Democratic Consolidation in South Africa
"ANC Dominance and Democratic Consolidation in South Africa"
This essay investigates how South Africa’s dominant party system may be its greatest challenge to democratic consolidation. A democracy is considered consolidated when the populace accepts the legitimacy of the political system and allows it to endure. Although the African National Congress (ANC) has been able to win elections and maintain unrivaled power since 1994, their performance has failed to resolve inequalities established by the apartheid regime. Internal friction within the ANC in addition to the inability to provide adequate land reform has drastically undermined the legitimacy of the government. If the ANC continues to be reluctant to address the imminent threats on the horizon, the future of democratic stability in South Africa will remain uncertain.
Guantánamo Bay and the Global War on Terror
"Guantánamo Bay, USA"
After the September 11th attacks on the United States, Guantánamo Bay became notorious as the home to a detention camp for suspected terrorists. The characterization of this detention camp as a center of human rights abuse and torture has undermined the Global War on Terror (GWOT) by tarnishing the image of the United States abroad and reinforcing sentiments of the US as a global oppressor. This paper will investigate the establishment of the Guantánamo Bay detention center as an illustration of the United States’ realist tendencies in addition to discussing its costs and benefits to the Global War on Terror, and provide implications for solutions to the public diplomacy problem that the existence of the detention center has created.
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Data Analysis
"Modeling Civil Wars"
This data analysis assesses possible causal mechanisms of civil wars against the backdrop of two dominant theories. First, is the political psychological theory of relative deprivation which claims that some groups have expectations about their status, wealth, or access to opportunity. When a government is unable to meet these expectations their grievances manifest violence. The second is the rational choice theory which states that civil wars start as an opportunity primarily for economic gains. The data analysis finds support for both theories and suggests other variables that may be influential in future research.