Fragile stability: State and society in democratic South Africa

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 681-700

  Beall, Jo ^a   Gelb, Stephen ^b   Hassim, Shireen ^b  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION; POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT; POST-APARTHEID; STATE-LOCAL RELATIONS;

EID: 31844445597     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070500370415     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. 'Regime' is used here in the sense of the formal and informal structures of governance processes, rather than to refer to the particular holders of government power. K. Remmer, 'Exclusionary Democracy', Studies in Comparative International Development, 20 (1986).
2. I. Woolard, An Overview of Poverty and Inequality in South Africa (working article, Pretoria, DFID South Africa, 2002).
3. Stats SA (Statistics South Africa), Earning and Spending in SA. Selected Findings from the Income and Expenditure Surveys of October 1995 and October 2000 (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2002).
4. Stats SA, Labour Force Survey September 2003 (Release P0210, Pretoria, Government Printer, 2004).
5. Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Nelson Mandela/HSRC Study of HIV/ AIDS: South African National HIV Prevalence, Behavioural Risks and Mass Media (Pretoria, HSRC Press, 2003).
6. M. Shaw and P. Gastrow, 'Stealing the Show? Crime and its Impact in Post-Apartheid South Africa', Daedalus, 130, 1 (2001).
7. SA Police Service (SAPS), www.saps.gov.za (accessed 27 August 2004). Statistics on all the issues discussed in this and the following paragraph are highly controversial, but the debates are beyond the scope of this article. The broad unemployment rate includes those who have not sought work for four weeks. Data are from the same sources in both paragraphs.
8. 'Social order' is used in the sense of the structure of social organisation and patterns of distribution of social and economic power. J. Migdal, 'The State in Society: An Approach to Struggles for Domination', in J. Migdal, A. Kohli and V. Shue, State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994).
9. This approach follows the tradition of S.M. Lipset's work during the 1950s. A South African example is H. Giliomee and L. Schlemmer, 'Overview: Can a South African Democracy Become Consolidated?', in H. Giliomee, L. Schlemmer and S. Hauptfleisch (eds), The Bold Experiment: South Africa's New Democracy (Johannesburg, Southern Publishers, 1994).
10. G. O'Donnell, P. Schmitter and L. Whitehead (eds), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives (Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), p. 59.
11. A. Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991).
12. For a South African application, see F.van Zyl Slabbert, The Quest for Democracy: South Africa in Transition (Johannesburg, Penguin, 1992).
13. See M. Murray, The Revolution Deferred: The Painful Birth of Post-Apartheid South Africa (London, Verso, 1994)
14. E. Webster and G. Adler, 'Challenging Transition Theory: The Labour Movement, Radical Reform, and Transition to Democracy in South Africa', Politics and Society, 23, 1 (1995)
15. H. Marais, South Africa, Limits to Change: The Political Economy of Transformation (London, Zed Books, 1998)
16. P. Bond, Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa (London, Pluto Press, 2000).
17. In fact, a major weakness of the transitions literature is that it is too narrow in defining the interests of the actors simply in terms of the negotiation process (as moderates, reformers and so on). This 'underspecifies' the actors by ignoring the ways in which interests are shaped and constrained by social factors such as the composition of their support base, organisational pressures and economic opportunities or difficulties.
18. Migdal, 'The State in Society'.
19. This is not to suggest that social fractures can be made to disappear, but rather that they can be 'contained' for extended periods, that is, expressed in ways that do not threaten the wider social order. We are using institutions here in the 'Northian' sense, in other words, implicit codes and norms of behaviour distinct from organisations. Note also that normative concerns - whether or not an institutional framework that achieves stability also produces equity - are distinct, since equity (whether of resource distribution, voice or opportunity) may be sufficient for stability but it is not necessary. It is quite possible to imagine a 'low-level' equilibrium that is stable in that there are no dynamic forces to move society away from it, but is inequitable in fundamental respects.
20. Mann, cited in Migdal. 'The State in Society'.
21. S. Gelb, 'Globalisation, the State and Macroeconomic Policy', in J. Muller, N. Cloete and S. Badat (eds), Challenges of Globalisation: South African Debates with Manuel Castells (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 2001).
22. M. Mann, 'The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results', in J.A. Hall (ed.), States in History (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986).
23. The role of foreign and international agencies (private, governmental and multilateral), who provided financial, intellectual and strategic resources was also important.
24. Security force administrative white business committees aiming to re-stabilise black residential areas in the short term, through force and in the longer run through expanding economic opportunities.
25. Despotic power, in Mann's (1986) definition, refers to the state's power over society, to act without constraint and expect that its instructions and orders will be carried out. It is contrasted with infrastructural power.
26. P. Gastrow, Organised Crime in South Africa: An Assessment of its Nature and Origins (Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Monograph 28, 1998).
27. Shaw and Gastrow, 'Stealing the Show? Crime and its Impact in Post-Apartheid South Africa'.
28. SA Revenue Service (SARS), Annual Report (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1998).
29. J. Irish and K. Qhobosheane, 'South Africa', in P. Gastrow (ed.), Penetrating State and Business: Organised Crime in Southern Africa, Volume 2 (Pretoria, ISS, Monograph 89, 2003)
30. J. Redpath, The Scorpions: Analysing the Directorate of Special Operations (Pretoria, ISS, Monograph 96, 2004).
31. Other indicators of criminal violence remain high - rape remained at its 1994/5 level of 115 per 100,000 people through the period, assault rose from 1,146 to 1,286, and attempted murder from 69.4 to 78.9. Robbery and housebreaking also rose significantly.
32. SARS, Annual Report (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1998)
33. SARS, Annual Report (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2003).
34. A. Minnaar, Policing the Ports: Reducing Illicit Trafficking in South Africa (Pretoria, ISS, Monograph 84, 2003). Also worth noting is the high level of co-operation between the Police Service, Scorpions and Revenue Service in addressing organised crime, corruption and illegal cross-border trade.
35. The first round of local government elections took place in two stages because the contestation over municipal boundaries and the form of local government was so fierce and protracted in KwaZulu-Natal that the process was delayed in that province until 1996.
36. At provincial level only two of the nine provinces were lost by the ANC in 1994 and 1999: KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape. In 2004, the ANC won in the Western Cape and obtained a plurality in KZN.
37. For example, Larry Diamond and Samuel Huntington.
38. Przeworski, Democracy and the Market.
39. R. Ballard, A. Habib and I. Valodia, Globalization, Marginalization, and Contemporary Social Movements in South Africa (Durban, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004).
40. Butler's article is the only one included here which was not presented at the Wits University workshop in 2003, but the relevance of its subject to the focus of this Special Issue merits its inclusion.
41. This has only occurred in a limited way in one of the two provinces (Western Cape) where the ANC has not been assured of electoral victory.
42. T. Lodge, Politics in South Africa from Mandela to Mbeki (Cape Town, David Philip Publishers and Oxford, James Currey, 2003), p. 161
43. R. Southall, 'The State of Party Politics: Struggles within the Tripartite Alliance and the Decline of Opposition', in J. Daniel, A. Habib and R. Southall (eds), The State of the Nation: South Africa, 2003/ 2004 (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2003), pp. 57-8.
44. S. Gelb, 'Sustaining the Nation', in G. Maharaj (ed.), Between Unity and Diversity, Essays on Nation-Building in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Cape Town, David Philip Publishers, 1999).
45. Ballard, Habib and Valodia, Globalization, Marginalization, and Contemporary Social Movements in South Africa.
46. Przeworski, Democracy and the Market.
47. This is not to say that social movements cannot dispute macro-economic policy but rather to suggest that they would do so 'from a distance'.
48. Most commentary on South Africa's first decade of democracy, even the most critical analyses of the postapartheid transition, have been coy about addressing race post-1994 (Bond, Elite Transition; Marais, South Africa, Limits to Change), though a few analysts have strongly emphasised race as a critical variable. See N. Alexander, An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 2002)
49. A. Habib, 'Conversation with a Nation: Race and Redress in South Africa', in E. Pieterse and F. Meintjies (eds), Voices of the Transition. The Politics, Poetics and Practices of Social Change in South Africa (Johannesburg, Heinemann, 2004), pp. 237-48.
50. Led by the ANC, the anti-apartheid Congress Movement committed itself in 1955 to the rights-based Freedom Charter, which espoused both individual human rights as well as equal rights for all national groups, reflecting some of the tensions within the liberation movement.
51. N. Mandela, 'Address to the Joint Session of both Houses of Parliament' (First Session, first Parliament, Cape Town, 1994), p. 3.
52. R.A. Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa, Legitimising the Post-Apartheid State (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001).
53. D. Tutu, No Reconciliation without Forgiveness (New York, Doubleday, 1999).
54. D. Posel and G. Simpson, 'The Power of Truth: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Context', in D. Posel and G. Simpson (eds), Commissioning the Past, Understanding South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 2002), pp. 1-13.
55. Ibid.
56. B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, Verso Press, 1993).
57. M. Mamdani, 'Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 43, 4 (2001), p. 661.
58. T. Mbeki, 'I am an African'. Statement at adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of the 'Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996', 8 May 1996, Cape Town. Reprinted in G. Maharaj (ed.), Between Unity and Diversity: Essays on Nation-Building in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Cape Town, David Philip Publishers, 1999), pp. 11-15.
59. T. Mbeki, 'Statement on Reconciliation and Nation-building', National Assembly, 29 May 1998.
60. S. Hassim, 'A Virtuous Circle? Gender Equality and Representation in South Africa', pp. 336-62, in J. Daniel, J. Lutchman and R. Southall (eds), The State of the Nation 2004/2005 (Cape Town, HSRC Publishers, 2004).
61. Gelb, 'Sustaining the Nation';
62. S. Gelb, 'Addressing Inequality in South Africa: Causes, Nature and Responses', article prepared for DfID project on Inequality in Middle-income Countries (Johannesburg, EDGE Institute, 2003).
63. For example, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's crash in 1998 reduced BEE ownership of total market capitalisation from 7 per cent to 2.2 per cent.
64. A. Whiteford and D. van Seventer, Winners and Losers. South Africa's Changing Income Distribution in the 1990s (Pretoria, WEFA Southern Africa, 1999), p. 14.
65. Differentiation was not slowed in any way by the involvement in BEE equity transfer deals of investment companies set up by trade unions and community organisations.
66. This was true of share ownership issues; on affirmative action, policy was much more active.
67. Black Economic Empowerment Commission (BEECOM), Report of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission (Johannesburg, BEECOM, 2001).
68. S. Gelb, 'Macroeconomics in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Real Growth Versus Financial Stability', in R. French-Davis (ed.), Seeking Growth under Financial Volatility (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
69. S. van der Berg, 'Trends in Racial Fiscal Incidence in South Africa', South African Journal of Economics, 69, 2 (June 2001), p. 2. There is, however, a much less positive record on improvements in service quality.
70. This article was presented at the workshop but is not included here as it was published as 'The Gender Pact and Democratic Consolidation: Institutionalizing Gender Equality in the South African State', Feminist Studies, 29, 3 (2003), pp. 505-28.
71. Presidency Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services, South Africa, Towards a Ten Year Review: Synthesis Report on Implementation of Government Programme: Discussion Document (Pretoria, Government Communication and Information Systems, 2003), pp. 102 and 107.
72. See the State of the Nation addresses in February and May 2004 (T. Mbeki, 'State of the Nation Address', Parliament, February 2004
73. T. Mbeki, 'State of the Nation Address', Parliament, May 2004).
74. Gelb, 'Addressing Inequality in South Africa'.
75. K. Rust, 'No Shortcuts to Progress: South Africa's Progress in Implementing its Housing Policy, 1994-2002' (Johannesburg, Institute for Housing in South Africa, 2003)
76. C. Kihato and C. Kabemba, 'Enhancing Policy Implementation: Lessons from the Education Sector' (Johannesburg, Centre for Policy Studies, 2002).
77. A. Kohli and V. Shue, 'State Power and Social Forces: On Political Contention and Accommodation in the Third World', in Migdal, Kohli and Shue, State Power and Social Forces, p. 321. They argue that aside from the issue of its distribution, power has a quantitative dimension, implying that 'some societies simply have more power with which to define and achieve collective goals than others.' The nature of state-society linkages is an important determinant of a society's quantum of power.
78. Nor is it only a question of the emergence of oppositional political organisations. The strategic response of the dominant groups is also central to the dynamics of crisis development.
79. Ballard, Habib and Valodia, Globalization, Marginalization, and Contemporary Social Movements in South Africa.