South Africa has voted

ANC loses support – Ramaphosa does not

Despite a significant loss in votes, the African National Congress (ANC) is the clear winner of the 8 May national and provincial elections. President Ramaphosa receives a five-year mandate to pull the country out its economic doldrums. The next months will show whether the 57.5% of votes cast in favour of the ANC grant Ramaphosa enough power to marginalize his party opponents, many of which have an undesirable and corrupt reputation even within their own party. With regards to opposition parties, the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) managed to win over many of the lost ANC voters, while electoral support for the liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) slightly declined for the first time. A low voter turnout of only 66 percent can be read as an expression of voter dissatisfaction in both ruling and opposition parties. Over the longer term, the country will transition to coalition governments, as indicated by the election result in the economic heartland of Gauteng: here, the ANC scraped into a position of absolute majority by only the thinnest of margins.

China’s Techno-Utilitarian Experiments with Artificial Intelligence

In just a very short period of time China has emerged as an important centre for Artificial Intelligence

Dev Lewis examines China’s motivations for becoming a global leader in AI, maps out the size of China’s ecosystem so far and the ways in which the Chinese government and internet companies are building the AI ecosystem.

Ebola in the Congo – A Home-Grown Crisis

The scale of the current crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) does not come close to that of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. However, nine months after the outbreak, it is the second worst case in the history of the Ebola virus. Although there is a vaccine today, it has not been possible to bring the epidemic under control. The problem is the country’s poor security situation. In only a few weeks (end of March to May 2019), the death toll rose from approximately 600 to more than 1,000. Placing faith in the Congo to solve its problems on its own is a dangerous game. International presence in the country strengthens the newly elected president.

Ergebnisse der Europawahl 2019 in Frankreich

34 Listen sind in Frankreich am 26. Mai zur Europawahl angetreten - ein neuer Rekord. Somit haben sich 2607 französische Kandidaten um die insgesamt 79 Sitze im Europäischen Parlament beworben. Es galt die Fünf-Prozent-Hürde, die von insgesamt sechs Parteien erreicht wurde.

Political Thought Nr.56

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Institute for Democracy "Societas Civilis" from Skopje would like to present you the fifty-sixth issue of the journal “Political Thought”.

Secular and Islamist Political Elites: The Role of Inter-Elite Trust and its Impact on Political Transformation in Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab Spring

This article analyses why the political transformations following the Arab Spring took different paths in Egypt and Tunisia. Based on data from field interviews conducted between 2012 and 2018 as well as press analyses, we argue that a strong factor why Tunisia was more successful in establishing democracy is that it had a higher level of inter-elite trust. Moreover, we show that the establishment of inter-elite trust depends on the presence of functioning trust-building arenas during the transition and the early democratic consolidation period. To investigate the role of inter-elite trust, we develop a theoretical-analytical framework, drawing on Arab Spring literature, transition theory, scholarship on democratic consolidation, and research on trust.

Polen vor den Europawahlen

Wahlkampf im Herzen Europas

Nach den Selbstverwaltungswahlen im Herbst 2018 und vor den Parlamentswahlen im Herbst 2019 hat der Wahlmarathon in Polen seine zweite Etappe erreicht: Am 26. Mai 2019 sind die polnischen Wähler - mit 400 Millionen weiteren Europäern - aufgerufen, über die Besetzung des neunten Europäischen Parlaments zu entscheiden. Die Europawahl wird von den Parteien in Polen als Generalprobe für die nationalen Wahlen gesehen, wobei der Sieger mit einem erheblichen Aufwind in den Wahlkampf in der zweiten Jahreshälfte gehen und aus einer gestärkten Position heraus starten könnte. Ein Motivationsschub, den die Opposition dringend benötigt, wenn sie der in Umfragen weiterhin dominierenden PiS im Herbst die Stirn bieten möchte.

Italien vor der Europawahl

Am 26. Mai 2019 sind die Wahlurnen in Italien von 7.00 Uhr bis 23.00 Uhr geöffnet. Italien darf 73 Europaabgeordnete nach Brüssel entsenden. Die Italiener wählen per Verhältniswahlrecht mit Präferenzstimmen. Die Sperrklausel liegt bei 4 Prozent. Neben den Europawahlen finden in knapp 50 Prozent der italienischen Kommunen Kommunalwahlen statt, u.a. in Florenz, Cagliari, Perugia und Bari.

Politisches Barometer

Eine Analyse vor den Europawahlen 2019

Die Analyse von Dr. Olaf Wientzek schildert unterschiedliche Szenarien zur potenziellen Koalitionen in dem Europäischen Parlament nach den Europawahlen 2019.

Die Generation A

Sonderbeilage von Tygodnik Powszechny

Die KAS in Polen hat die Herausgabe der Sonderbeilage von Tygodnik Powszechny zum Thema "Die Generation A" unterstützt.