Rich versus poor : discrepancies in perceptions of ANC and NP supporters towards the poor in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Within the academic fraternity poverty has traditionally been treated and analysed as asociological concept. When poverty reaches critical proportions, its consequencesmay, however, spill directly into the political sphere. The author contends that povertyhas become one of the major determinants of political debate in South Africa.The NP government (which changed its name to NNP in 1998), which ruled SouthAfrica from 1948-1994 instituted apartheid, a policy, which gave priority to theinterests of whites to the detriment of blacks, coloureds and Indians. This resulted inan unequal distribution of resources, and consequently also unequal socialdevelopment of South Africa's different population groups. As a result poverty isconcentrated in the non-whites groups, with blacks as a group being the worstaffected.The aim of this assignment is to investigate the difference in attitudes betweensupporters of the ANC and NP towards poverty and the poor in South Africa. In thisassignment the author proposes that ANC supporters have a better understanding ofthe nature of poverty and more experience of poverty than NP supporters. She basesher contention on the fact that the overwhelming majority of the ANC's supporterscome from the previously disadvantaged groups.The finding of this study is that political party support is one of the majordeterminants of perceptions that South Africans hold towards the poor. ANCsupporters seem optimistic about the future prospects of the poor, while NPsupporters seem to be more pessimistic. It must, however, be noted that in manyinstances there seem to be a general trend that population groups in both parties havethe same response pattern (e.g. blacks will show the highest percentage in a responseto a question, followed by coloureds, Indians and then whites or vice versa).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University