African Politics: Beyond the Third Wave of Democratisation
Editor: Joelien Pretorius
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ISBN: 978-07021-7736-1 Extent: 240 pages Format: Paperback/Soft Cover Availability: July 2008 Price: R198.00 |
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About the book
In September 2006 the University of the Western Cape (UWC) hosted the third biennial conference of the South African Political Studies Association. The conference was generously sponsored by the programme on the Dynamics for Building a Better Society of the Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR). VLIR also provided much appreciated funding for the present publication of papers presented at the conference. This book comprises nine such papers, which were selected through peer review from more than 30 papers submitted to be considered for inclusion in the volume. After peer review, the selected papers were converted into chapters, most sharing in some way or form the themes of democracy and democratisation in Africa, hence the book’s title. The organisers of the conference are especially proud of the fact that many of the chapters were authored by younger scholars in the field. The project has thus provided these scholars with an opportunity to publish their research, and to do so alongside established scholars in the field.
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Chapter 1: The Need for Post-Third Wave Conversations
Samuel Huntington’s Third Wave: Democratization in the late 21st Century forms published in 1991 set the tone for much scholarly work about democracy and democratisation. Chapter 1 outlines the contributions in the rest of the volume and aims to contextualise them in terms of three broad conversations that at times are rooted in Huntington’s ideas and at times push the boundaries of, or contest these ideas. Using this framework is not just a case of ‘again’ employing a Western lens (the Third Wave) to think about African politics. It is a deliberate effort to acknowledge the existence of this lens that unconsciously colours many (past and present) studies of African democratisation. However, it also highlights instances where alternative conversations that go beyond the Third Wave are taking place.
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Chapter 2: The Feasibility of the Union Government and the United States of Africa: Dilemmas of Political Integration and Democratisation
Khabele Matlosa reviews efforts towards political integration in Africa since the first wave of independence. He attributes their general failure to Cold War alignment and guarding of sovereignty, which limited regional integration to economic programmes. He engages with African Union (AU) efforts to develop principles and programmes towards a common continental political system, especially initiatives aimed at norms setting, e.g. the 2002 Declaration on Principles Governing Democratic Elections, the 2006 Draft African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the African Peer Review Mechanism. These initiates suggest a deliberate effort to facilitate the dialectic between regional integration and democratisation in Africa. Current political integration aimed at an eventual Union Government and even a United States of Africa could benefit democratisation on the continent by institutionalising mechanisms and initiatives to socialise member states to adhere to democratic norms and good governance.
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Chapter 3: From Importer to Exporter: The Changing Role of Nigeria in Promoting Democratic Values in Africa
Shola Omotola critically evaluates Nigeria’s metamorphosis from an importer to exporter of democratic norms since 1999. In line with South Africa’s focus on Africa, Nigeria developed the African centre-piece policy and former President Obasanjo, like President Mbeki, engaged with other African leaders to promote democracy to other African countries. But, how do contradictions in Nigeria’s domestic politics, such as rising poverty, inequality and politics of disempowerment, limit the reach of this project? Or, will these contradictions serve as an added impetus for Nigeria to externalize democratic norms notwithstanding the hypocrisy of these efforts?
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Chapter 4: The “Afrikaner Broederbond”: From “Devil of Apartheid” to an Actor of Change in the Transformation Process of South Africa?
Looking back to South Africa’s democratisation, Annette Knecht explores the role of a secret Afrikaner nationalist organisation, the Afrikaner Broederbond, in the transformation process. The Broederbond came to permeate Afrikaner society and although seeing itself as a cultural organisation, constructed the narratives of Christian-nationalism and ‘black danger’ that ensured electoral victory for consecutive apartheid governments. Although acknowledging the historical baggage of the Afrikaner Broederbond’s role to construct apartheid, Knecht concludes that the organisation played an important role in liberalising Afrikaner society towards the run-up to democratic transition. In any event, the Afrikaner Broederbond did not contest the transition. The chapter shines light on the larger role of cultural movements and their influence in instances of intense political change.
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Chapter 5: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Electoral Process in Africa
Kondwani Chirambo explores HIV/Aids as a variable impacting on democratic consolidation in African states. Thought of as one of the pertinent factors that may come to inhibit and even reverse democratisation and democratic consolidation on the continent, Chirambo argues that HIV/Aids has not led to the type of state collapse that many Western scholars predicted. Nevertheless, the disease has impacted on several indicators of democracy, most notably electoral systems, voter participation, election management and political parties.
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Chapter 6: A Silent Revolution: South African Voters during the First Years of Democracy 1994-2006
Collette Schulz-Herzenberg evaluates 10 years of voting behaviour in South Africa, noting that a silent revolution might be taking place. This revolution is not necessarily manifest in voters changing party allegiances, but rather in lower party identification across all parties. A ‘floating’ electorate could vote according to party performance, rather than historical, racial or emotional identification with a party – making South Africa’s democracy more competitive. Arguably, increased voter volatility could improve responsiveness to voters, but in a context of a dominant party and weak and fragmented opposition parties it could also result in voters not casting their ballots.
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Chapter 7: The ANC “Leadership Crisis” and the Age of Populism in Post Apartheid South Africa
Ralph Mathekga weaves the themes of good governance, economic policy and political leadership to outline what he argues are the conditions for populism in South Africa. Thabo Mbeki’s largely neo-liberal macro economic programmes aligned well with the Washington consensus, but its implementation demanded a technocratic approach. In the case of South Africa, this approach also meant that the policy decision-making apparatus was concentrated closer to the President’s office. The result is a perceived democratic deficit of power centralisation in favour of the capitalist class. It is in these circumstances that the poor and those who purport to speak on their behalf grab at forms of ‘real’ democracy imagined to bring government closer to the people. In this case, the charismatic Jacob Zuma represents ‘the other’ to Mbeki. Mathekga brings us closer to an understanding of why what started off as liberal democracy in this day and age would morph into populism, especially in so-called Third World contexts.
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Chapter 8: Crafting New Democratic Spaces: Participatory Policy-making in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Janine Hicks and Imraan Buccus investigate a definition of democracy that goes beyond the right to elect representatives. They argue for direct and active participation by civil society in policy-making at provincial level and investigate the challenges and tensions that creating these participatory spaces entail. They illustrate their ideas by elaborating on a participatory model emerging in one of South Africa’s provinces, KwaZulu/Natal.
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Chapter 9: The Politics of Social Change and the Transition to Democratic Governance: Community Participation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
John Williams reviews literature that looks in particular at integrated development planning at local level and uses examples from Cape Town as illustration. Contradicting Huntington’s minimal definition of democracy as free and fair elections and lowered expectations as an indication of democratic maturity, the context of democracy for Williams is meaningful and sustainable social change. Informed by “the memory of community struggle – a radical form of participation – against the racist apartheid state,” Williams argues for the re-employment of a repertoire of radical strategies used against the apartheid state, to ensure that communities’ expectations of democracy are voiced and met.
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Chapter 10: Mother and Slaughter: A Comparative Analysis of the Female Terrorist in FARC and the LRA
Comparing female participation in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) in Colombia, the chapter teases out why women join terrorist movements and what their roles are in these movements. It highlights how gender stereotypes still render female terrorists ‘invisible’ in literature. The comparison of an African and a Latin American case study is particularly apt, because it balances the post 9/11 focus on so-called Islamic terrorism. In addition it provides insight into extra-systemic groups, i.e. groups that contest political systems in their countries and therefore could hamper democratic transitions.
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