Analysing The Emerging Democracy Of South Africa Politics Essay

Analysing The Emerging Democracy Of South Africa Politics Essay South Africa is a young democracy that has begun making serious attempts to bring the nation together and create national equality among the people. First to understand what a democracy is it needs to be defined. William Hay Anthony defines democracy as â€Å"liberal representative government under law, sustained by a political culture that accepts open disagreement and demands accountability† (Anthony, pg 135). This definition highlights â€Å"the role of institutions in making a political order work† (Anthony, pg 135). Applying this definition to the South African case is important to analyzing its development within being a democratic nation. Civil and political rights are important to a democratic nation because it must maintain rights to all of its citizens equally. South Africa has made huge steps in ensuring equal rights to all of its citizens, though it is quite clear that a lot more could be done. In terms of economic rights and social rights, South Africa has made attempts in making these rights equal for everyone. The democratic role of South African political parties has been a constant one. The African National Congress has been the party in power of the state since its first democratic election in 1994 and it seems like it is getting more and more support as time goes by. Their policies which have been put forth have the same goal of having equality within the state. In the past 16 years, South Africa has made numerous attempts to make its nation more democratic but it is clear that the work that the nation must do to have a complete democracy, is nowhere near finished. Rights have not always been equal to all people of South Africa throughout history, even in the past 20 years. From 1948- 1994, South Africa was under an apartheid, that is, a segregation of blacks and whites in all aspects of society. Under this rule, all races that were identified by the South African Government were divided. At the time, the government recognized four different racial categories: â€Å" African, coloured, Indian and whiteâ€Å" (Lichbach 2009, 466). There were many laws that were put in place to keep the people of the country segregated at all times; the only exclusion to that was if a black African was working for a white one. Some apartheid laws were the â€Å" Group Areas Act, Land Acts, Population Registration Act and Reservation of separate Amenities Actâ€Å" (Lester 1996, 227). During the apartheid, because coloured people could not vote or own property, they were living in extremely poor conditions and kept in certain black only areas. Even when coloured people could own land, the qualifications amount was raised too high for many coloured people to even consider attempting to purchase land. (Maphai 1994, 3). Without the ownership of property, one could not vote. When the first democratic election was held in April of 1994, it marked a new beginning in South Africa; some called it the â€Å"New South Africa†. Mandela was named as president and many apartheid laws were abolished. People were becoming more equal within this country which meant people of all the coloured races were lawfully allowed to integrate with their white counter parts in education, work, property ownership and other rights that were not given to them before. With a new government set in place, citizens were excited to see how their country would change for the better given its new democratic policies that would soon begin to be in effect. What some people don’t fully understand is that many things like becoming a new democracy take time, especially when dealing with a country with a past like that of South Africa. With that being said, even though these wonderful laws were being put into government, they were not exactly being implemented very well. One of the biggest reasons why so many of the country’s people have to live this way is because of the huge inequalities within the country; â€Å" Ine quality is still higher than anywhere else in the worldâ€Å" (Pons-Vignon 2008, 3). Inequality is something that cannot be changed overnight with the passing of different laws; it is something will be an ongoing struggle for the country. Something that is special with the democratic characteristics of South Africa is the fact that the minority of the country has most of the power; white people are the clear minority of the population but they clearly have the most power. In 1980, it was shown that â€Å" whites, who were one sixth of the population, earned two thirds of total income in the countryâ€Å" (Maphai 1994, 137). Because white people have such great power as a whole, it is more difficult for other citizens of the country to rise economically. Since 1994, the only place that whites do not have the most power is in government. The Party that has been in power since the liberalization movement has been the black- led African National Congress or ANC. When it comes to voti ng, which many black people do have a right to now, whites just cannot even compare with the numbers that the Blacks have; in 2001, â€Å"79 percent of the population classified themselves as African, 10 percent as white, 9 percent as Coloured and 2 percent as Asianâ€Å" (Lichbach 2009, 472). The fact that government is led by a black supported party is not unfortunate for most white people. In the early 1990’s, the ANC adopted many policies and went through many negotiations with the National party (NP) to get more support from the white community. With the attempt that the ANC made toward getting support from white people in the country, white people began to see the ANC more like a rival as rather than an enemy. (Maphai 1994, 75) As well, the leaders of the ANC have done a good job in convincing all people, including whites, that their policies will only help to better the country. Unions are also helpful with making a nation more democratic. The ability to have specifi c rights because of employment is a huge factor in having equal rights for people. It was 1979 when African Trade Unions were finally recognized and the Congress of South African Trade Unions was then formed in 1985. (Lichbach 2009, 477) Recognizing unions that were made up of Black workers was essential in implying that they, as workers within the state, deserve no less than that of white workers. Unions allow a group of workers to negotiate with their employers about better wages and working conditions. In the aspect of civil and political rights, South Africa is making a clear progression towards truly having equality within those rights. Democratically, South Africa is making a big progression towards effectively having equal political and civil rights for all of its citizens. Through the coming years there should be more polices out being put into effect and hopefully a better understanding of equality among races. It is only then that the rights that are actually listed within the South African law will have been respected and truly put into practice.

Chinese restaurants and foods in the USA Research Paper

Chinese restaurants and foods in the USA - Research Paper Example Despite the fact that the Chinese restaurants were one of the founders of the food business in the state of California, it is important to note that there were only a few of them within the state. Most were American restaurants until in the last three decades of 19th century. There were only 14 Chinese restaurants in San Francisco by 1882 when the American congress passed the very first Chinese exclusion act. This was opposed to the over one hundred and seventy-five Chinese laundry stores that were distributed all over the town. One ought to note that it was as a result of the numerous Chinese exclusion laws that were passed between 1882 and 1904 that discouraged the expansion of the Chinese food business despite their spectacular cuisines. The disparity between the Chinese and the American eating culture was evident. It was for this reason that the Americans made rice look like the racial symbol of the Asian inferiority and beef as the American superiority. As a matter of fact, food became a racial ideology and the culture of eating rats in Chinese restaurants made the American doubtful of the hygiene in these restaurants. The Chinese culture of eating rats was perhaps the most stereotyped image in the 19th century. In 1897, a company that advertised a pest control product used an image of a Chinese man with his mouth open ready to eat a rat which was, as a matter of fact, a rodent. This was an illustration that the Chinese were perhaps the most effective in exterminating these rodents from the face of the earth.

Customer Relationship Management and its implication to the Essay

Customer Relationship Management and its implication to the Information Flow and Business Strategy - Essay Example The author of the essay "Customer Relationship Management and its implication to the Information Flow and Business Strategy" comes to the interesting conclusions. The author of this research paper assumes that any successful business today operates in a very competitive and complex environment. The competition is increasing day by day the margins are shrinking. Several environmental factors are affecting the profit margins of the companies. These factors are related to each other and at the same time it is also influencing the internal factors of the organization. Organizations need to fulfill the expectations of all its stake holders. There is always a need to understand the complex environment and consumer behavior on continuous basis so that the market is served properly with right solution, at right time with good profit margins. Customer relationship Management now has become key to any successful organization is a vast and complex area of studies. This helps the organizations to serve their customers effectively, efficiently and profitable, get competitive leverage on the database, standardize the all the customer touch points in the organization, smoothen the marketing and sales activities. The projects which have strategically proven positive investments are those which are successful in socio-technical dimensions. The author also discusses such topics as business intelligence, knowledge management, and effective and efficient business intelligence systems.