Читать книгу A Time Traveller's Guide to Our Next Ten Years - Frans Cronje - Страница 10

The third step is to understand whether major actors or role players in the country (such as political parties, business, civil society, the youth, and the media) have the means to change the future. Is the society in question a free and open one that can easily be changed by means of lobbying, political activism, and electoral processes? Or is it a closed and undemocratic political system that can only be changed through violent revolution?

In our case, this will depend on whether the rule of law is maintained, property rights are respected, the courts remain independent, the media is free, civil society is allowed to operate, and free political activity is allowed. The alternative would be that all these democratic institutions are eroded by an increasingly powerful state until South Africans lose all control over their future and the government can rule with impunity.