Failure of political governance in Fiji: Dysfunctional policy and the media

Abstract

Failure of political governance in Fiji is a common place where lack of democratic bargaining, political transparency, and accountability has led to political dysfunction and often political strife in the Pacific Island countries such as Fiji due to endless coups and lack of democratic accountability including suppression of the media and critical journalism. Democratic deficit theory highlights that so-called democratic governments such as Fiji fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices and operation because of military coups, regime formation based on decrees and ethnic policies and controls on media based on coup traps where coup masters map the future state of the country entirely on ideologically engineered and institutionally supported political infrastructures.

Keywords

• accountability
• case study
• democracy
• democratic deficit
• elections
• Fiji