The Pros And Cons Of Consolidated Democracy

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Recommended: Ake, C. 1992 The feasibility of democracy in Africa. Ibadan : CREDU

Addressing this question, first, I want to discuss the criteria for consolidated democracy. Consolidated democracy in my opinion mainly needs balancing political institutions that prevent potential abuse of power leads to authoritarianism, freedom of speech, free and fair election accepted by everyone, a long term standing of democracy and so on.
Considering that, the following are the reasons why South Africa has been more successful than Russia in consolidating democratic politics.
1. Political Institutions (the balancing of power).
South Africa is parliamentary system but the head of the state is president. And Russia is semi-presidential with very powerful President and weak Prime Minister.
Different from South Africa, the President …show more content…

It has numerous checks and balances from parliament, legislature, etc. that prevent its total dominance over the government.
In all, South Africa in this perspective has more balancing political institutions which Russia has a highly centralized political institution in dominance and lack of balance. And this leads South Africa has been more democratic and stable than Russia. Without the effective balances of power, when someone or some party or some institution hold too much power, their will be great possibility of changing to …show more content…

During and after the recent Crimea crisis, this regulation has been strengthened. “Around that time, strong political pressure from the Kremlin resulted in a number of reorganizations and leadership changes in large Russian media outlets. Those included, among others, the liquidation of the state news agency RIA Novosti, and the dismissal of radio Ekho Moskvy’s director Yuri Fedutinov.” (Ognyanova, 2014) According to the Press Freedom Index which regarded one of authoritative measurements of freedom of press or media, in 2014, South Africa was ranked No.42 even before U.S. and Russia was ranked No.148. (The order of the rank is from countries with greatest freedom to least.)
Without the freedom of speech, individuals can’t express their wishes and thoughts. And the head of government can’t hear their voice. The whole exercise of policies is separated from individuals. The democracy therefore can’t be consolidated since this weakens the freedom of speech which is a major criteria of democracy.
3. The modes of transition to democracy and the past background. (To meet a long term standing of

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