The purpose of this study was to compare the difference in democracy in two Subsaharan African countries. Namibia and Zimbabwe were compared in order to discover factors as to why there is a significant difference in democratic status in otherwise quite similar countries. To be able to do this, Linz and Stepan’s theory of consolidated democracy was used. The study used three of their five arenas, civil society, political society and the rule of law society, which were the basis of the analysis. To answer the purpose of the study, two questions were used; “What does civil society, political society and the rule of law society look like in Namibia and Zimbabwe 2023?” and “What factors make Namibia more democratic compared to Zimbabwe 2023?”. The study was qualitative and used a comparative method with a most-similar design to answer the purpose and questions. The conclusion was that Namibia’s civil society, political society and rule of law society functions broadly in accordance with democratic values and fulfills Linz and Stepans arenas to a large extent, while Zimbabwe has not progressed as far in its democratization process according to the arenas or in comparison with Namibia. Zimbabwe’s government is using autocratic tactics to consolidate their power which hinder the arenas to operate democratically.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the democratization process in the Middle East after 9/11. After 9/11 the US made a drastic change in their foreign policy towards the Middle East aiming on a “Freedom Agenda and fighting the “war on Terrorism” to ensure their national security.  Therefore, the main effort of the policy was made on democracy promotion in the Middle East in order for the Bush Administration to achieve their goals. Democracy is a widely used concept in the West describing a ruling system that secures peace and stability since it ensures the citizens all their freedoms and human rights. A definition of democracy and its arenas will be given according to the definition of Linz and Stephan with a main focus on Civil and Political Society. Lebanon will be brought up as an example of a somehow democratic Middle Easter Country. The Lebanese political system is based on confessionalism thus it is important to show how democracy is preserved within Lebanon presenting both the civil and political society within the country. The study in question shows how the US approached the region and which efforts were made in the democratization process in the Arab Middle East and it will also deal with the outcome 9/11 had on the Lebanese-US relation. The conclusion of the thesis showed that the Bush Administrations new foreign Policy faced many backlashes. Even though the US managed to overthrow the Taliban’s and remove Saddam’s Regime, the policy’s main goal of achieving democracy in the Middle East was not successful. In the case of Lebanon the research concludes that to achieve a successful democratic policy the Lebanese strong confessional structures must be combined with the fundamentals of democracy. It further showed that there has not been a drastic change in the Lebanese-US relation due to 9/11.