Building Global Democracy

One of the most basic charges levelled at the consociational model is that, although it may provide for conflict management, it fails to provide for the longer-term goal of conflict resolution. This article seeks to respond to this charge by viewing the c

"Even in some countries where the US remains unpopular, significant percentages nonetheless say that they think Obama will do the right thing in international affairs," says Pew. The question then follows, does any of this matter?

Between 1987 and November 2008, three New Zealand governments had to respond to the overthrow of democratic governments in New Zealand's Commonwealth neighbour, Fiji. All three had to decide what priority the upholding of democracy should have in determin

RÍO DE JANEIRO, 23 jul (IPS) - El entusiasmo que Brasil despierta hoy en el mundo económico y el protagonismo internacional de su gobierno contrastan con el estancamiento del proceso de integración del bloque que fue su prioridad desde los años 80, el Mer

This article documents the humanitarian, political and security dimensions of the current Somali crisis and assesses the external policies that are playing an increasingly central role in the conflict. It advances the thesis that in 2007 and 2008 external

This article assesses political developments in Ethiopia after its 2005 federal and regional watershed elections. Although an unprecedented liberalisation took place ahead of the contested and controversial 2005 polls, a crack-down occurred in the wake of

What is Democracy? That is the question more than 900 participants set out to answer through their videos, in response to the Democracy Video Challenge set up by the US Department of State and many other partners, open for participants from all over the w

South Korea and Taiwan are often cited as successful cases of third-wave democracies where democracy has taken roots. However, electoral volatility is high and disenchantment among citizens is rising, especially regarding the performance of politicians an

Most theoretical accounts of descriptive representation focus almost exclusively on the question, "Why do certain groups need to be brought into democratic institutions?" They emphasize the democratic gains obtained through adding more voices to the polit

WASHINGTON, Jul 21 (IPS) - Several international companies are named as helping to prolong the more than 12-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a new report by the British-based group Global Witness, released Tuesday. http://www.glo

This article studies contemporary national identity formation in Sweden, aiming to shed light on the relationship between democracy, collectivism and individualism. Sweden is selected as a typical case of democratic states which, reflecting processes of i

WASHINGTON, Jul 15 (IPS) - In her first comprehensive policy address since becoming secretary of state nearly six months ago, Hillary Clinton Wednesday called for a "multi-partner'' - as opposed to a "multi-polar" - world" and defended President Barack Ob

The concept of 'policy transfer' is contested. Earlier work has discussed the defining traits, but generally concluded that the dissimilarities of regional and local implementation ensure a simple transfer in the form of a generic template remains elusive

Political parties' coalitions/alliances are almost a permanent feature of pluralist democracies. Although relatively new to the African continent, for they emerged during the third wave of democratisation in the early 1990s in a bid to oust from power dif

This article discusses the programme of assistance to community-based organisations carried out by the European Union in South Africa during the years 1996-2004. As part of what the author defines as 'micro-assistance to democracy'-since it encourages dem

A constitution, relatively well-run elections and stable elected representative institutions are not sufficient for democratic consolidation. It is argued that democracies require people who are willing to support, defend and sustain them. The article emp

Building sustainable democracy in Africa is a priority under the auspices of Africa-EU Strategic Partnership, thus, capacity building is relevant for this priority policy area. The African Diaspora Policy Center has published a paper which emphasizes the

George W Bush made democracy-support a central theme of his presidency. Barack Obama, by contrast, has downplayed it. Yet the latter's approach may achieve more effective results, says Mariano Aguirre.

There's a simple way to promote democracy. Set up an international group that only truly democratic states can belong to.

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in introducing his third monitoring report to the Trade Policy Review Body on 13 July 2009, said "at a time when the global economy is still fragile worldwide and in the face of the unprecedented decline in trade flows, we mu