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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:South Africa's 1994 Election in an African Perspective
Author:Southall, Roger J.ISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Africa Insight
Volume:24
Issue:2
Pages:86-98
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:elections
1994
Politics and Government
Ethnic and Race Relations
Abstract:This article considers whether South Africa is merely at the beginning of a cycle which has seen many African countries move from liberation through consolidation to 'third wave' elections or whether the 1994 elections will provide the basis for sustained democracy. Liberation elections were normally administered on a relatively 'free and fair' basis by the departing colonial power. Consolidation elections, which usually were restricted or noncompetitive, served to entrench regimes in power. Third wave elections occurred from the 1980s and were in large measure brought about by Western political and/or financial pressures. The article first describes the South African election of 1994 and its results, and outlines differences with other Anglophone African countries. Then it indicates similarities between the election in South Africa and liberation elections in other African countries: the intensification of intimidatory political competition between rival nationalist parties; regional voting along certain racial and ethnic fault lines; and the putative fragility of electoral regionalism. The conclusion is that it will be as much of a challenge to the ANC as to its opponents to ensure that the current one-party dominance does not transform itself into authoritarianism. Notes, ref.
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