Category: South Africa

‘Warlord democrats’ threaten Africa’s democratic moment?

     

In the 60-plus years since the countries of sub-Saharan Africa started becoming independent, democracy there has advanced unevenly. Even as some countries in the region have grown into success stories,… Read more »

Polarization a key factor in democracy’s ‘alarming’ decline

     

The latest Freedom in the World report – compiled by more than 100 experts and drawing on data from 209 countries – describes an “ominous” global erosion of democratic values… Read more »

African democracy in retreat: autocratic threat growing

     

African democracy is in for a bumpy 2019, with the continent’s political trajectory moving in the wrong direction, according to analysts Nic Cheeseman and Jeffrey Smith. In Tanzania, President John Magufuli has clamped down on… Read more »

Voters prepared to trade democracy for security?

     

The crushing victory of right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election was in large part due to the electorate’s security concerns and anxiety over political instability, observers suggest…. Read more »

South Africa’s civil society halted kleptocratic state capture

     

South Africa’s fragile democracy was protected from kleptocratic state capture by the “galvanizing action” of a vibrant coalition of civil society groups, including organized labor, say the authors of a… Read more »

South Africa’s kleptocracy: the end is nigh for ANC?

     

As South Africa’s labor unions prepare mass protests against state capture and corruption, the country’s troubled democracy faces the prospect of “more kleptocracy, more division, fewer reforms and a path… Read more »

‘Like-minded’ dictatorships show solidarity at U.N.

     

  Why can’t the UN get more done to promote freedom? Council on Foreign Relations analyst Elliott Abrams asks. The answer is clear: so many member states are themselves dictatorships… Read more »

‘A sickness beyond borders’ – understanding and combatting media capture

     

Recent developments in South Africa have highlighted how state capture has emerged as an increasingly dangerous threat to democratic governance and to prospects for democratic transition. According to a definition… Read more »