The South African Constitution as a Reflection of the Societas Understanding of the State : an Oakeshottian Perspective

[摘要] This study is an application of the political theory of Michael Oakeshott aimed atenhancing understanding of the South African state. Oakeshott posits that the modernstate is comprised of two separate modes of association, namely societas and universitas.Universitas refers to an association to attain a specific substantive purpose, whilesocietas is an association based on common submission to the recognition of, andadherence to, prescribed formal laws. Each tends towards self‐destruction when thecharacter of a given state is reflected by that mode of association exclusively. Thepresence of both modes of association in tension with each other produces a stable state.The South African state has been shown to reflect a dominantly universitas character,but, since a monopolar state cannot exist, it follows that the societas understanding ofthe state must also be present.In this study, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, is assessedto determine whether it reflects a societas understanding of the state. Two formalconditions for a societas are identified in the work of Oakeshott, namely a system of rulesand norms, and the recognition of this system as being authoritative. These formalconditions are employed as a benchmark against which to test the character of the SouthAfrican Constitution.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria