The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Future of Democracy in South Africa

This consideration of the task of building a ‘non‐racial, non‐sexist democracy’ in South Africa combines historical experience, political theory and survey results to which an organisational participation, democratic commitment, party allegiance and a sense of citizenship exist together in forms able to support a process of democratisation. In consequence, the author suggests that there are serious hazards inherent in either the liberal or Gramscian models of democratic development. On the one hand, Gramsci's idea of a ‘regulated society’ in which the state progressively recedes in favour of an increasingly complex and articulated civil society makes too little provision for those elements of civil society that remain neutral or even hostile towards the prevailing political order. On the other hand, liberal democracy, in its various forms, is inherently elitist, depoiiticised and fundamentally alienated. The survey findings confirm that both these problems are fundamental to South Africa's new political society. As an alternative, the article proposes a strategy drawn from recent work on Latin America ‐ a ‘politicised civil society’ which will link the concerns of individual citizens more closely to the more formal processes of state and party politics. ROAPE considers this argument to be important beyond South Africa's borders and hopes that this article will initiate a discussion on the problems of extending democracy in Africa far beyond the parliamentary circulation of elites where it is presently confined.

Social constraints of democratization was there a strategy? Hungary's path to democracy the emergence of a multiparty system in the Soviet Union the future of democracy in Eastern Europe polyarchial or consociational democracy? the nature and limits of democratization in Korea political reform in China after the 1980's - a comparative Communist perspective democracy in Africa - towards the 21st century between Scylla and Charybdis - policy choices and the development of democracy in South Africa.

This article integrates the dynamics within authoritarian elites into analysis of democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa. This variable has been excluded from nearly all analysis on the subject. Based on a comparison of three cases, this article concludes that only in cases where popular mobilization was accompanied by deep divisions within the ruling coalition did democratization ensue. The division of the authoritarian coalition in Benin and South Africa created a window of opportunity which enabled pro-democracy forces to push through democratic reforms. Furthermore, only when a majority of the authoritarian elite in South Africa favoured negotiations with the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid political organizations did the transition towards democracy in South Africa make any progress. In contrast, in the Togolese case, a united ruling coalition precluded any reform that would have challenged its political hegemony.

In recent years, there have been numerous tragic incidents resulting from the special vulnerability of migrants in Africa and Europe. In South Africa, threats against foreign nationals have been precipitated by the myth that their presence contributes to high unemployment levels in the country. This development has led many observers to turn their attention to the state of democracy in Africa. The present article examines the underlying causes of both the recent xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals and the removal of the Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town. First, the felling of the Rhodes statue is analysed. Thereafter, the problem of xenophobic attacks by black South Africans on foreign nationals in townships is examined. The article argues that xenophobia and the removal of the Rhodes statue are both forms of protest against political oppression and economic exploitation in South Africa. Lastly, the article proposes an African-Christian model of political praxis that re-affirms the Christian mandate to make positive contributions to the creation of a life-giving democracy in South Africa.

The aim of this study is to discuss the nature of coalition government and its role in strengthening the norms of democracy in South Africa. Over the past two decades, South Africa has continued to focus on the progressive development of the country's political institutions under the ethos of the democratic principle of coalition government. This chapter also discusses the various South African governments' roles in the establishment of democratization in the country. The research method used in this study is the qualitative approach to search for actual research output. The empirical method would also involve discussing research gaps on the nature and characteristics of coalition government for better governance. Moreover, this study will answer the following research questions: How is the coalition government in South Africa paving the way for the healthiest democracy? There is the second question: Why are the people of South Africa electing a coalition government in the country? This study also uses the third wave of democratization theory of Samuel P. Huntington, which contributed to the democratic transition and the establishment of democratic governments in the late 1980s in developing countries, namely in Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. Apart from Samuel P. Huntington's idea on democratization, this study also utilises other modern democratic theories to discuss South Africa's democratization process under the coalition government. Finally, the chapter outlines how political alliances are conceptualized and operationalized for the democratization of South Africa.

Given the fact that quantitative measures of democracy in Africa are increasingly used in scholarly research, it is appropriate to ask the question: ‘Are such measures accurately reflecting empirical observations?’ To answer this question, data‐sets compiled by Zahra Arat, Tatu Vanhanen, Mark Gasiorowski, Keith Jaggers and Ted Robert Gurr, and Freedom House/Raymond Gastil are compared with qualitative observations of events affecting liberal democracy in Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Two types of problems are found. First, there are many discrepancies between empirical observations and what is shown by the data‐sets. Second, there are inconsistencies in the quantitative measurement of democracy across countries, for example, the same phenomenon does not seem to be measured by the Jaggers and Gurr and the Freedom House/Gastil indices in South Africa and Tanzania. The discrepancies in the quantitative measures suggest that the observations of area specialists of events related to liberal democracy are important not simply to help interpret quantitative measures but to reconstruct them.

precis: This essay reflects on the future of democracy in Africa and the role of interreligious dialogue in the process. Based on research in political forms of democracy and extensive ethnographic work in Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, the author contextualizes the need for this reflection on the impact of colonization on indigenous African Traditional Religions (ATR's) and consequent chaos, economic misfortune, and the collapse of ancestral values. The Western rights paradigm is contrasted with the virtues paradigm of non-Western views of governance. The Luba religious view of Bumuntu summarizes this virtues paradigm; a ruler seeks to provide for authentic personhood embodied in concepts of good heart, dignity, and self-respect with a goal of cooperation between fair governance and moral values based on religious views. Is democracy possible in Africa? Is it needed or wanted? There is no panacea, yet the essay claims that governance according to ethical rules and religion as a foundation for moral virtues and values requires interreligious dialogue. Religious liberty and tolerance as both a right in the Western sense and a practice over many years in African life provide a bridge between ATR's and democratic aspiration. Details are provided of how the Golden Rule appears in a variety of ATR's and in Asian cultures. When democracy and human rights are rooted in local and regional understandings of the intrinsic nature of human being and the reign of humanity as a whole, then "Bulopwe I bantu" (power is to take care of the people) becomes a pathway to establish genuine democracy in African societies.

This Study Investigates The Connection Between Late Nationalism and democracy, using South Africa as a case in point. I argue that liberal democracy in South Africa accommodated and left unresolved the contradictions of South African capitalism and the African National Congress’s (ANC) multiracial nationalist debate. More specifically, the achievement of equal political rights in the new democracy was premised on the acceptance of unequal economic relations among different classes, genders, and races. Furthermore, the middle-class in all its multiracial and multiethnic diversity is threatened from above and below. Popular demands from below sometimes lead the middle class to partially satisfy the majority’s economic and social demands. Pressures from various economic interests (particularly the business community) limit its room for maneuver. These pressures force the middle class to make compromises that are detrimental to the economic interests of the majority of the population. These realities will continue to inform the ANC and the economic and social policies of future African leaders as they try to transform South Africa. In short, this study seeks to understand South Africa’s multiracial nationalism in the wake of the transition from apartheid to liberal democracy, without a simultaneous transformation of economic relations. This work also examines liberal democracy in contemporary South Africa and the challenges that face this unique experiment.KeywordsLiberal DemocracyAfrican National CongressNational PartySouth African CommunityPetty BourgeoisieThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

South Africa's new democracy has been tested by the controversy over the candidacy of Jacob Zuma, who became the successor to President Thabo Mbeki as leader of the African National Congress in December 2007, and is poised to become the country's new president after the 2009 elections. Few social actors had more at stake than organised labour, which found itself sidelined from the policy process by its erstwhile political allies under Mbeki. Labour supported Zuma throughout the leadership campaign, and can been seen as having ‘won’ in the leadership contest. Yet the labour movement has avoided the critical question: at what cost? We argue that labour's strategy of championing Zuma has simply reinforced the ‘insider politics’ that led to its sidelining and diminished the overall democratic process. If organised labour was to take its own post-apartheid history, and the experiences of other Third World labour movements, seriously, it would push for new, more participatory and inclusive forms of politics, rather than merely focus on a new political leader.

Many appraisals of the quality of or how consolidated South Africa's democracy is, are dominated by a focus on political party dominance that allegedly renders the political space unfit for its critical function. Disputing South Africa's right to democratic credentials is fast becoming a consensual theoretical position. We ought to consider regularly whether partial or universal claims about the state of democracy, are entirely valid. While arguments bolstering these orthodox critiques have helped to bring into focus troubling aspects of the political order in the past, in the long term over-reliance on some presuppositions familiar to scholars and practitioners in the field of comparative politics weakens the chance of different critical perspectives on the quality of democracy receiving deserved attention. Thoughts on the need to reconsider the appropriateness of some directions of enquiry constituting assessments of the functionality of contemporary South Africa's democracy are offered. A hypothesis that a thorough rendition of relevant political activity is not nearly as easily conceptualized as has previously been widely assumed is introduced. Political space has been inaccurately conceptualized; and there is a need for a more rigorous appraisal of the quality of democracy in the light of these insights.

At a time when democracy seems to be in retreat in many parts of the world, Africa presents a more mixed picture. A number of African countries have been convulsed by high-profile crises, while others have quietly continued making progress on the difficult path toward democratic stability. Democratization in Africa: Progress and Retreat brings into focus the complex landscape of African politics by pairing broad analytical surveys with country-specific case studies-most previously published in the Journal of Democracy and all written by prominent Africanists with deep knowledge of the continent and their subject countries. Thematic chapters address some of the major forces working for and against African democracy: the phenomenon of frontier Africa; presidentialism; the rise of independent legislatures; the rule of law versus the big man; the institutionalization of political power; the decline of military coups; the paradox of growth without prosperity; and the roles of formal and informal institutions. Countries examined include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Democratization in Africa: Progress and Retreat is an essential primer for students of African politics and those interested in the future of democracy around the world. Contributors: Kate Baldwin, Joel D. Barkan, Michael Bratton, Michael Chege, John F. Clark, Larry Diamond, Steven Friedman, Kenneth Good, E. Gyimah-Boadi, Barak Hoffman, Richard Joseph, Seth Kaplan, Maina Kiai, Peter Lewis, Eldred Masunungure, Penda Mbow, Andrew M. Mwenda, Dave Peterson, Daniel N. Posner, H. Kwasi Prempeh, Lindsay Robinson, Paula Cristina Roque, Rotimi T. Suberu, Herbert F. Weiss, Christopher Wyrod, Daniel J. Young

Choosing and Electoral SystemSouth Africa Seeks New Ground Rules Timothy D. Sisk (bio) While the tragic political violence that is threatening South Africa's transition away from apartheid raises doubts about the future of democracy in that country, nearly all observers agree that there will soon be elections under universal suffrage. With both major contenders for power—the ruling National Party (NP) and the African National Congress (ANC)—asserting that another national election under the current racially segregated franchise should not take place, South Africans must choose a new electoral system. This is one of many critical institutional choices that will soon have to be made by an elected constituent assembly. (Negotiations are progressing slowly among the NP, the ANC, and other political groupings over the ground rules that such a constituent assembly should follow in adopting key constitutional provisions.) Designing an electoral system is a crucial—if often overlooked—challenge facing democracy in South Africa. Theory and history alike prove that different ways of tabulating votes produce different winners; no single electoral system can be argued to be the "fairest" of them all. Electoral systems can play an important role in "engineering" the results of democratic voting, and along with other institutional choices can have a profound impact on the nature of political parties and the general character of democracy. Four things shape this impact: the size, geographical distribution, ethnic (or racial) composition, and socioeconomic profile of the population. Recent demographic surveys, which differ from previously available information and which include the now nominally independent [End Page 79] homelands, suggest that there will be about 21 million eligible voters—69 percent of whom will be "African," 19 percent "White," 10 percent "Coloured," and 3 percent "Asian," using the still prevalent apartheid racial classifications. The racial distribution of the population is important given the enduring legacy of apartheid, but so is the country's ethnic composition. Many experts have argued that ethnicity (not race) will be the primary cleavage once the shroud of apartheid is lifted, and that political parties will likely reflect ethnic divisions. As Table 1 indicates, ethnicity (as indicated by the language that people speak at home) is a much more complicated cleavage than race. The controversy over ethnicity is especially heated, with some viewing an emphasis on ethnic divisions as a throwback to apartheid and a way of thwarting majority rule. Yet it is class conflict—the struggle between South Africa's few haves and many have-nots—that may cause the deepest cleavage of all. According to many cross-national comparisons, South Africa ranks among the most unequal societies in the world; it is also unusual in the degree to which the distribution of income correlates with race. Click for larger view View full resolution Table 1mdash. Home Language Use in South Africa, 1990 Estimates1 This information about the structure of South Africa's multiracial, predominantly rural, ethnically diverse, and economically unequal electorate underlies both the scholarly debate and the calculations that [End Page 80] political parties must make concerning their electoral prospects under various kinds of voting rules. The Scholarly Debate Most scholarly writing on electoral-system choice in South Africa first diagnoses the causes and nature of conflict there and then prescribes electoral methods and rules designed to help ameliorate it and foster a nascent democracy. Expert debate focuses on how various electoral systems can aid in the achievement of such desiderata as representativeness, accountability, and moderation on the part of leaders, as well as on how the principle of "one person, one vote of equal value"—an imperative in the wake of apartheid's limitation of voting rights by race—can be appropriately manifested given the conditions in South Africa's deeply divided society. The issue is immensely complex. The three key components of electoral systems—ballot structure, district magnitude (number of representatives per district), and the manner of allocating seats—can be combined in hundreds of different ways. In broad terms, however, the options are three: single-member-district plurality or majority systems, proportional representation (PR), and forms of subsequent-preference voting that include subtypes of the first two categories. Most observers agree that the effects which the present...

Social Identity Theory offers a useful understanding of the psychodynamics of affiliations with groups, while theories of political tolerance explain why some citizens are unwilling to tolerate their political enemies. Despite the obvious logical connection, little extant research has joined these two theories. We hypothesize that strong ingroup positive identities create strong outgroup negative identities, which are in turn connected to antipathy toward one's political opponents, perceptions that those opponents are threatening, and, ultimately, to political intolerance. We test these hypotheses using survey data from the South African mass public. Generally, nominal group membership is not the most significant variable; instead, attitudes toward group solidarity have a pervasive impact on all aspects of political intolerance. We also identify some significant predictors of threat perceptions among the social identity variables. We conclude by arguing that strong group identities pose a difficult challenge for the consolidation of democracy in South Africa. l outh Africa faces a host of impediments to the successful consolidation of its efforts at democratizing its political system. Grinding poverty, extreme inequality, the lost generation of young warriors against apartheid are some of the most pressing difficulties facing the new regime. Optimism about the future of democracy in South Africa is in short supply (e.g., Giliomee 1995). Among the impediments to democratic consolidation is the high degree of subcultural within South Africa. The country is divided, and deeply so, along a variety of racial, ethnic, and linguistic lines. Race is certainly central to South African politics, but intra-racial (or ethnic) divisions are terribly significant as well. Subcultural pluralism has often been found to be a major impediment to successful democratization (e.g., Dahl 1989; Bollen and Jackman 1985), and South Africa has an extreme case of such (e.g., Smooha and Hanf 1992; Horowitz 1991). One important consequence of subcultural is political intolerance. In deeply divided polities, people typically develop strong ingroup positive identities, often leading to strong outgroup animosities. This psychological division of the world into friends and foes can undermine tolerance. Thus, Social Identity Theory (SIT, see Tajfel 1978; Tajfel and Turner 1979) is a micro-level complement to macro-level theories about the role of cultural in the development of democratic institutions and processes. Cultural contributes to strong group identities, leading to an unwillingness to put up with one's political foes, which impedes the free

Continuity and Change: Black Entrepreneurship in South Africa

General introduction, Julius O. Ihonvbere, John Mukum Mbaku Where is the third wave? a critical evaluation of Africa's non-transition to democracy, Julius O. Ihonvbere Structural adjustment program and democratization in Africa - the case of Mauritania, Mohameden Ould-Mey Bureaucratic corruption and the crisis of political reforms in Africa, John Mukum Mbaku National conferences and democratization in francophone Africa, John F. Clark Nigeria - how to detail a transition program, Pita Ogaba Aghese State collapse and democratic construction - prospects for Liberia, George Klay Kieh, Jr. Women and political participation in kenya - evaluating the interplay of gender, ethnicity, class and state, Eunice N. Sahle Democracy and democratization in Cameroon - living with the dual heritage, Joseph Takougang How not to consolidate a democracy - the experience of the movement for multiparty democracy (MMD) in Zambia, Julius O. Ihonvbere South Africa's first democratic elections and their political context, Fran Buntman Beyond Mobutu - the opposition and the struggle for democracy in Zaire, Osita G. Afoaku Assessing the future of democracy in Africa - internal and external challenges, John Mukum Mbaku, Julius O. Ihonvbere.