Political Parties in South Africa

Political Parties in South Africa
Author: Thuynsma, Heather
Publisher: Africa Institute of South Africa
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2017-11-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0798305142

Political parties and the party system that underpins South Africa’s democracy have the potential to build a cohesive and prosperous nation. But in the past few years the ANC’s dominance has strained the system and tested it and its institutions’ fortitude. There are deeper issues of accountability that often spurn the Constitution and there is also a clear need to foster meaningful public participation and transparency. This volume offers a different and detailed assessment of the health of South Africa’s political system. This study intends to unravel the condition of the party system in South Africa and culminates in the question: Do South African parties promote or hinder democracy in the country? The areas of the party system that are known to require continued work are the weakness of democratic structures within parties, the perceived lack of responsibility of elected parliamentarians towards voters, non-transparent private partner financing structures and a lack of attractiveness of party-political commitment, especially for women. Experts in the respective fields address all of these areas in this book.

African Political Parties

African Political Parties
Author: Mohamed Abdel Rahim Mohamed Salih
Publisher: OSSREA
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2003-02-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

A critique of modern African 'democracies'

Apartheid

Apartheid
Author: Edgar H. Brookes
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2022-10-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000624412

Originally published in 1968, this volume traces the history and growth of Apartheid in South Africa. The acts which enforced Apartheid – the Group Areas Act, Population and Registration Act are given in full. The book also includes documents which reflected reaction to these measures: Parliamentary debates, newspaper reports and policy statements by the leading political parties and religious denominations. The documents are headed by a full historical and analytical introduction.

Political Parties in Africa

Political Parties in Africa
Author: Sebastian Elischer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2013-09-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107033462

This book examines the effects of ethnicity on party politics in ten African countries. Sebastian Elischer finds that five party types exist: the mono-ethnic, the ethnic alliance, the catch-all, the programmatic, and the personalistic party. He uses these party types to show that the African political landscape is considerably more diverse than conventionally assumed.

Framing the Race in South Africa

Framing the Race in South Africa
Author: Karen E. Ferree
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2010-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139494767

Post-apartheid South African elections have borne an unmistakable racial imprint: Africans vote for one set of parties, whites support a different set of parties, and, with few exceptions, there is no crossover voting between groups. These voting tendencies have solidified the dominance of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over South African politics and turned South African elections into 'racial censuses'. This book explores the political sources of these outcomes. It argues that although the beginnings of these patterns lie in South Africa's past, in the effects apartheid had on voters' beliefs about race and destiny and the reputations parties forged during this period, the endurance of the census reflects the ruling party's ability to use the powers of office to prevent the opposition from evolving away from its apartheid-era party label. By keeping key opposition parties 'white', the ANC has rendered them powerless, solidifying its hold on power in spite of an increasingly restive and dissatisfied electorate.

Political Parties in Africa

Political Parties in Africa
Author: Ebrahim Fakir
Publisher: Jacana Media
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 9781920196790

Democratic governance systems need strong and well- established parties to channel the demands of citizens, govern in the public good and satisfy the basic needs of societies. Moreover, political parties are crucial actors in aggregating and articulating interests, recruiting leaders, presenting election candidates and developing competing policy proposals that provide a voice to citizens and a choice of different proposals for the processes and procedures through which society is governed. To fulfil these functions, however, trust in how the political system functions - and in political parties as cogs in this machine of government in particular - is critical. Citizens need to provide their consent (usually through electoral processes) to political parties to be their voice - and need to trust the alternative choices that parties provide them. But across the African continent, political parties appear to be suffering a malaise of low levels of confidence and trust that citizens have in them, notwithstanding the monumental changes taking place amongst citizen attitudes, especially recent trends towards greater direct political action. This edited volume contributes to critical discourse on politics, democratisation and political parties across the continent, and makes a constructive contribution to a political system malaise by suggesting a set of normative benchmarks for more open and democratic political and party systems, as well as more effective political party institutional establishment and organisation. The book is simultaneously a critical voice and constructive problem solver.."

Women's Organizations and Democracy in South Africa

Women's Organizations and Democracy in South Africa
Author: Shireen Hassim
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2006-06-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299213838

The transition to democracy in South Africa was one of the defining events in twentieth-century political history. The South African women’s movement is one of the most celebrated on the African continent. Shireen Hassim examines interactions between the two as she explores the gendered nature of liberation and regime change. Her work reveals how women’s political organizations both shaped and were shaped by the broader democratic movement. Alternately asserting their political independence and giving precedence to the democratic movement as a whole, women activists proved flexible and remarkably successful in influencing policy. At the same time, their feminism was profoundly shaped by the context of democratic and nationalist ideologies. In reading the last twenty-five years of South African history through a feminist framework, Hassim offers fresh insights into the interactions between civil society, political parties, and the state. Hassim boldly confronts sensitive issues such as the tensions between autonomy and political dependency in feminists’ engagement with the African National Congress (ANC) and other democratic movements, and black-white relations within women’s organizations. She offers a historically informed discussion of the challenges facing feminist activists during a time of nationalist struggle and democratization. Winner, Victoria Schuck Award for best book on women and politics, American Political Science Association “An exceptional study, based on extensive research. . . . Highly recommended.”—Choice “A rich history of women’s organizations in South African . . . . [Hassim] had observed at first hand, and often participated in, much of what she described. She had access to the informants and private archives that so enliven the narrative and enrich the analysis. She provides a finely balanced assessment.”—Gretchen Bauer, African Studies Review

Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa

Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa
Author: J. Piombo
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2009-08-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230623824

An investigation of post-apartheid South Africa, which is notable for a history of politicized ethnicity, a complicated network of ethnic groups and for an expectation that ethnic violence would follow the 1994 political transition that did not occur following democratization.

Government and Politics in Africa

Government and Politics in Africa
Author: William Tordoff
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780253215451

The author provides extra coverage of both North and South Africa and of such key issues as debt, the AIDS epidemic, the position of women and the politics of patronage."--BOOK JACKET.

Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies

Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies
Author: Danielle Resnick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2014
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107036801

By combining the perspectives of political elites with those of voters, this book provides a unique analysis of the dynamics of the party-voter relationship in Africa.