Die transformasie van politieke instellings in oorgangstye - 'n rekonstruksie, interpretasie en evaluasie van S. P. Huntington se teoretiese bydrae

[摘要] When the present state of affairs in world politics is being reviewed, the singlepredominant characteristic that emerges is the fundamental and radical politicalchanges that occured during recent years. The development from an old world orderto a new one, with by implication, the transformation of political institutions incountries, is demonstrated, inter alia, both by the collapse of communistgovernments in the USSR and in prominent East Bloc countries, and by a worldwideprocess of democratization. South Africa, too, is at present caught up in a process ofdrastic political change which, particularly since 2 February 1990, has had farreachingimplications for existing structures and political institutions. Indeed, SouthAfrica, as is the case with numerous other countries worldwide, illustrates the fact thatthe transformation of political institutions during transitional periods is a prominentfeature of present times.A theorist that made an enormous contribution towards understanding thetransformation of political institutions during periods of transition is the controversialS.P. Huntington. In numerous contributions dating back to the late fifties andparticularly to the 1960's, Huntington succeeded in explaining theoretically thephenomenon of the transformation of political institutions during periods of transitionand in so doing he clarified a topical and complex phenomenon in world politics.Huntington's contribution is regarded as being of such importance that he isconsidered to be one of the foremost political scientists of the post World War IIperiod.The following factors served as motivation for this study which has the following title:The Transformation of Political Institutions during periods of transition - A reconstruction,interpretation and evaluation of the theoretical contributions of S.P. Huntington:1. The topicality of his contributions during a time of sweeping political changes.2. The status (importance) that his theories attained which resulted in Huntingtonemerging as a pioneer in his field of study.3. The gap that exists within contemporary literature as regards thereconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of all the Huntington'scontributions with reference to the phenomenon of the transformation ofpolitical institutions during periods of transition.This study attempts to make a contribution' towards:* The development of a metatheoretical framework by means of which politicalchange in general and Huntington's theories in particular may bereconstructed, interpreted and evaluated.** Determining Huntington's position within the identified field of study in the lightof the particular contributions made by him.*** The reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of Huntington's contributionsby applying the metatheoretical framework as developed for use in this study.

[发布机构] University of the Free State