2024 has been a bumper year for elections, with people in a number of heavyweight democracies going to the polls: Indonesia, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, the USA, Mexico, Pakistan, and the world’s largest democracy, India. Southern African has also had a larger than usual number of elections, with South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, the […]

It is certainly not surprising that the different parties in the Government of National Unity have failed to reach consensus on some major policy positions. The coalition is only a few months old, and some of the areas of disagreement are deep-seated and almost defining of the parties concerned. Democracy Digest 13 Problems with Policy […]

South Africa’s putative Government of National Unity consists of rather more parties (ten) than are usually found in a coalition, and it aspires not just to govern but to recapture the shared purpose that animated the nation in the immediate post-democracy period, getting us back on track after a period of misgovernance and loss of direction. But for […]

Last Friday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice, in the case of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel, stirred up a predictably wide range of responses and opinions, often diametrically opposite, as well as some rather strained interpretations. Democracy Digest 11 – The South AfricaIsrael Case at the ICJ by Mike Pothier