Public opinion on land reform in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores public opinion on land reform in South Africa using data gatheredby Ipsos-Markinor in nationally representative public opinion surveys conducted in2004 and 2007, and by an elite survey conducted by Centre for International andComparative Politics in 2007.This study explores whether public opinion on land reform reveals distinct trends thatcorrelate with the selected socio-demographic variables of race, language, partyaffiliation and social status. It is hypothesised that there is an identifiable correlationbetween these independent variables and the opinions of respondents on land reform,with specific groups tending to support land reform whilst other groups tend to rejectit.The data analyses yielded results that highlight distinct trends in public opinion onland reform. Responses are clustered around specific characteristics of theindependent variables and point towards distinct groups having specific views on landreform.From this set of findings it is inferred that public opinion on land reform illustratesthat certain groups of South Africans have contrasting views of how the rule of lawand transformation should find expression in a democratic society. Thesefundamentally differing opinions on key elements of democracy illustrate that SouthAfricans hold diverging opinions of what constitutes democracy, through adherenceto either the liberal or the liberationist model of democracy. These models werepreviously identified as two distinct and diverging interpretations of democracy inSouth Africa and were labelled as such. These two models uphold sharply divergentnormative prescriptions of democracy, as well as contrasting prescriptions for variouspolicies of democratic consolidation, including that of land reform.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University