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The power of the General: Which factors influence the level of authoritarianism in the Southern African context?
Wordsworth, Ronan Peter ; Riegl, Martin (advisor) ; Doboš, Bohumil (referee)
1 Abstract This paper sets out to answer the central question on the causes of authoritarianism within the regional context of Southern Africa. The hypothesises of the article are that there are several factors that contribute to authoritarian levels within the South African Development Community (SADC). The research aims to adequately define the concept of authoritarianism, and then investigate the relationship between authoritarianism and five different indicators. The links are explored for level of authoritarianism against the level of military expenditure of the government, the threat perception of the government, whether there is a single dominant-party system of government, whether the country has a history of coup d'états, and finally, the dominant party in the civil-military relations. This leads to an investigation into the role that the military plays within authoritarian regimes, and which factors lead to increased authoritarianism. Due to the unique post-colonial context whereby many liberation movements and fighters were then installed as leaders of the country, there is a 'special relationship' between many leaders in the Southern African Development Community and the respective military and defence leadership and this paper will seek to explore these links. It is hypothesised that...
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Changes of the natural environment in southern Africa
Píšová, Šárka ; Kliment, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Romportl, Dušan (referee)
The diverse region of southern Africa is affected by several changes of the natural environment. This thesis characterizes the region of southern Africa and evaluates the state and development of these natural conditions and environmental problems in four main categories of physical geography - climate, vegetation, soils and water. A literature review is compiled and processed focusing on studies by field experts, which describe the main issues in these categories. Particular problems which the region encounters are described on a global, regional and local scale. The main problems are: changes in temperature and precipitation, land cover change, deforestation, desertification, threats to biodiversity, soil erosion and water availability. Overall, changes of the natural environment in southern Africa are caused by climate change and anthropogenic activity. However, human activities cause a greater impact as a result of their "indirect influence" on climate conditions and "direct influence" on vegetation conditions. Key words: Africa, southern Africa, natural environment, climate, vegetation, soils, water
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