Pierre du Toit

The State, Civil Society, and Democratic Transition in South Africa A Survey of Elite Attitudes

The presence of civil society is widely recognized as a crucially important component of the foundation of stable democracy. Divided societies can be expected to be lacking in this attribute. Yet claims have been made for the existence of a civil society in South Africa, which is usually typified as a leading example of a deeply divided society. The importance of this claim for the consolidation of democracy lies in the fact that negotiators were able to converge on a new set of constitutional rules of the game, to hold a founding election, and to establish a Government of National Unity to replace the apartheid state and regime. The question is whether these steps toward securing democracy after apartheid are buttressed by the presence of a civil society or are taken in its absence. If the latter applies, then the immediate task of the new government will have to be both to democratize the state and regime and to civilize society. This article addresses this question by reporting on data that bear on the attitudes of elites to the state and to a wide variety of civic bodies in South Africa.

Parity of Esteem: A Conceptual Framework for Assessing Peace Processes, with a South African Case Study

In the first part of this article a conceptual framework for assessing the durability of negotiated peace settlements is developed. The framework elaborates on approaches that hold that dealing with issues of relative group status is central to the effectiveness of negotiated settlements. The dynamics of post-settlement competition, the negotiated rules that shape such competition, and the impact of competitive outcomes on inter-group status, whether adverse or positive, is explored. It is argued that peace settlements with rules that shape competition in such a way that both parity of outcomes and parity of esteem can be achieved will be more durable. Parity of esteem is achieved to the extent that competitive rules inhibit stakeholders from drawing invidious comparisons from competitive outcomes. The second part of the article comprises a case study of South Africa. A descriptive analysis is made of a particular set of rules that emanate from the 1993/96 negotiated settlement. The competitive arena is t...In the first part of this article a conceptual framework for assessing the durability of negotiated peace settlements is developed. The framework elaborates on approaches that hold that dealing with issues of relative group status is central to the effectiveness of negotiated settlements. The dynamics of post-settlement competition, the negotiated rules that shape such competition, and the impact of competitive outcomes on inter-group status, whether adverse or positive, is explored. It is argued that peace settlements with rules that shape competition in such a way that both parity of outcomes and parity of esteem can be achieved will be more durable. Parity of esteem is achieved to the extent that competitive rules inhibit stakeholders from drawing invidious comparisons from competitive outcomes. The second part of the article comprises a case study of South Africa. A descriptive analysis is made of a particular set of rules that emanate from the 1993/96 negotiated settlement. The competitive arena is the employment market and the rules of affirmative action. The case study centers on a ruling in a case brought to the South African Labor Court by the Solidarity Trade Union. The case illustrates the emergence of invidious comparisons, the dynamics of in-group and out-group interaction, the construction and reconstruction of identities, and the shifting equilibrium of relative group status. In conclusion, it is found that the current rules shaping this competitive situation inhibit the emergence of parity of esteem.

Bargaining about Bargaining: Inducing the Self-Negating Prediction in Deeply Divided Societies—The Case of South Africa

The problem of specifying the empirical conditions of, and prescriptive guidelines for, conflict resolution in deeply divided societies such as South Africa presents a challenge to both political theorists and public policy makers. The aim of this article is to assess the prospects for conflict resolution in South Africa by evaluating two divergent theoretically informed predictions for South Africa. I draw on aspects of bargaining theories that describe the nature of the so-called bargaining problem. I conclude that successful conflict resolution in deeply divided societies such as South Africa depends on how contending political leaders respond to the constraints inherent in conflicts characterized by strategic interaction.

Reconciliation, reconstruction and identity politics in South Africa: A 1994 survey of elite attitudes after apartheid

The transition to South Africas first democratic constitution was achieved despite the obstacles imposed by a history of conflict between communities with sharply differing identities based on race and/or language. The authoritative explanations thus far, based on qualitative analyses, is that the transition was driven by elites who were able to transcend these historical cleavages. We report on a quantitative data set based on a survey of elite attitudes done just after the founding election of 1994 which confirms this proposition. The findings are that the policy preferences of elites in the immediate post‐apartheid South Africa are more strongly associated with political party identification than with race, language or the perceived importance of culture, history or values.

Electoral Systems and the Contest for Relative Group Status in Post-Conflict Societies: The Case of the 2009 Election in South Africa

Empirical support appears to be growing for the claimed effectiveness of proportional electoral systems in contributing to lasting peace in post-conflict societies. We raise two objections against this claim. Firstly, we argue that the theoretical rationale for this causal effect, as presented in consociational theory, is inadequate, in lacking a psychological mechanism for moderation. We argue that the capacity of constitutional arrangements to deliver parity of esteem amongst competing political groups should be added as a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of constitutional rules in maintaining political stability. Secondly, we challenge the empirical claim that South Africa should be considered as an example which supports the argument for Party-list Proportional Representation (PR) as a conflict-regulating rule. Using data from the 2009 general election in South Africa to illustrate the nature of the engagement between ruling and opposition parties, we find that despite the entrenchment of the proportional electoral system, there is a disparity of esteem in political relationships. This necessitates a reconsideration of the purported value of PR as a conflict-regulating constitutional device.

Negotiating Amidst Violence

South Africa’s democratic transition is notable for two reasons. The first is that it was successful in negotiating a constitutional settlement, which, in turn, was effectively implemented. The second is that these negotiations were conducted amidst rising levels of public violence. Violent conflict and peacemaking went hand in hand. The aim of this chapter is to analyse the latter feature. A descriptive overview of the most important events in the process of negotiations will be presented. While sticking to a chronologically sensitive narrative, the process of the negotiations is described in terms of the basic distinction between pre-negotiations and substantive negotiations.

Bargaining power: dependence capabilities and tactical options in South African politics

ABSTRACT The aim of this research note is to outline a research agenda for the analysis of power relations within the ongoing bargaining process in South African politics. The chosen theoretical perspective, that of S. B. Bacharach and E.J. Lawler, is considered appropriate to the current South African context as it offers an analysis of bargaining relationships which precede specific negotiating events and extend beyond these events. By viewing the bargaining relationship as an enduring power struggle, and by drawing an analytical distinction between potential power, tactical action and bargained outcomes, a framework is presented within which the effect of specific tactics on outcomes, as well as on subsequent power relations, can be analysed. It also allows for a bargaining analysis of power and tactics which can extend from the apartheid era through to the post‐apartheid era in South Africa.

Contending regime models and the contest for the middle ground in South African politics

Abstract One of the necessary conditions for a process of substantive bargaining is the existence of a contract zone. Given the nature of the contending regime models being promoted in South Africa, and the context of scarcity, inequality and polarization, a contract zone cannot be assumed to exist, which severely constrains the bargained transformation of South Africa into a post‐apartheid society. A process of bargaining about bargaining in which the aim is to create such a contract zone, by establishing a mutual perception that the contending regime models are compatible rather than mutually exclusive, is required in order to initiate such a process of substantive bargaining.

Global Electronic Screen Culture: Legitimacy at Stake?

The aim of this chapter is to examine the impact of global electronic screen culture on the legitimacy of democracies. The aspect of legitimacy that is considered here is centred on the personal autonomy of the citizen. The chapter examines the way in which engagement with screen-based popular culture can lead to a decline in personal autonomy through the release (deliberately or inadvertently) of personal information into the domain of the World Wide Web. The significance of this phenomenon as a threat to the legitimacy of democracy is considered by way of insights that can be gained from the futuristic novels of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, both of which provide powerful and evocative metaphors, which serve as frameworks for comparison.

Twentieth-Century Democracy and Its Social Base

We start with the two benchmark criteria of democracy set by Robert Dahl and Edward Tufle, those of citizen effectiveness and of system capacity We outline the then (mid-twentieth century) authoritative arguments about how citizen effectiveness is attained in modern democracies through an appropriate political culture (the civic culture), social cohesion (through social capital) and political cohesion (through imagined communities in the form of national identities) as shaped by the then prevailing communication technologies (mostly print media). These conditions for democracy are then contrasted with those of mass societies, the conditions for mobilising people into totalitarian regimes. In the latter part of the chapter we present two of the major challenges to the established wisdom about the social and economic conditions (what we refer to here as the social base) for democracy. The first is the so-called transition paradigm; the second is a function of yet new technology, first television and then the Internet.