Mongolia’s semi-presidential constitution plays a role in the issue.
This is a dual system in which both a prime minister and president are elected in addition to a cabinet.
This enables the president to have a great deal of control over the country, especially when it comes to courts, vetoing bills, and corruption.  The president has a fixed four year term and dominates both the prime minister and speaker, who entirely depend on coalitional support in parliament; in this way, the president, Battulga, essentially has completely unchecked power over the entire judiciary.
This has come to allow the elimination of the judiciary’s independence, which is one of the contingent factors for the democratic erosion.  The president is able to control those exact individuals or institutions that are intended to investigate him for any sort of misconduct, scandal, or corruption and gives way to dismissal of individuals involved in the investigation, therefore he is never likely to face any sort of justice, but will go on both unchecked and undisciplined.  Being able to arbitrarily use power enables the executive branch to consolidate power and effectively sets democratic backsliding into motion.  Mongolia’s communist past, in part, plays a role in this democratic backslide, however that role may not be extremely significant.  The system in place is moving back towards what the prior regime was in terms of a significant amount of power being consolidated within one individual.  There is certainly interference with the electoral process in order to ensure that one party remains in power such as the past.
	Regarding the political and judicial changes taking place in Mongolia, the international community should be advised to use caution in proceeding with any sort of foreign trade.  There is a great deal of corruption that’s taking place within the executive branch (or even simply the government) and the judiciary is rapidly losing power that it once held.  In spite of the risk associated with corruption and subsequent rising inequality in the country, the mining resources, potential political stabilization with the coming of the next election, and growth of the mining sector itself are benefits of becoming foreign investors.  Though it’s not an authoritative regime, if it does become one the country will most likely still want to do business with international mining companies, however will have higher trade protections set in place (it should be noted that it takes a significant amount of revenue to uphold/support a regime); a ruler will still want to see economic development take place in order to increase capital.
	There is room for concern considering that Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China regarding their influence.
The political instability seen in Mongolia isn’t necessary uncommon; it’s seen in a plethora of other Non-Western democratic countries.  As such, coupled with the country’s pursuit of the third neighbor policy and equidistance between Russia and China, it shouldn’t have a negative impact on the mining sector nor Firestone’s mining truck tire sales.  It’s likely that the Australian mining company, Rio Tinto, will continue to operate their surface mining operations in Mongolia as normal and thus will continue to need specialty tires manufactured by Firestone in Aiken County.
