Abstract
ABSTRACTSouth Africa entered the Third Wave of democracy in 1994. Since then it has successfully faced many challenges, the last one being the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, without much damage to its democratic institutions. Pessimism about its democratic trajectory is largely the result of unfortunate policy choices resulting in very low economic growth. Among the many factors that assist democracies to stabilise and endure is the role of the middle class: the more extensive the middle class, the greater the chance for democratic stability. This should be reflected in their values and attitudes toward democracy and institutions. In this article, we use survey data from 1995 and 2013 in order to analyse the evolution of the middle class in South Africa and its values and attitudes since the first democratic elections. Results indicate that the South African middle class has doubled in size during these two decades and that the internal racial distribution has grown closer to the ethnic distribution of the country. We nevertheless conclude that in South Africa democracy is not yet ‘the only game in town’.
Published Version
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