Africana Library

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/7317

For information on accessing original analogue content in any of these collections please contact Margaret Atsango via email : Margaret Atsango

Alternatively, please contat Margareth Atsango by Tel: 011 717 1933/1977

Browse

Filters

1989 - 19902

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.South Africa. Politics and government, 1989-1994

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The conditions for democracy in a future South Africa
    (1989-10-16) Stadler, Alfred William
    It is not inconceivable that the formal institutions of democracy, with universal adult suffrage in a unitary state at the centre, will be introduced in South Africa in the foreseeable future. It is also not beyond the bounds of probability that these formal institutions will be overtaken by a coup d'etat, or a one-party dictatorship which will subordinate or suppress opposition and dissent. This paper is concerned to investigate the most propitious conditions for a stable future democracy in South Africa. Like other similar undertakings, the paper is primarily based on comparative studies rather than on South African political, economic or social material. The main conditions which will be investigated are social, or socio-economic; political; and institutional. The political conditions will be discussed in two intimately related contexts: the one focused on policy, and the other on political power. But it will also become clear that it disputes the assumption made in the earlier literature that it is possible neatly to separate political conditions from social ones, or to assume that the chains of causality can be arranged in a linear fashion. The paper hopefully contributes to political debates going on in this country. It therefore has a political purpose. It also makes the assumption that academic debate may contribute meaningfully to desirable political ends. However, the paper does not, except in a superficial and piecemeal way, consider the extent to which South African conditions provide evidence of emergent properties conducive to democratic stability, or otherwise.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    White politics: Opportunity or constraint
    (1990-03-19) Schlemmer, Lawrence
    The context within which political conflict plays itself out in South Africa has changed dramatically since FW de Klerk's speech to the opening of parliament on 2 February this year. The wide-ranging announcements have impacted on all political actors operating both within and outside the country. For the white political parties in South Africa, one of the consequences of the speech has been the disturbance of the traditional alignments and relationships between them. Some analysts now argue that South Africa has already seen Its last white election and conclude that not only has the Conservative Party no chance of ever gaining power, but that the Democratic Party must Inevitably crumble under the pressure of an accommodation between the NP and the ANC. Gerrit Viljoen's recent statement that the NP was “not very likely to be in control” in ten years time reinforces this line of analysis (Citizen 7 February 1990). These are some of the conventional wisdoms colouring the current perspectives of "white" politics. This paper takes issue with some of these perspectives by examining the dimensions of the fluidity In white politics and evaluating the potential role that changing white political orientations may play in the newly emerging politics in South Africa. The analysis of the likely trends in white politics is based on the election and referendum results during the decade of the 1980s. White political attitudes remain an important factor especially since F.W. de Klerk has committed himself to holding either a referendum or an election to endorse any new constitution.