Duringpast two decades, “Pass through a democratic status” gave attention by mostMiddle East analysts. In fact, since the early 1980s, The Middle East and TheNorth of Africa affected by third wave of democratization effects and bothstate and society felt its impacts. Since, civil society has been promoting andstrengthening, from one hand, and sovereign governments gradually withdrawalhas begun,...

Schaller, Susanne: The Democratic Legitimacy of Private Governance. An Analysis of the Ethical Trading Initiative. Duisburg: Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg‐Essen (INEF Report, 91/2007). Private actors increasingly influence global governance and generate transnational rules and regulations. By creating soft law, they adopt governance tasks t...

This article examines how online political groups are co-opting internet technology from commercial interests to amplify various cooperative processes. After formulating a framework for praxis-based democratic theories of technology, I select four internet-based groups as institutional exemplars for analysis: Democratic Underground, Free Republic, Indymedia, and Move On.These groups implement d...

Eleven new species of Cheiracanthium, C. boendense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo), C. falcis sp. nov. (Gabon), C. foordi sp. nov. (South Africa), C. ghanaense sp. nov. (Ghana), C. kabalense sp. nov. (Uganda), C. kakamega sp. nov. (Kenya), C. kakumense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana), C. lukiense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo), C. mayombense sp. nov....

Political Parties in Confl ictProne Societies: Encouraging Inclusive Politics and Democratic Development P parties are an essential component of representative democracy. Th ey organize voters, aggregate and articulate interests, craft policy alternatives, recruit and socialize new candidates for offi ce, set policy-making agendas, integrate disparate groups and individuals into the democratic ...

1 Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, 2 University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 3 Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 4 Programme National de Lutte contre la Trypanosomiase Humaine Africaine, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 Médecins Sans Frontières Access...

Introduction Can individuals in emerging democracies learn democratic values and skills through participation in civic education programs? Certainly the U.S. government expects the answer to be yes. The State Department's Agency for International Development (USAID) and other governmental organizations spend tens of millions of dollars annually on civic education programs as part of their effor...

In every society in many arenas, the reality of collective decision making falls far short of the democratic ideal in countless ways. These shortfalls include disenfranchisement, unequal influence operating through formal and informal mechanisms, political apathy and alienation, misinformation, and misperception. Part of the solutions to these challenges lies in a sound democratic constitution....

I BEGIN WITH A QUANDARY that is very familiar to Martin Ostwald: Classical Athens saw the invention of both democracy and political theory, yet while we have a number of examples of criticism of democracy, no systematic defense of democracy-no democratic theory-survives from an Athenian pen. I propose that the conundrum is best explained by assuming that from the late fifth through the late fou...

Discussion of the democratic strengths or, more usually, weaknesses of the EU tends to focus on the degree of democracy that is available or possible at the EU level. Such thinking reflects a certain neo-functionalist logic that has governed much scholarly writing about the relationship between EU integration and democracy. It assumes that enhanced competences for EU institutions potentially cr...