Anthony Butler

How Democratic is the African National Congress

This article explores three dimensions of ANC democracy: the movements entrenchment of liberal representative democracy, its pursuit of national democratic revolution, and its internal organisational democracy. It identifies tensions over the meaning and significance of democracy and the relations between internal democratic processes and external democratic goals. The movement has defended constitutionalism but failed to entrench democratic attitudes or to prepare for a multi-party system; it has promoted social transformation but failed to buttress the minimal gains of liberal democracy; and it has prevented debilitating conflict over policy and candidate selection but grown increasingly intolerant of internal debate and competition. The article finds no inexorable authoritarian logic at work. However, it identifies anti-democratic tendencies that require intentional political amelioration if they are not to become mutually reinforcing.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE EROSION OF ONE‐PARTY DOMINANCE

Academic studies of one‐party dominance (OPD) in post‐apartheid South Africa suggest that it has played both positive and negative roles in the entrenchment of constitutional democracy. Recent internal strains in the African National Congress, voter de‐alignment and the emergence of a significant breakaway party indicate that single‐party dominance might soon erode. This article tentatively investigates the possible consequences of such a potential decline of party dominance. It identifies benign developments that might result from a lifting of impediments to civil society activism and from a re‐legitimation of opposition politics. It also explores potentially negative ramifications that may follow from the decline of the ANC’s regulatory role in non‐racialism, conflict management and cooperative governance.

Introduction: Understanding the ANC at sub-national level

The political entrenchment of the African National Congress (ANC) as the ruling party in South Africa over the last two decades has given rise to an extensive literature focussing upon negative internal trends such as factionalism, the manipulation of internal electoral processes, the pursuit of individual wealth, internal disorder, and increasing tensions within the tripartite alliance. Such trends, along with growing levels of popular protest, suggest a decline in the party’s legitimacy and long term prospects. Such organisational deterioration has occasioned an extensive reflective literature, yet there has been little detailed research into how the ANC operates on the ground. Overwhelmingly, predominant paradigms - of the ANC as a national liberation movement; as a party that has fallen victim to neo-patrimonialism; as a dominant party; and as a vehicle of neo-liberal capitalism - are all illuminating, yet simultaneously entrench key weaknesses in analysis, focussing upon over-arching narratives rather than encouraging careful analysis of causal practices. Much of this flows from the fact that academic analysts lack practical and intuitive knowledge of the ANC’s institutional life, complexity and informal networks. The present collection seeks to correct that balance by presenting a set of papers which focus upon the dynamics of the ANC at sub-national level, pointing the way to a more critical engagement with party processes than is usually presented.

The politics of numbers: national membership growth and subnational power competition in the African National Congress

The ANC has experienced rapid membership growth in recent years. This paper explores competing explanations for this growth, and concludes that subnational political competition and national factional conflicts, rather than deliberate membership recruitment campaigns, have been the primary drivers of increased numbers. The paper goes on to assess the implications of this dynamic of membership change for party organisational challenges.