This thesis examines what has become increasingly classified as the minimalist conception of democracy, in an effort to define the minimalist conception, evaluate the contributions of Joseph Schumpeter, William Riker, and Russell Hardin, and assesses the impact on democratic theory of grouping these and other theorists together. The idea that minimalist theory is a tradition of democratic thought which shares a common theme has been forwarded directly only once, by Adam Przeworski, and mentioned in passing by several critics, but has never been examined in depth or defined. Chapter one gives a brief survey of minimalist theorists and defines minimalist theories as those that conclude that any normative value found in substantive democratic outcomes is insufficient to justify democracy. Chapters two and three examine the works of the two most influential minimalists, Schumpeter and Riker, respectively. These chapters examine the minimalist aspects of both theorists and note that, in entirely unique manners, both reach the minimalist conclusion. Chapter four examines the relatively recent works of Hardin, noting several similarities between his theories and those of Schumpeter and Riker. Hardin is found to satisfy the definition of minimalism and make several unique contributions to minimalist theory, most notably by synthesizing Schumpeter's understanding of individual political competence with Downs's rational voter theorem. In the conclusion, chapter five, it is argued that there is merit to considering all minimalist theories as a single conception of democracy as theories that contradict the minimalist conception, as defined in chapter one, often attempt to dismiss one minimalist theorist, but ignore the others, to the detriment of their work and to democratic theory in general.

This thesis examines what has become increasingly classified as the minimalist conception of democracy, in an effort to define the minimalist conception, evaluate the contributions of Joseph Schumpeter, William Riker, and Russell Hardin, and assesses the impact on democratic theory of grouping these and other theorists together. The idea that minimalist theory is a tradition of democratic thought which shares a common theme has been forwarded directly only once, by Adam Przeworski, and mentioned in passing by several critics, but has never been examined in depth or defined. Chapter one gives a brief survey of minimalist theorists and defines minimalist theories as those that conclude that any normative value found in substantive democratic outcomes is insufficient to justify democracy. Chapters two and three examine the works of the two most influential minimalists, Schumpeter and Riker, respectively. These chapters examine the minimalist aspects of both theorists and note that, in entirely unique manners, both reach the minimalist conclusion. Chapter four examines the relatively recent works of Hardin, noting several similarities between his theories and those of Schumpeter and Riker. Hardin is found to satisfy the definition of minimalism and make several unique contributions to minimalist theory, most notably by synthesizing Schumpeter's understanding of individual political competence with Downs's rational voter theorem. In the conclusion, chapter five, it is argued that there is merit to considering all minimalist theories as a single conception of democracy as theories that contradict the minimalist conception, as defined in chapter one, often attempt to dismiss one minimalist theorist, but ignore the others, to the detriment of their work and to democratic theory in general.

MA, International Relations, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a vast country in the Great Lakes region of Africa torn apart by repeated armed conflicts. As from September 1998, the conflict in the country attracted attention of the international community with the number of deaths estimated at around 3.3 million people. The 1998 armed conflict was the most complex in Africa, due to an intricate cluster of international and external factors, with up to nine states militarily involved inside the Congolese territory. These are grouped into two opposing sides, composed on the one side by the Kinshasa government with its Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean allies and on the other side a divided set of rebel groups composed of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) and the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC) with their allies from Rwanda and Uganda. The United Nations (UN) Security Council is engaged in supporting international peace and security according to Chapters VI, VII and VIII of the UN Charter. The UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is a special mission sanctioned by the UN as an effort to solving the political problems in the DRC in line with the adoption of resolutions 1355 (2001), 1376 (2001), 1417 (2002), 1445 (2002), 1493 (2003), 1565 (2004) and 1625 (2005) by the UN Security Council. It was established that MONUC confronted challenges of peace implementation, especially in the Eastern DRC. The aim of this research is to examine the role of MONUC with regard to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the DRC. Thus, from November 1999, MONUC started to operate in the Congolese peace process for the restoration of democracy, as well as the promotion of human rights in the country. This research report will demonstrate that MONUC contributed with strong political support towards the organisation of the 2006 national democratic elections. Meanwhile, the war was ended throughout the country, but human rights abuses continued to be committed in some Eastern areas up to date.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a widespread international public health and human rights issue that disproportionately affects women and girls. In humanitarian crises all forms of GBV are exacerbated, and especially during conflict where GBV in some settings affects 70 per cent of women. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the most complex and protracted humanitarian crises in the world, facing armed conflict and natural disasters with following massive population movements, as well as acute food insecurity, acute malnutrition, and epidemics. In this context, GBV remains pervasive and is identified as one of the main protection risks. The duty-bearer government affected by humanitarian crises and humanitarian actors with limited resources face the challenge of ensuring that GBV services are provided to respond to the needs of GBV survivors, as well as taking action to prevent GBV from occurring in the first place. According to international standards, one of the key strategies to prevent GBV from happening in the first place is through the economic, social, psychological, and political empowerment of women and girls. However, various conceptual frameworks for measuring empowerment are being adopted globally, posing obstacles for objective measurement, and understanding of what types of interventions contribute to women’s empowerment. Furthermore, the complexity of the concept of empowerment and its application in humanitarian settings is further exemplified through the fact that gender transformative interventions intended to contribute to the empowerment of women can have unintended negative consequences, sometimes leading to disempowerment of women. To this background, this paper seeks to critically analyse how interventions to prevent GBV implemented in DRC can be understood contributing to the individual empowerment of women according to the theoretical Empowerment Process Model. This will be done through analysing results deriving from an initial categorization of undertaken interventions presented in peer-reviewed articles, as well as synthesis of quantitative evidence of the impact of the interventions. The results showed that a wide variety of strategies to prevent GBV in DRC are taking place on different levels; individual, relationship, community, and societal. The limited available quantitative data showed evidence for reduction of GBV risks in all five evaluated interventions. The results also showed that different aspects of the Empowerment Process Model were incorporated in the interventions, addressing individual capabilities through contributing to increased self-efficacy, knowledge, and competence of women and girls, at the same time as addressing the social context to contribute to an environment in which women and girls’ empowerment processes are facilitated. This could be through aims to change social norms in the community, or address caregivers' attitudes towards adolescent girls. However, whether this actually supported the empowerment process depends on the personally defined goals by women and girls. The interventions and corresponding analysis revealed a fine line in which service provision may be disempowering or empowering. Service provision aligned with personally meaningful goals may be contributing to the empowerment of women, while misaligned goals may even lead to the opposite. The findings highlight that empowerment cannot be simply claimed to have taken place without considering the desires and goals of the individual women and girls that the interventions aim to serve.

Situated at the heart of Africa, the DRC has been transformed into a battlefield where several African states and national armed movements are simultaneously fighting various wars. In order to achieve peace, security, and stability in the DRC, SADC intervened with the international collaboration of the UN and AU. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate SADC’s role in the DRC conflict resolution process from 1998 to 2003. A qualitative research method has been chosen and two theories, namely New Institutionalism theories and Rupesinghe’s model of conflict transformation were adopted. The research concludes that SADC military and diplomatic efforts to end the war have been positive. It is true that violence continues and peace remained fragile, but the conflict had ended. The weakness of the DRC government has allowed continued violence. As an organisation of states, SADC has not been able to do anything about this fragility. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)

Situated at the heart of Africa, the DRC has been transformed into a battlefield where several African states and national armed movements are simultaneously fighting various wars. In order to achieve peace, security, and stability in the DRC, SADC intervened with the international collaboration of the UN and AU. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate SADC’s role in the DRC conflict resolution process from 1998 to 2003. A qualitative research method has been chosen and two theories, namely New Institutionalism theories and Rupesinghe’s model of conflict transformation were adopted. The research concludes that SADC military and diplomatic efforts to end the war have been positive. It is true that violence continues and peace remained fragile, but the conflict had ended. The weakness of the DRC government has allowed continued violence. As an organisation of states, SADC has not been able to do anything about this fragility. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)