Despite being free from colonialism for decades, the country continues to experience political instability and a lack of democracy. There is a knowledge gap when it comes to understanding democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the challenges the country faces in establishing and maintaining a functioning democratic government. The purpose of this essay is to examine the political and social situation prevailing in the DRC in light of the challenges to sustaining and establishing a functioning democracy. Through a democratic and institutional perspective, the study will investigate the current situation in the country and how the established institutions impact its democratic development. The study is limited to the Democratic Republic of Congo (also abbreviated as DR Congo or Congo Kinshasa) and will be referred to as Congo in this essay. This limitation is due to the existence of two countries with similar history and destiny. The study is confined to the Democratic Republic of Congo (also abbreviated as DR Congo or Congo Kinshasa) and will be referred to as Congo in this essay. To achieve this purpose, previous research and reports from Freedom House will serve as the primary empirical material, supported by research from Amnesty International and previous studies in the field. The choice of Freedom House as a source is due to the organization's focus on states' situations and their degree of freedom and rights. In conclusion, the analysis of the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) reveals a discrepancy between the fundamental principles of the country's constitution and the actual practice. Despite the constitution establishing principles such as decentralized power, citizen participation, and protection of political rights, research from organizations like Freedom House and Amnesty International has shown that these principles are not upheld in practice.

This thesis aims to examine the manifestation of ecophobia in negative emotional expressions in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” by Algernon Blackwood and how this relates to colonialism and colonial anxiety. The term ecophobia, popularized by Simon C. Estok, describes deep rooted, negative emotions and attitudes towards the natural environment that is prevalent in most of humanity. This thesis implements the theory of the origin of ecophobia, described by Brian Deyo as a fear of nature’s indifference towards humans and how it confronts us with our own dreaded mortality. According to theories on ecophobia, colonialism has been a successful method to expand western control over the nature that has been perceived as a threat to our existence.Previous research of Heart of Darkness and “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” have not delved into how the negative emotions toward nature and the primitive relates to the root cause of the fears – the fear of our own mortality. This thesis aims to fill that gap. The analysis shows how the main characters of each work display negative emotions according to three categories related to theories of ecophobia: a fear of the primitive core of the civilized man, a fear of transgressions that threatens western narratives and methods used to cover up the fact that we are mortal animals, and a fear of attack against ourselves or our culture that occurs when the methods and narratives fail.

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