Waiting in the wings as parliament sits in its final session after the election, Aung San Suu Kyi and her victorious NLD face the challenge of huge public expectations.
EPA/Nyein Chan Naing
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has won Myanmar’s elections in a landslide, but must lead the transition to democratic rule carrying the hopes of tens of millions of voters who expect life to be transformed.
Stefan Rousseau / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Myanmar is holding elections, but like the many other authoritarian regimes that do so, it isn’t for democratic reasons and regime change remains highly unlikely.
21 years into democracy, are South Africa’s university students showing other citizens how best to hold the state accountable?
EPA/Ihsaan Haffejee
University students in South Africa have shown the potential of mass mobilisation to influence policy in advancing justice for their constitutional democratic rights.
Bill Shorten said politicians and government must find ways to re-engage a generation of young people.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
There is a growing canyon now separating politics as understood and practiced by political authorities from the political practices of everyday people.
Picturing the victims of the Ankara bombing at an anti-government protest.
Reuters/Umit Bektas
By challenging the courts, King Dalindyebo is testing the degree of impunity with which traditional leaders can get away.
Whatever the terms agreed by the 12 trade ministers who signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the text is unlikely to include the word ‘democracy’.
Reuters/USTR Office
By forging to dialogue to achieve consensus, Tunisia’s Quartet are worthy winners.
So strong is public opposition to his miltarist policies that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, having ignored the popular will, faces questions about democratic representation.
AAP Image/Newzulu/Munesuke Yamamoto
Shinzo Abe’s government (now in its second term) has consistently been vocal about Japan’s national defence.
Supporters of the Congress of South African Trade Unions march in the streets of Johannesburg. Economic freedom has eluded the majority of South Africans.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Economic transformation of unequal societies in a democratising context is difficult. This requires a creative mix of policy options underpinned by a commitment to social justice.
The wisdom of crowds? An anti-corruption rally in India.
Ishan Khosla
Could the key to countering a culture of bribery and greed be in the hands of the people?
Post-election violence in Kenya in January 2008. The country was forewarned in its peer review report that trouble was brewing, but took no action.
EPA
The African Peer Review Mechanism has made a difference since it was started in 2003. There are multiple examples of reforms that have been introduced as a result. All have gone unnoticed.
Vendors sell bananas in an open market in a village near Bujumbura. Burundians are being driven deeper into poverty.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
Whenever the crisis in Burundi is discussed, the economy is often overlooked, even though it is central to understanding the backdrop to the most severe crisis since the end of the civil war.
King Mswati III, centre, with his regiments at Ludzidzini royal palace during the annual Reed Dance in August. Swaziland ranks among the worst in Africa for its level of democracy.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Satisfaction with democracy varies widely in Africa. Across 28 countries, only 46% of citizens say they are “very satisfied” or “fairly satisfied” with the way democracy works in their countries.