Idasas Democracy Index initially developed for South Africa is being expanded into Southern Africa in an effort to broaden the capacity of individuals and organisations monitoring and supporting democratic governance efforts in the region. This inaugural Democracy Index for Namibia is intended to set a benchmark for democracy to be measured against. The tool assesses the countrys depth of democracy through five focus areas: participation, elections, accountability, political rights, and human dignity. The research relies on expert analysis to answer a set of questions that interrogate how closely, in practice, democracy meets the broad ideal of self-representative government. More specifically, to what extent can citizens control elected officials and government appointees who make decisions about public affairs? And how equal are citizens to one another in this accountability process? The purpose of the scores is to assist citizens in making their own judgements, based on the information made available, to stimulate national debate and to provide democracy promoters with a tool for identifying issues and needs that can be addressed by education, advocacy, training, institution building and policy revision.

Idasa's Democracy Index - initially developed for South Africa - is being expanded into Southern Africa in an effort to broaden the capacity of individuals and organisations monitoring and supporting democratic governance efforts in the region. This inaugural Democracy Index for Namibia is intended to set a benchmark for democracy to be measured against. The tool assesses the country's depth of democracy through five focus areas: participation, elections, accountability, political rights, and human dignity. The research relies on expert analysis to answer a set of questions that interrogate how closely, in practice, democracy meets the broad ideal of self-representative government. More specifically, to what extent can citizens control elected officials and government appointees who make decisions about public affairs? And how equal are citizens to one another in this accountability process? The purpose of the scores is to assist citizens in making their own judgements, based on the information made available, to stimulate national debate and to provide democracy promoters with a tool for identifying issues and needs that can be addressed by education, advocacy, training, institution building and policy revision.

The Namibian constitution makes full provision for education as a fundamental human right and freedom. Three years into independence, as part of the governments educational policy, the Education for All Policy was launched as a stepping stone to free quality education. However, inequities have become widely pronounced within the Namibian educational system. Democracy and Education in Namibia and beyond debates the educationdemocracy nexus in Namibia and the southern African context. It defines and explores the meaning of democracy and related concepts. It also looks at what democracy means in the context of human rights and access to education. The ten chapters in this collection interrogate the strengths and limitations of education as an instrument of social change and question whether or not the Namibian educational objectives and practices do develop and help to sustain a democratic culture in Namibia. The authors in the collection have drawn material from their own teaching and research experience across the fields of education and social science in Namibia and beyond, and present their findings in a pedagogical framework suitable as a challenging text for tertiary students. At a time when education is in crisis, especially in South Africa where strident calls for free tertiary education and Africanisation of the curriculum are spreading like wildfire, this book gives scholarly insight into the history and social conditions that gave rise to our current predicament.

Since independence in 1990, Namibia has witnessed only one generation with no memory of colonialism - the 'born frees', who voted in the 2009 elections. The anti-colonial liberation movement, SWAPO, dominates the political scene, effectively making Namibia a de facto one-party state dominated by the first 'struggle generation'. While those in power declare their support for a free, fair, and just society, the limits to liberation are such that emancipation from foreign rule has only been partially achieved. Despite its natural resources Namibia is among the world's most unequal societies and indicators of wellbeing have not markedly improved for many among the former colonized majority, despite a constitution enshrining human rights, social equality, and individual liberty. This book analyses the transformation of Namibian society since Independence. Melber explores the achievements and failures and contrasts the narrative of a post-colonial patriotic history with the socio-economic and political realities of the nation-building project. He also investigates whether, notwithstanding the relative stability prevailing to date, the negotiation of controlled change during Namibia's decolonization could have achieved more than simply a change of those in control.

The search for justice, beyond the basic political understanding, is profoundly theological and ethical. In this work, Dr. Basilius M. Kasera analyses the meaning of justice in post-apartheid Namibia from a biblical perspective. He argues that notions of justice carry no meaning unless they emanate from the community of the affected. Every group of people, by virtue of being God’s image-bearers, are able to assess their own context and provide befitting solutions. However this kind of agency has not been afforded to the post-apartheid Namibian society, which continues to operate on borrowed models of justice. While extrapolating on Allan Boesak’s beneficial theological concepts of justice, Dr. Kasera encourages theologians and Christians at large to participate in the creation of meaningful, effective, and transformative policies, programmes, practices, systems, and justice institutions.

While much is known about employee voice in the developed world, much less is known about its operation in emerging economies. This volume explores the nature of employee voice in Argentine, China, India and South Korea, providing a timely challenge to the predominant assumptions that underline our knowledge of employee voice in the Western world.

Do party systems help or hinder democracy in Africa? Drawing lessons from different types of party systems in six African countries, this volume shows that party systems affect democracy in Africa in ways that are unexpectedly different from the relation between party systems and democracy observed elsewhere.