Suchergebnisse

"The vast majority of social scientists have failed to predict the breakdown of European communism in 1989 and the same mischief occurred to most of the economists with regard to the international crisis of capitalism in 2009. The contribution argues that this failure was due to 'linear thinking' of the observers involved and not to an inherent unpredictability of the phenomena in question. It is further suggested that we see here a fallacy of path-theory which ignores systematically the possibility of a trade-off between decreasing transaction costs of an established path and increasing opportunity costs of following the same path. Elites are the demiurges of change if the existing order threatens their status and they are the promoters of stability if a new order which is in their interest has been established." (author's abstract)

In the proposed research, an in-depth analysis of the features presented in six representative international organizations measuring democracy worldwide revealed a sizeable set of significant and complementary indicators that provided the basis for the construction of a common conceptual framework for democratization. The size and variety of the examined datasets overcomes any possible skepticism for data biasing. We also propose a method of combining such complementary or competing indicators using Multi-objective Optimization, in order to increase objectivity. The periodic monitoring of the proposed indicators allows for the detection of State Transitions, especially under alarming conditions. Our aim is to propose an objective tool for policy makers that would eliminate selective interpretation of democracy and its transitions, by allowing political change to be meaningfully understood in its proper perspective using facts and data.

Argues that democratic transformation succeeded because the process was initiated by technocrats and intellectuals during the communist era; focuses on economic liberalization, network structure, and policy issues.

This study analyses the dynamic, evolving process of change in South Africa and cautions against simplistic answers. Stressing that South Africa today is the legacy of the colonial and apartheid era, the report points to the linkage of the global East-West conflict to domestic policies and politics as well as to the historical development of a North-South reality within South Africa. An account of the negotiation process that led to South Africa's first democratic election in 1994 is followed by an examination of the challenges facing South Africa's new democracy, notably addressing the legacies of apartheid and the liberation struggle, as well as the normalisation of political discourse. The report concludes with an assessment of the effect upon local NGOs of the international support for the new government of South Africa. The author of this report is Executive Director of the Ecumenical Foundation of South Africa (EFSA). (DÜI-Phl)

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: The debate on liberalism in post-communist Russia