Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Ursula van Beek

Creator

Ursula van Beek

Professor Ursula van Beek is an historian and the director of the Centre for Research on Democracy at Stellenbosch University

Party control over MPs violates the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature, which came to light during Jacob Zuma’s presidency. Photo: File

Democracy at a crossroads in South Africa – and the US

Democracy – government of the people, by the people, for the people – cannot prevail while wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few

Nelson Mandela chose to negotiate with his enemy, the apartheid state, because he believed that emotions such as hate got in the way of strategy.

The Mandela legacy: Might ‘quiet diplomacy’ work in conflicts such as Ukraine and Russia?

South Africa’s commitment to a foreign policy of non-alignment and Cyril Ramaphosa’s experience with negotiations to end apartheid serve as an example

Graphic: John McCann/M&G

Democracy on the line in global economic trade stand-off

Donald Trump’s executive orders are of dubious constitutionality, having violated civil rights of federal workers, weaponised immigration laws and limited Congress’s powers over…

The American dream is eroding and with it the promise of the land of the free.

Multilateral world must address global threats as alliance of democracies breaks down

The land of the free is no more with the judiciary, an independent media, the rollback of discrimination based on race, ethnicity and gender and progressive educational…

US Pesident Donald Trump. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Brace for turbulence: Surviving Trump 2.0

The changes he makes in his second term will have far-reaching repercussions in a world of volatile geopolitics

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, gestures to the crowd as he concludes a campaign rally on October 19, 2024, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

What Trump’s re-election could mean for global security and American foreign policy

If Donald Trump re-enters the White House after the 5 November elections, countries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea will be delighted

Cogta and Salga are  pushing for an amendment Bill that seeks to remove the undue influence of smaller parties on the appointment of political office bearers in municipalities to be approved as law by next year’s elections.
 (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

With the rise in right-wing populism, democracy around the world is weakened

South Africa stands out as a country that strongly defends democracy

democracy arrived in South Africa and was seen around the world as a beacon of hope for humanity at large: if the deeply divided South Africa could do it, then so could any other country in the world. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

What does democracy mean in Africa?

‘In the house of the just those who command are at the service of those who seem the commanded’

This photo taken on August 31, 2022 at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow shows the grave of Raisa Gorbacheva, the wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union who played a major role in ending the Cold War, and died in Moscow on August 30, 2022 aged 91. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

Populism based not in patriotism, but in many nationalisms

Because populism is a pre-political idea, it can fracture the sense of collective identity that is necessary to uphold a liberal democracy, especially in nations with conflict in…