities range from the loss of life, resulted in internal displacement and creation of refugees’ communities, as well as the destruction of property and infrastructure , all contributing to prevailing conditions of poverty and deep societal divisions. While there are many underlying factors that fuel these conflicts, the key drivers of the conflict are linked to the unequal distribution of the DRC’s national resources and the mismanagement of public services. Intense frustration and a sense of helplessness to change the status quo have repeatedly manifested itself in a cycle of war and ethnic cleansing. In this regard, the pattern of conflicts has been the manifestation of the frustration of the Congolese people as a whole. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2010. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Nico Steytler at the Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. 2010. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

No abstract available / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

MA (History) / Department of Development Studies / The study examines the process of democratic consolidation in South Africa since 1994. This study unpacks the trends, developments and challenges which have taken place since 1994 towards the entrenchment of democracy in the country. The research will explore the nature of the rule of the ANC in the light of efforts, successes and failures in consolidating democratic rule in the country. The major problem which prompted this study is that, claims of South Africa as a democratic state have not been scrutinised by academics, and this study seeks to question the validity of the phrase “New democracy” which is commonly used by both politicians and academics in referring to the government since 1994. The study will be informed by notions of democracy and will utilise the indicators of democracy to locate whether South Africa can be viewed as a true democracy, or if it offers some elements, but neglecting some of the key components of democracy. The other critical issue will be to determine the extent to which democratic institutions have been strengthened in the country. This will be basically a literaturebased study, which depends more on reviewing policies enacted by the government and determining if the policies entail democratic consolidation. The overall assumption is that more still needs to be done towards entrenching democratic institutions that address socio-economic inequalities that persist in the country. Theoretically the study builds from the liberal discourse and its fundamental notions of democracy and good governance

The thesis analyses Turkey's and Russia's foreign relations with each other based on the theoretical premise that democratic peace can explain similar behaviour among authoritarian regimes as well. The thesis explores Russia's and Turkey's distinct forms or authoritarianism, before employing a detailed qualitative content analysis on official documents from Russia's and Turkey's presidents and foreign ministries. The readers will attain a broader understanding of democratic theory and the link between political regimes and peaceful relations. Keywords Democratic Theory; Russia; Turkey; Political Regime; Qualitative Content Analysis; MAXQDA

Military Democratic Intervention is a common strategy of foreign interaction especially since World War II. However, the question why some interventions are successful in implementing democracy and others are still not answered satisfactorily. Whereas the scientific debate so far focused on mission specific characteristics including variables such as personnel or financial equipment of interventions, the underlying assumption of this work is that external democratized countries need to exhibit the same preconditions as countries internally democratized. Therefore, the transition and state-building literature is investigated and five clusters of preconditions for successful democratization is developed. With a Qualitative Comparative Analysis, a dataset comprising 27 cases, eight variables and the outcome variable, the author provides evidence for the significance of all five clusters. Most importantly, the level of human development and modernization as well as the predecessor regime type and the experience with democratic experience strand out. Further, the combination of the variables of high GDP, an ethnically homogeneous society and a democratically ruled neighborhood are identified as variables sufficiently influencing successful democratization after a military intervention. These results...

The rise to power of Viktor Orbán in 2010 has brought with it democratic backsliding and suppression of rights in Hungary, a country that in the early 2000s was seen as one of the most promising new democracies in Eastern Europe. In this thesis speeches held by Viktor Orbán during the period of 2011-2022 are examined and analyzed and further connected with identified populist strategies and framing analysis. Which tries to understand the relation between communication in the context of sender and receiver and how the receiver might interpret the message differently depending on how it is “framed”. In an attempt to understand how and which populist strategies and rhetoric has been used to justify and motivate three overarching developments during Fidesz’s period in power: the major constitutional changes of 2012 and 2013, the developments on migration and the “Stop Soros Law” as well as the suppression of LGBT rights. This paper concludes that Viktor Orbán has continuously used populist rhetoric to “attack” and undermine his opposition, whether this is in the form of the EU or domestically, championing the Hungarian cause and its people thus justifying the changes that Fidesz has implemented.

The thesis demonstrates that the first Methodists missionaries to their arrival in Mulungwishi, unlikely did not penetrate the culture of the Bemba people and merely rejected everything that they could not understand because it was considered as heathen. As result, the missionaries’ contempt of the Bemba’s worldview and their fundamental values led to the proselytism and the syncretism. The study figures out the tension between the Gospel presented by the United Methodist Church and the Bemba Culture. Evidently, God (Supreme Being, Creator) had been known and worshipped before the expansion of the first missionaries in Mulungwishi and in the Democratic Republic of Congo at large. Much has been said and done on the contextualization venture through different models and assumptions. Arguably, this missiological study agrees with the eminent scholars’ stream that defends the pre-eminence of the word of God toward all cultures. This led the study to evaluate the missional tools and strategies used by the United Methodist Church missionaries to touch the culture of the people in depth and empower the Christian mission in Mulungwishi. Least has been done for the community development facing the unstable economic, social, and political context of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Church still have a long way to go on the social mandate. The solution is to be originated in the theology of reconstruction (Kalemba 2008; Mugambi 1999, 2003; Maluleke 2002; Kä Mana 1999, 2002, etc.) which works out that it is possible to rebuild the Congolese society explicitly to its best image by teaching the gospel that touches the roots of the evils and lead the people to the proper change of mentality. Then, the thesis underlines the necessity of contextualisation of gospel and missional theology for good accomplishment of Christian mission everywhere. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / Ph. D. (Theology)

One of the aims of education is to cultivate democratic citizens in the interest of consolidating and expanding a democratic ethos in society, yet the democratic purpose and societal contribution of music education in public schools have not been fully explored. This philosophical research addresses the unique capacity of music education for enhancing democratic values in societies where issues caused by diversity and difference prevail. This work takes note of the fact that although music teachers have recently shown greater awareness and understanding of the diversification and differences of students, they continue to struggle with handling associated issues adequately. This failure to deal with diversity effectively has led to the exclusion and discrimination of certain individuals or groups in music classrooms and resulted in hindering the realization of democratic values of equality. To rectify these problems, I argue that the purpose of music education and its principles must be reframed and reconsidered using a democratic lens. This thesis first undertakes an analysis of the association of music education with democracy by classifying various music education practices according to types of political systems (e.g., monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy) and analyzing music education philosophies that have supported those music education practices. This examination and analysis will lead to identifying the purpose and principles of democratic music education. Second, this work demonstrates how music education might contribute to the democratization of society with a two-layered goal: democratization through the pursuit of psychosocial equilibrium and democratization through the transformation of nondemocratic realities. The final section of this thesis offers examples of democratic music educational practices in music appreciation, performance, and composition education. / Graduate

This thesis focuses on analyzing social innovations like governance and with a democracy perspective. What the process in social innovation looked like and to what extend are they democratic. To fulfill the purpose of the study, two cases of social innovation have been selected.  The theoretical framework of the study is based on governance and democratic theory with focus on a democratic process. The method of the study is qualitative with focus on two interviews. To complement the interviews, written documents from the two social innovation studies have been used. The material has been analyzed based on the main mechanisms of governance and the criteria of a democratic process. The study shows that social innovations carries governance control and that the democratic quality in both cases have been weak. Thoughts and questions about democracy were only brought to light after the result were finalized. This because the main purpose of the social innovations seems to be social benefits and therefore the democracy perspective was left out.

The aim of this study is to analyse the state of Indonesia’s democracy 23 years after the fall of Suharto. By applying a qualitative case study, that uses Linz and Stepans maximal definition of democratic consolidation as the theoretical framework, an analytical scheme is operationalized and developed to answer the research questions. The empirical material is then analysed based on that analytical scheme.   The study shows that Indonesia’s democracy is experiencing challenges in all arenas, except for perhaps the political society, as Indonesia holds regular elections that are considered free and fair. The results, thus, indicate that the democracy in Indonesia cannot be considered consolidated.    These results contribute to contemporary research by strengthening the theory that democracy encompasses more than just elections, as well as the use of a theoretical framework to identify weaknesses in a democracy. This is in turn of both interdisciplinary and practical value, for instance within international development cooperation.   Keywords: Democracy, democratic consolidation, Linz and Stepan, Indonesia