...Master Thesis Ethnic Conflicts and Transition to Democracy in Africa: Recurrence of Ethnic Conflicts in Kenya (1991-2008) Author: Berita Musau Matrikelnummer: 0601567 Academic degree aspired Master (M.A) Vienna, August, 2008 Studienkennzahl: A 067 805 Studienrichtung: Global Studies - a European Perspective Advisor: Prof. Dr. Walter Schicho Table of Contents Dedication ……………………………………………………………………. iii Acknowledgment …………………………………………………………….. iv List of Acronyms …………………………………………………………….. v List of Tables and figures …………………………………………………….. vii Abstract in English …………………………………………………………… viii Abstract in German …………………………………………………………... ix Chapter One: Introduction ………………………………………………… 1 1.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………… 1 1.2. Problem statement …………………………………………………….. 2 1.3. Aim and objectives of the research …………………………………… 4 1.4. Research questions and hypotheses …………………………………... 7 Chapter Two: Literature review and theoretical framework ……………. 8 2.1. Literature review ……………………………………………………… 8 2.2. Transition to democracy and ethnic conflicts in Africa ………………. 12 2.3. Definition of concepts ………………………………………………… 16 2.4. Theoretical framework for analysis of ethnic conflicts ……………….. 18 2.4. Research methodology ………………………………………………... 21 2.5. Significance of the research …………………………………………... 23 Chapter Three: Background to the struggle for democracy and ethnic conflicts in Kenya……………………………………………………………. 24 3.1. A short retrospect in to Kenya’s colonial...
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...processes. It questions the conditions that are necessary to promote such involvement and that open up spaces for the translation of women’s representation into political influence. The context of the devolution of power process in Pakistan shows that it is not enough to only set up democratic institutions to achieve women’s political effectiveness. Instead there is need for significant support through the state, political parties and civil society. To personalise the political is necessary for successfully being able to achieve policy outcomes that reflect women’s interests. Table of contents Abbreviations & Foreign Words 4 List of Figures and Tables 5 Acknowledgements 6 1. Introduction 7 Choice of case study 8/ Methodology 9/ Dissertation structure 10 2. Locating women’s engagement in democratisation 11 3. Imagining the political: women and the nature of the state 16 The framework of the state 16/ Defining access: affirmative action policies in Pakistan 16/ Devolving power to the grassroots 18/ Personalising the political: the presence of women councillors 20 4. Institutionalising the political: political parties and women’s involvement in the political system 22 Party membership structures 23/ Women’s wings and party manifestos 24/ Caucusing across party lines 24/ Personalising the political: the presence of policy making 26 5. Associating the political: civil society and women’s political engagement 28 Advocating...
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...CREST CENTRE FOR RESEARCH INTO ELECTIONS AND SOCIAL TRENDS Working Paper Number 106 June 2004 Is Britain Facing a Crisis of Democracy? By Catherine Bromley, John Curtice and Ben Seyd The Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends is an ESRC Research Centre based jointly at the National Centre for Social Research (formerly SCPR) and the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford http://www.crest.ox.ac.uk Is Britain Facing a Crisis of Democracy? by Catherine Bromley, John Curtice and Ben Seyd EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Britain is widely believed to be suffering a crisis of democracy. This briefing examines whether this perception is justified or not. Our findings - which are based on a four year research project funded by the ESRC - address four key issues: the legitimacy of governments, patterns of participation in politics, the impact of constitutional reform, and the explanation for any crisis. Legitimacy There has been a decline in levels of trust in government and confidence in the political system. Thirty years ago, four in ten people in Britain trusted government to put the needs of the nation above those of their political party; today, just one in five do so. But much of this decline set in during the early 1990s, although trust and confidence have fallen further since 1997. Participation Turnout at all elections has declined since 1997, most noticeably at the 2001 general election, when the participation rate was the lowest since 1918....
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...Corruption in Nigeria: A New Paradigm for Effective Control Written by Victor E. Dike Published on 30 November -0001 Created on 18 November 2003 • Print • Email Posted by Victor E. Dike in Guest Articles on November 18, 20030 Comments | inShare Causes of Corruption The causes of corruption are myriad, and they have political and cultural variables. Some studies point to a link between ‘corruption and social diversity, ethno-linguistic fractionalization, and the proportions of country’s population adhering to different religious traditions’ (Lipset and Lenz, 2000). Yet, other studies note that corruption is widespread in most non-democratic countries and particularly in countries that have been branded ‘neo-patrimonial,’ ‘kleptocratic’ and ‘prebendal’ (Hope, et. al (eds.) 2000; Lewis, 1996; also see NORAD 2000). Thus the political system and the culture of a society could make the citizens more prone to corrupt activities. Recently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had to relieve some of its officials of their posts recently because they were corrupt. And it was not too long ago that all the commissioners of the European Union (EU) resigned because they, too, were found to be corrupt beyond acceptable limits. And quite recently, the Enron Corporation (energy giant) and World-Com (a telecommunication company) in the United States were perceived corrupt because they ‘manipulated their balanced sheets, profit and loss account and tax liabilities.’...
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...the number of women is seeing a steady growth from local government level in particular especially in the number of contestants and actual elected women. At the national level, particularly in the legislature, the picture has not seen much significant change since 1996. This reflects strongly in the composition of the membership of standing committees and selected committees of parliament where real debate on legislative issues takes place. Certainly, this affects the contribution of women to the policy making process. At the political party level , although all the parties selected for the study which are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) except for the Great Consolidated People’s Party (GCPP), make claims in their manifestoes to their commitment to gender issues in general and women’s concerns in particular, it is not very evident even in their party leadership structure and in their own internal organization. Some party leaders corroborated this by stating that positions are contested for and not given on the basis of one’s gender. Furthermore, it was apparent that women in politics encounter similar challenges irrespective of the party they subscribe to. Here, the common denominator is their gender. Thus, a common thread of subtle discrimination positioned in the context of competitive politics runs through all political parties. This has...
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...entirely the opinion of the mentioned authors. They should not, unless otherwise mentioned, be attributed to the Secretariat of the United Nations. The designations employed and the presentation of material on maps in the Country Profiles do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Table of Contents Table of Contents........................................................................................... 1 Botswana...................................................................................................... 2 1. General Information ................................................................................... 3 1.1 People.................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Economy .............................................................................................. 3 1.3 Public Spending ..................................................................................... 4 1.4 Public Sector Employment and Wages....................................................... 4 2. Legal Structure .......................................................................................... 5 2.1 Legislative Branch.................................................................................. 5 2.2 Executive...
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...Baumgartner Professor of Marketing Head of the Department of Marketing *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Political marketing sits at the nexus of two disciplines, political science and marketing, but is not entirely accepted by either. The present research looks at the origin, development, and evolution of political marketing and examines how the adoption of a political marketing orientation is impacting the practice of political campaigns. The role of political marketing in actually changing voters’ preferences is also examined, showing that grassroots marketing efforts seem to have the greatest effect, especially with undecided voters. Finally, voter segments are derived for the last five presidential elections in the United States (1988-2004) using latent class analysis (LCA). The interpretation and implications of these segments are discussed and several avenues for future research are suggested. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vi...
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...2.4 LOCAL LITERATURE 2.4.1 Electronic Voting Literature Review Computer scientists who have done work in, or are interested in, electronic voting all seem to agree on two things: * Internet voting does not meet the requirements for public elections * Currently widely-deployed voting systems need improvement Voting on the Internet using every day PC's offers only weak security, but its main disadvantages are in the areas of anonymity and protection against coercion and/or vote selling. It's such a truly bad idea that there seems to be no credible academic effort to deploy it at all. The Presidential elections of 2000 brought national attention to problems with current American methods of casting and counting votes in public elections. Most people believe that the current system should be changed; there is much disagreement on how such changes should be made. The MIT/Caltech researchers [1] “see a promising future for electronic voting, despite its problems today” (under a few conditions). They advocate using the methods currently in use which result in the lowest average numbers of “uncounted, unmarked, and spoiled ballots,” like in-precinct optical scanning. Their report even proposes a framework for new voting system with a decentralized, modular design. Other researchers have done work in electronic voting; while they may not explicitly mention voting from remote poll sites, their work is nonetheless relevant to any effort at designing or implementing...
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... ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge the contribution of all those who made this project a success. First, I give glory to the Almighty God for bringing me this far in my academic and professional pursuit. Secondly, I express my thanks to all my lecturers in the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, who have nurtured me onto this path of professional and academic life. Thirdly, I am grateful to all our key informant interviewees from all the institutions/ministries/political parties who gave us their time and valuable information used for this study. Fourthly, I wish to sincerely acknowledge the contribution of my research assistants, Alfred Appiah and Nimingah Beka, national service personnel of the Department of Political Science for their dedicated service during the data collection. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) for commissioning this study and giving me the opportunity to carry it out with financial and institutional support. I would like to state that, except for quotations or references which have been dully acknowledged, this is the result of a research I conducted personally. God Bless all who contributed to this effort. i TABLE OF CONTENT FOREWORD WOMEN IN POLITICS AND PUBLIC LIFE __________1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY____________________________________2 CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION ________________________5 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.5 1.6 Introduction _________________________________________5...
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...CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study Structured election process is one of the indicators of stability in Nigeria’s democracy. Elections in Nigeria continue to elicit more than casual interest by Nigerian scholars due to the fact that despite the appreciation that only credible election can consolidate and sustain the country’s nascent democracy, over the years, Nigeria continues to witness with growing disappointments and apprehension inability to conduct peaceful, free and fair, open elections whose results are widely accepted and respected across the country (Ekweremadu, 2011). All the elections that have ever been conducted in Nigeria since independence have generated increasingly bitter controversies and grievances on a national scale because of the twin problems of mass violence and fraud that have become central elements of the history of elections and of the electoral process in the country (Gberie, 2011). Despite the marked improvement in the conduct of the 2011 elections, the process was not free from malpractices and violence (National Democratic Institute, 2012). Thus over the years, electoral processes in the history of Nigeria’s democratic governance have continued to be marred by extraordinary display of rigging, dodgy, “do or die” affair, ballot snatching at gun points, violence and acrimony, thuggery, boycotts, threats and criminal manipulations of voters' list, brazen falsification of election results, the use of security agencies against political...
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...indirectly through representation. According to Lindel, and Scott (1999), the term originates from the Greek word (demokratia) which simply means “rule of the people” and it was coined from (demos) “people” and (kratos) “power” or “rule” in the 5th century B.C. It is important to note that the political system postulated by the Athenians was such that democratic citizenship was exclusive to an elite class of free men only. Slaves and women were excluded from participation. Furthermore, in a lecture titled “What is Democracy”? Diamond (2004) gave an overview of what in his opinion is democracy. He describes democracy as a system of government with four key elements: a system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens; and a rule of law in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. Popper as cited in Javie (2006) defines democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny. He places emphasis on the availability of opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to them without recourse to a revolution. Popper’s view must have hinged on the fact that there are many variants of democracy today. The most dominant variable is what he terms the...
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...Module: Public Law& Civil Rights ‘The Government is pledged in its manifesto to complete reform of the Lords to remove the hereditary element entirely and to reconstitute the House on a modern representative basis.’ Government White Paper (The House of Lords: Completing the Reform 2001). Consider the political and legal reasons as to why, some 13 years after stage 1 of House of Lords reform (the House of Lords Act 1999), Parliament has only now started to consider Stage 2 legislation (House of Lords Reform Bill 2012). Abstract During the past 100 years, the British government has never ceased trying to bring democracy to the House of Lords. However, having examined the reform history, one could conclude that all the reforms proposed after 1999 are not carried out as planned. This essay, therefore, attempts to provide descriptions on the major reforms of Lords proposed or implemented since 1911. It will focus particularly on discussing the main political and legal difficulties on the incompletion of reform of Lords since 1999. 1. Introduction The House of Lords has long been known as a historical curiosity of this country. Together with the Canadian Senate, the chamber remains one of the only two unelected second chambers in the modern and major democracies. Owing to the undemocratic composition of the Lords, it was reluctant to utilize its legitimate powers in the 20th century for which some local political scholars described as having ‘a little public profile...
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...Increased Political Power of Hizbullah (Research Proposal) by Lee, Joosong Middle East and African Studies Graduate School of International and Area Studies Hankuk University of Foreign Studies I. Research Background Hizbullah is the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon. Hizbullah, along with the Amal Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi'a. The political 'victory' of Hizbullah in 2005 election was a refreshing jolt for both Lebanon and international community. The 2005 Lebanese General Elections were the first in Lebanese history to be won outright by a single electoral block and were also the first to be monitored by the United Nations. In the general elections, Hizbullah won fourteen seats in the Parliament out of 128; that is about 11% in total, and fifth most in number. And in the general elections of 2009, Hizbullah won twelve seats, which is about 10%. The results were quite a shock for the Western countries since Hizbullah’s status is quite controversial; it is in fact a legitimate political party in Lebanon, but still a resistance movement group. What is more contentious is that Hizbullah was a terrorist group before; and some states still consider Hizbullah as a terrorist group, partly or as a whole. As a matter of fact, currently Hizbullah is a legitimate political party in Lebanon which was elected by legitimate elections. The discussion now needs to move on to what was the critical factor that gave a momentum to Hizbullah...
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...4 9/15/2007 2:33 PM Chapter 4 Wealth and democracy Can formal democratic institutions succeed if they are built in societies with inhospitable social and economic conditions? In particular, will attempts to hold competitive elections fail to strengthen democracy in poor and divided nation states, as well as in regions such as the Middle East which are dominated by autocracy? Skeptics point to an earlier wave of institution building, when European-style parliaments were transplanted to many African societies during the era of decolonization, including in Benin and Togo, only to collapse as the military usurped their powers.1 We first need to establish the influence of certain underlying economic and social conditions on democratic consolidation before proceeding to examine the impact of powersharing institutions in subsequent chapters. As Dahl points out, where the underlying conditions are highly unfavorable, then it is improbable that democracy could be preserved by any constitutional design. By contrast, if the underlying conditions are highly favorable, then democratic consolidation is likely with almost any constitution.2 But many cases fall into the muddy middle-ground. The analysis of cross-sectional time-series data illuminates the general patterns and what conditions count, focusing upon examining the role of wealth, the size of nation states, colonial legacies, regional diffusion, and the degree of ethnic heterogeneity. Each of these factors can be regarded as ‘structural’...
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...Men in Double Marginality--Chinese Diaspora “at home” . . . ! ! ! Ping Lin ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (2007 *! Men in Double Marginality--- Chinese Diaspora “at home” Ping Lin Abstract This paper uses data gathered from research project partially sponsored by Oriel College in Oxford and Academia Sinica in Taiwan to explore the adaptation of Mainlander Taiwanese in China. They moved from China to Taiwan in 1949 and back “home” with their descendents in 1990s. By examine the life of seventeen respondents in Dongguan/Shanghai in 2004-2005, we argue that they were in sense of double marginality despite the diversity of the sample. Whilst foreigners regarded China as a new territory to explore more economic benefits, these returnees were more likely to regarded China as a place with sense of belonging, not sense of colonising. However, they found that the real China was different from what they expected before return. They felt being excluded from Taiwan, but they also felt unwilling to participate in China due to this home disillusion. Further discussion on the adaptation of other type Taiwanese in China will be displayed in separated papers. Keyword: return migration, Taiwan, China! 1. Introduction Whilst most migration research focuses on why people move from poorer countries to richer countries and how they overcome the widely cultural gap in migration, there is little research stressing on migration either on the opposite direction or between countries with cultural proximity...
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