Includes bibliography. / The paper evaluates the validity of the widespread notion that one of the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) - to establish democracy continent-wide in Africa - will be undermined by conditionalities attached to donor assistance. Conditionality is said by critics to usurp sovereign power, and thus interferes with governance in•• recipient countries, pre-empting self-determination, local initiative, and self-reliance. This discourse is thus located within the tradition of practical, politically engaged scholarship. Several relevant sub-issues are generated in the paper's primary deliberations: Nepad and conditionality are defined and principles and nature thereof explored; ""democracy"" is located in African politics, its history and current state examined; the effects of structural adjustments programs on African states are explored; the question of state-market relationship in development is considered; IMF and World Bank positions (i.e. policy) on conditionality are assessed; possible alternative forms of political systems pertinent to Nepad are evaluated; and continental democracy paradigm and democratic conditionality paradigms are suggested. I argue that concern about adverse effects of conditionality on democracy is well-founded, but suggest that re-examination and re-construction of conditionality may avert foreseeable harm and produce favourable results.

Includes bibliographical references. / "Generally speaking, would you say most people can be trusted or that one must be careful in dealing with others?" For the past 50 years this question has been used extensively and almost exclusively as a measure of generalised trust in both national and cross-national studies. However, it was not until very recently that scholars focused on the question's validity and reliability as a measure of generalised trust. Besides that these studies' findings are largely contradictory, few of them examine the validity and reliability of the trust data in the African context. This study is motivated by this research gap and the fact that the levels of trust from the Afrobarometer surveys seem to challenge what the literature suggests about the causes and consequences of trust. The study finds that the question is a reliable measure of trust in 'most people' since it obtains largely similar country level estimates when used alone over a period of time. However, African respondents do not consistently interpret 'most people' as 'non-co-ethnics' as previous studies have suggested. In addition, the question does not alternate very well with other measures of bridging trust. This measure is also weakly correlated with measures of civic engagement and associational membership than its alternative, the trust in non-co-ethnics question. However, both measures produce expected linkages with measures of ethnic diversity, economic development and democracy.

It is just over fifty years since the United Nations adopted the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), explicitly proscribing the manufacturing of, trade in, and use of narcotics for anything but scientific and medicinal purposes. Today, the 1961 agreement, alongside the similarly-focused 1971 and 1988 UN Conventions remain the bases of the international drug control regime despite the continuously high rates of drug use, trade, and production that remain worldwide. Taking due cognizance of these inconsistencies, the present study seeks to examine how the system of international drug control developed over the past century and, through this, why it is that prohibition continues to be the international community's primary response to the 'drug issue'. Methodologically, the study applies two distinct analytical frameworks. The first framework applied - Kathryn Sikkink and Martha Finnemore's constructivist norm life-cycle model - systematically traces the evolution of the norm of prohibition over time and helps identify the main causal mechanisms at work in each stage of the norm's life. While the model is successful in regards to these aforementioned aspects, however, the research also shows the model does not adequately examine the role of power in international norm dynamics. The model, more specifically, does not discuss how existing power relations can help sustain a norm's livelihood long past its (perceived) effectiveness. Additionally, it is also shown through this application that prohibition did not develop in the exact manner the model suggests it would, but became institutionalised only in its final, internalisation phase instead of its emergent phase. In this manner, the second theoretical framework - that of Robert Cox's critical theory - is consequently introduced to address the life cycle's limitations. By applying Cox's ideas on hegemony - herein understood as a fit between material power, ideas, and institutions - the study demonstrates how the hegemony of (primarily) the United States (US) has always and continues to play a leading role in supporting the norm of international drug prohibition today. The study concludes with some final notes about further research and the possibilities for change.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-112).

Bibliography: leaves 66-69.

Bibliography: pages 143-163. / The general aim of this thesis is to provide an exposition and critical analysis of aspects of the political philosophy of Erich Fromm. As such it is a study in systematic political theory. The specific objective of the thesis is an investigation of the way in which Fromm redefines Marx's historical materialism by recourse to Freud's psychological theory in an effort to comprehend the relationship between the economic substructure (base) and the ideological and cultural superstructure more adequately. In so doing, it critically examines the following problematic: In what way did Fromm synthesize Freudian psychological insights with a Marxist sociology, and how were the concepts of both Marx and Freud transformed in the process? In chapter 1 the origins and background to Fromm's synthesis is examined. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with Fromm's concept of social character and the social unconscious as an attempted synthesis of Marx and Freud. Chapter 4 is a close examination of Fromm's concept of human nature. The main focus of the thesis is on Fromm's thought as an unorthodox amalgamation of Marx and Freud. It indicates how Fromm, working from an initial Freudian position reworked and revised Freud so as to better accommodate his psychoanalytical insights within a basically Marxian sociology. With respect to the Marxian component of Fromm's synthesis the thesis contrasts Fromm's use of Marx with that of the then prevailing theories of the Second and Third Internationals. It demonstrates how Fromm's emphasis and use of the Hegelian elements in the works of the younger Marx distinguish him from these theorists and how it was also due to these Hegelian elements that Fromm could make a connection with Freud. The thesis takes the form of a critical exegesis of extracts of Fromm's own work while at the same time distilling elements from the prevailing secondary literature. The thesis in no way attempts to be a thorough intellectual history but rather seeks to be an explication and in-depth analysis of the elements of Fromm's work crucial to his Marx-Freud synthesis.

Includes abstract. / The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees not only, it is argued in this paper, established the international refugee regime with a strong relation to human rights, but also laid the groundwork for the establishment of a norm of refugee protection as a standard of appropriate behaviour toward refugees. The paper aims to prove this first assertion by employing the Constructivist-based norm life-cycle theoretical framework advanced by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. This paper will show that a norm of refugee protection was established over time but that its tenets have increasingly been ignored by states thereby eroding the initial norm of refugee protection. ... The second assertion with which this paper is faced therefore is that the intensity of the erosion of this norm of refugee protection is such that its continued existence is questionable.

Brazil development cooperation in Africa has been increasing significantly since the beginning of the new millennium. This paper examines both characteristics and challenges of such cooperation, with regards to the centuries-old linkages that tie the two shores of the Atlantic and the historical impact that Africa has had on Brazil. The main focus is on development cooperation in the continent after Lula's election in 2003, highlighting both domestic and international factors that allowed this cooperation to rapidly increase, while analysing the ongoing Brazilian crisis undermining it. The final consideration is that Brazil's development cooperation is characterized by the duality of national interests on one side, where it is seen as an important tool of foreign policy, and its humanitarian aspect together with the empowerment of local populations on the other. This paper concludes by arguing that a 'Brazilian way', indeed, exists.

This thesis analyses the Public Participation Programme in the South African constitution-making process. The central premise of the thesis is that there is a link between participatory lawmaking processes and legitimate democracy. Accordingly, the drafting of the constitution and other law requires public participation in order to be accepted and recognised. Jurgen Habermas' latest theory (Between Facts and Norms) is used in this analysis. Jurgen Habermas has developed a new theoretical paradigm that defines the tension that exists between the coercive factual force of law ("facticity") and the recognition of law ("validity").

Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis aims to carry out a comparative research to analyse the policies and countermeasures taken by various countries related to the trade in Rare Earth Elements (REEs). The similarity of the approaches of East Asian countries – China, Korea, and Japan – towards the African continent, and South Africa's mineral policies with the goal of national development provides the basis for the formulation of a SWOT Matrix analytical tool. As mineral resources, particularly REEs, have increased in significance with the advancement of modern technology, it will be valuable from an academic, business and political perspective to undertake such research in order to consider the optimal policy instruments that can benefit resource poor countries, such as Korea in particular, and resource rich countries such as South Africa. In Chapter 3, a number of proposals for Korea to establish rational policy systems to secure a stable REE supply chain will be put forward, followed in Chapter 4 by a SWOT Matrix analysis to provide some recommendations to South Africa for a number of policy instruments to meet its requirements of generating inclusive economic growth through establishing cooperative models.