The two presidencies in the new South Africa : implications for consolidation of democracy

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Following FW De Klerk's decision on the 2nd of February 1990 to unban black liberationmovements, release of Mandela from prison and the uplifting of the state of emergence, aprocess of irreversible change was set in motion in South Africa. This process of change wascaptured in the four-year dramatic series of negotiations sometimes referred to as 'talks abouttalks' and the real negotiations at Kempton Park, which ensued immediately after De Klerk'sground-breaking speech in 1990. The negotiations ultimately resulted in the i~interimconstitution of 1993 which served as the basis for the 1994 elections.The election in turn ushered South Africa into a new epoch of an electoral democracycharacterised by most of the ingredients of a normal democracy. The new born electoraldemocracy met the seven conditional institutions/ principles for a polyarchy as prescribed by. Robert Dahl, namely universal suffrage; free and fair elections; right to run public office;freedom of expression; right to access information; freedom to form organizations of greatvariety and responsiveness of the government to voters and election outcomes. But the keyquestion relates to its consolidation - is it consolidating?Responding to this question is the gist of this not-so comprehensive comparative thesis, whoseparticular focus is the presidency in the new South Africa - both of Mandela and Mbeki. This isdone through the help of the both institutional as well as socio-economic approaches todemocracy. That is, 'without appropriate state institutions, democracy is not possible' (Linz andStepan .1996.p14) and without favourable socio-economic conditions, democratic institutionsare unlikely to endure and consolidate.The institutional analysis puts under spotlight the presidency and decision-making trends,specifically the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) for theMandela's presidential era and the Policy Co-ordination Advisory Services (PCAS) Unit for theMbeki's. On socio-economics it looks at how Mandela and Mbeki dealt with the inequalityproblem issue. This study will not deal with issues such as ethnic heterogeneity or class issuesin relation to consolidation of democracy, except insofar as they illustrate something aboutpolicies on inequalities. It eventually assesses the implications for the consolidation ofdemocracy in the new South Africa by contrasting Mandela and Mbeki's approaches to theeconomy i.e. Mandela's ROP and Nedlac and Mbeki's GEAR and International InvestmentCouncil.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University