Doctoral Degrees (Political Science)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Political Science) by Subject "Comparative government"

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    A critical assessment of the conceptualisation of political risk analysis for hybrid regimes : the case of Zimbabwe
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Makone, Itai; Lambrecths, Derica; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The conceptualisation of Political Risk Analysis (PRA) has traditionally been influenced by democratic principles. There was an observable increase in academic literature discussing changes in the traditional democratic system from 2006. Interestingly, there was an increase in literature conceptualising the hybrid regime. If the noticeable decline in democracy continues, how would PRA be conducted and conceptualised? The study took a proactive approach to find out if PRA for foreign investors could be adaptable to be measured using principles of the hybrid regime. “To what extent are the traditional conceptual perceptions of political risk in hybrid regimes still applicable, with specific reference to Zimbabwe from 1990 to 2018?” was the main research question. A single case study research design was employed, to the case of Zimbabwe. To conceptualise the hybrid regime, a hybrid regime conceptual framework was developed utilising indicators from Wigell (2008) and Gilbert and Mohseni (2011). This study added political elite cohesion as an additional hybrid regime indicator, hypothesising that the agreement among political elites had an impact on the nature and durability of the hybrid regime. This study finds the hybrid regime to show diverse forms within a single state. Zimbabwe exhibits five types of hybrid regimes. Furthermore, the hybrid regime was observed to be fluid and, noted to be durable. A political risk framework to analyse the hybrid regime was developed drawing inputs from hybrid regime indicators and some political risk indicators. 28 key informants were interviewed from six categories of respondents who were relevant to the discussion of political risk observed in Zimbabwe. This study found that perceptions regarding illegitimacy, corruption, staleness of leadership, adverse government regulation, election violence, and the home-host state relations between the Multi-National Corporation parent country and the host state had the impact of increasing the perception of political risk in a hybrid regime, thus confirming existing literature. Regarding military tutelage, weak institutions, relatively flawed elections (absent of violence), military generals in power, undemocratic means to retain power, minimum horizontal accountability and weak rule of law did not automatically increase political risk as in times past. This study found that the levels of political risk differ within the diverse forms of hybrid regimes, which is contrary to literature that postulated a positive relationship always. If democracy declines, PRA was concluded to be adaptable and, in effect, accurate, taking into consideration the fluidity of the hybrid regime and the presence of specific risk factors, relevant to the analysis of risk in such regimes. As in any discipline, timely re-conceptualisation is crucial and this study provided that for both hybrid regimes and political risk analysis.