International Reports 3/2007

by Gerhard Wahlers

For more than thirteen years now, South Africa has had a democratic system which is based on one of the most liberal constitutions in the world. It guarantees the political liberties, and it has by now given the country three elections – in 1994, 1999, and 2004 – which may be regarded as free and fair. South African democracy is on its way towards consolidation.

by Werner Böhler

When, early in 1990, the newly-elected South African president, Frederik Willem de Klerk, announced the readmission of the country's political parties that were prohibited during the apartheid regime, a dynamic got under way in South Africa which brought about a comprehensive system change.

by Hans Maria Heyn

Constituting the end point of a path of reforms in constitutional law which began in 1990, South Africa's current constitutional dispensation has been in existence for thirteen years now. At this point, it is worthwhile to take a closer look not only at the changes effected by constitutional jurisdiction but also at the way South Africans experienced it.

by Francois Venter

When, eighteen years ago, the dictatorship of General Stroessner came to an end in Paraguay, the country opened up for democracy. However, the path is stony, and there still is reason for concern. At this point, it is worth while to take a look into the past.

by Diego Abente Brun

Whenever people discuss the phenomenon of globalisation, they may be talking about numerous regions of the world but not about the successor states of the Soviet Union or some parts of Eastern Europe – a region which, since the fall of the UdSSR, has degenerated into an accumulation of chaotic societies in which the old leading elites, together with their train of favourites, have merely doffed their ideological shirt but not lost their power.

by Johannes Heisig