Electoral Systems Program
In ancient Greece, the word polis was the term used to signify the art of managing the public affairs of the three Greek city-states; Athens, Corinth and Sparta. Polis , the root noun from which politics was derived meant the art or science of acquiring, exercising and maintaining power at the helm of a city-state. Hence politics concern with getting, practicing and managing power.
State power, as we know it today, is purely delegated power. It actually belongs to the people…but since people need order and social cohesion, all of them could not hold that power at the same time in the same quantity. Human beings have over the years devised a system through which to secede part of this power and let one or a small group of people to exercise it on behalf of the rest. This we call democracy.
Democracy is best practiced in elections where the majorities determine the direction of politics for a state. This implies that a substantial number of the population has a hand in how the affairs of the entire population are run for a given period of time.
Indeed, in oppressive regimes, history is replete with proofs that it is normally the rule of minorities…a well-endowed elitist grouping that speedily clutches to the immediate levers of power whenever personal, class or ethnic interest is at stake. More often, and especially in the developing world democracies have the propertyless mob as their engine.
It is this engine of democracy, the ordinary people, that IGI seeks to safeguard by monitoring political developments and ensuring free, open and fair ‘getting’, ‘exercising’ and ‘managing’ of state power…for the common
IGI FIT Cameroon Monitoring recent elections in Cameroon good of society.
Mr. Samuel Fungwa (Program advisor )
He was born in Bafut Mezam, in the North West province of Cameroon. He obtained a CAPIEMP in general education at ENIEG Bamenda before being recruited to teach by the Menoua Divisional Delegation of Education under the Ministry of National Education. Fungwa holds a B.A (Hons) in Education from the American University in Cyprus, GAU and an M.A. in Communication and Media from the Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus. He was given an award of Excellency by the North Cyprus President called, “Future Leaders President’s Award”. He is a research fellow at the Eastern Mediterranean University.
Fungwa advises on political developments and reforms, democratic issues and transitions, national elections and electioneering systems