Hermann Giliomee

The Awkward Embrace: One-Party Domination and Democracy

Democracies derive their resilience and vitality from the fact that the rule of a particular majority is usually only of a temporary nature. By looking at four case-studies, The Awkward Embrace studies democracies of a different kind; rule by a dominant party which is virtually immune from defeat. Such systems have been called Regnant or or Uncommon Democracies. They are characterized by distinctive features: the staging of unfree or corrupt elections; the blurring of the lines between government, the ruling party and the state; the introduction of a national project which is seen to be above politics; and the erosion of civil society. This book addresses major issues such as why one such democracy, namely Taiwan, has been moving in the direction of a more competitive system; how economic crises such as the present one in Mexico can transform the system; how government-business relations in Malaysia are affecting the base of the dominant party; and whether South Africa will become a one-party dominant system.

The Rise and Possible Demise of Afrikaans as Public Language

Afrikaans developed from Dutch into a distinct language as a result of the interaction of imported slaves, indigenous Khoikhoi and European colonists at the Cape of Good Hope. English, which became the official language in 1806 in the Cape Colony, threatened both Dutch, the official language between 1652 and 1795, and Afrikaans. The dispersal of the Dutch or Afrikaner colonists across South Africa, the rise of Afrikaner nationalism triggered by the South African War (1899–1902), and widespread Afrikaner poverty in the early decades of the twentieth century created the conditions for the rapid growth of Afrikaans as public language. It is one of only four languages in the world that in the course of the twentieth century was standardized and used in all walks of public and private life, including postgraduate teaching. The transition of South Africa to an inclusive democracy in 1994 freed Afrikaans from its apartheid shackles but also made it only one of eleven official languages. As a result its future as a public language is far from secure.

’n Vaste plek vir Afrikaans : taaluitdagings op kampus

Giliomee, H. & Schlemmer, L. 2006. ’n Vaste plek vir Afrikaans : taaluitdagings op kampus. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS. doi:10.18820/9781920109172.

Critical Afrikaner Intellectuals and Apartheid, 1943–1958

Apartheid dominated the political thinking of two generations of Afrikaner intellectuals from its first conceptualizations in the early 1940s to its disintegration as an ideology during the 1980s. Western Cape politicians, academics, journalists and church leaders were the main contributors to the Sauer Report, which was the greatest influence on the apartheid plank of the National Partys 1948 platform. Although apartheid as a policy did not clinch the NP victory, it won steady support in the course of the 1950s. The article discusses the work of four Afrikaner critics of apartheid as it was conceptualized and implemented in the first decade of NP rule. The most striking observations were those of the ambivalent figure of the poet and essayist N.P. van Wyk Louw, who has remained an important moral voice in the Afrikaner political tradition. André du Toits Die Sondes van die Vaders (1983) built on some key arguments of Louw in arguing for the abandonment of apartheid as a way of securing Afrikaner survival.

Democracy and the Frontier A Comparative Study of Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and the Graaff-Reinet Rebellion (1795–1796)

(1974). Democracy and the Frontier A Comparative Study of Bacons Rebellion (1676) and the Graaff-Reinet Rebellion (1795–1796) South African Historical Journal: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 30-51.

Eighteenth century cape society and its historiography: Culture, race, and class

The revisionist literature of the 1970s approached social stratification in South Africa with the insistence that proper ‘weighting’ of the race and class factors should occur. Arguing that class and not racial consciousness was the key determinant of social structure in pre‐industrial South Africa, it concluded that eighteenth century Cape society in certain areas of the colony was characterised by greater fluidity than the caste system of the American South or industrialised South Africa. George Fredricksons comparative analysis of American and South African history rejects the first mentioned approach but agrees with the conclusion. This article argues that Fredrickson erred by characterising Cape society as being largely based on class and a permeable colour line. The extent to which Cape Town or frontier society can be categorised as such was limited, while the agrarian Western Cape, in terms of manumission rates and the incidence of mixed marriages, was one of the most rigid caste societies in the ...