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Electoral Politics in South Africa by J. Piombo,L. Nijzink Pdf
Ten years into the 'new' South Africa, how does democracy function? This volume provides a retrospective on a decade of elections and democracy in South Africa. The book analyzes the evolution of the party system and electoral campaigns; tracks changes in public opinion and voter motivations; assesses the political implications of socioeconomic change; depicts the evolution of parliament and the electoral system; probes the often-tense relationship between media and government; analyzes the institutionalization the Independent Electoral Commission; and, finally, argues that South Africa is witnessing a 'normalization' of politics. The book speaks to a broad range of topics, all linked through the electoral theme, which get to the heart of many issues in contemporary South African politics.
Local Elections in South Africa by Susan Booysen Pdf
The book?s collection of research and analyses aims to close a substantial gap in systematic analyses of local politics, elections and government in South Africa. This book?s 20 authors represent the perspectives of many of South Africa?s most accomplished scholars. The collective project sheds valuable light on ?the local, the heart of politics in South Africa?.
Electoral Politics in Africa since 1990 by Jaimie Bleck,Nicolas van de Walle Pdf
Democratic transitions in the early 1990s introduced a sea change in Sub-Saharan African politics. Between 1990 and 2015, several hundred competitive legislative and presidential elections were held in all but a handful of the region's countries. This book is the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the key issues, actors, and trends in these elections over the last quarter century. The book asks: what motivates African citizens to vote? What issues do candidates campaign on? How has the turn to regular elections promoted greater democracy? Has regular electoral competition made a difference for the welfare of citizens? The authors argue that regular elections have both caused significant changes in African politics and been influenced in turn by a rapidly changing continent - even if few of the political systems that now convene elections can be considered democratic, and even if many old features of African politics persist.
Author : Thuynsma, Heather Publisher : Africa Institute of South Africa Page : 236 pages File Size : 47,6 Mb Release : 2017-11-28 Category : Political Science ISBN : 9780798305143
Political Parties in South Africa by Thuynsma, Heather Pdf
Political parties and the party system that underpins South Africa’s democracy have the potential to build a cohesive and prosperous nation. But in the past few years the ANC’s dominance has strained the system and tested it and its institutions’ fortitude. There are deeper issues of accountability that often spurn the Constitution and there is also a clear need to foster meaningful public participation and transparency. This volume offers a different and detailed assessment of the health of South Africa’s political system. This study intends to unravel the condition of the party system in South Africa and culminates in the question: Do South African parties promote or hinder democracy in the country? The areas of the party system that are known to require continued work are the weakness of democratic structures within parties, the perceived lack of responsibility of elected parliamentarians towards voters, non-transparent private partner financing structures and a lack of attractiveness of party-political commitment, especially for women. Experts in the respective fields address all of these areas in this book.
Everyday Identity and Electoral Politics by Adam S. Harris Pdf
"While ethnic identities are found to play a key role in politics, not all members of a group toe their group's line and vote for its affiliated party. Why do some voters choose not to vote with their group when doing so can often be advantageous given the norms of ethnic favoritism observed across Africa? According to Afrobarometer data, between 30-52% of voters in Sub-Saharan Africa do not vote for their ethnic groups' party. This book argues that as individuals are less readily identified as members of their ethnic group, they are less likely to be treated as if they are members of that group, which in turn weakens their identification with the group. Individuals who weakly identify with their group are less likely to be influenced by their identity when voting. This approach makes this book the first study to theorize and empirically test the effects of the everyday identity construction process on ethnic salience and in turn on vote choice. To test the theory, the book develops the concept of ethnic distance and measures it empirically. Empirical tests find support for the argument in South Africa, Uganda, and the United States. These cases allow me to test the effect of ethnic distance on several different ethnic dimensions (race, language, and region) in a variety of contexts. As a first step toward matching our scholarly concepts of ethnicity to its complexity in the real world, this study is poised to alter the way we think about ethnicity in politics"--
Electoral Systems and Democratization in Southern Africa by Andrew Reynolds Pdf
The design of electoral systems and executive types is increasingly being recognized the key lever of constitutional engineering to be applied in the interests of political accommodation and stability in ethnically divided societies. In this groundbreaking comparative study of democratic design in Southern Africa, Andrew Reynolds finds that the decisions about how to constitute representative parliaments have wide ranging effects on the type of parties and party system that develops, the nature of executive-legislative relations, and the inclusiveness of both majority and minority interests in the process of governance. While electoral system design is the primary focus of the book, the related constitutional issues of whether to choose a presidential or parliamentary system, and whether to entrench consensual, consociational or majoritarian government are also discussed. Analysing the experiences of Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the author presents a host of revealing conclusions that help shed light on the success or failure of democratic design in other fledgling democracies, in both Africa and beyond.
Elections and Accountability in South Africa by Collette Schulz-Herzenberg Pdf
This paper explores these different aspects of voter behaviour to assess whether elections can act as an effective accountability mechanism in South Africa. It finds that, while voters are willing to withdraw support from the incumbent party if they disapprove of its performance, they are unlikely to move their support to another party. Sanctioning government performance in the traditional sense is weak, making political accountability through elections more elusive. Paradoxically, the way in which political accountability currently manifests itself in the South African political system may actually lead to the entrenchment of one-party dominance, further reducing incentives for responsive and accountable governance by the incumbent party. The paper concludes that in the South African context electoral accountability relies less on the notion of sanctions as a means to punish government. Instead, greater attention should be given to the method of 'selection' as a means to control politicians. If this line of reasoning is adopted, elections can still act as an accountability mechanism and even as a sanctioning device. An accountability relationship can therefore be established when voters regard elections as an opportunity to choose among parties to select the best possible party on offer.
Voting for Democracy by John Daniel,Roger Southall Pdf
First published in 1999, the essays in this book examine the context and conduct of a series of watershed elections held in Anglophone Africa in the first half of the 1990s. These elections crystallized a wider process of democratization, underway in much of sub-Saharan Africa during the last decade, in which attempts were made to shift from various forms of authoritarian rule (colonial or racial oligarchies, military regimes, one-party states, or presidential rule) to pluralist parliamentary politics. This volume brings together for the first time, studies of these events in countries sharing a comparable legacy of British colonialism, an acquaintance with the Westminster constitutional tradition and related experiences of decolonization and democratic struggle. Written from a variety of perspectives by contributors with first-hand knowledge and long experience of research in Africa, the papers situate each election in its wider political context, examining the political forces at work and the events which gave rise to reform. All indicate that, despite Western pressure for reform and the influence of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe, internal African demands for democracy provided the primary driving force for change. Not all the elections fulfilled the hopes invested in them. In Nigeria, they were annulled before all the votes had been counted. In Kenya, the disarray of the opposition ensured the return to power of the old order. Even where they produced a successful regime transition, the democratic credentials of the new governments were sometimes seriously flawed. Yet for all these limitations, these watershed elections signalled important progress for African democracy. They brought a formal end to colonial rule in Namibia and to three centuries of racial discrimination in South Africa. They brought changes of government through the ballot box in Zambia and Malawi, among the first instances in Africa of such change being accomplished without the use of force. Above all, they provided African electorates with an opportunity to pass judgement on long-serving authoritarian regimes – with unequivocal results: in every case, when given the chance to vote, Africans voted for democracy.
Electoral Politics, Laws and Ethnicity in Africa by Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Pdf
The book will provide the first regionally widespread and thematic look at African electoral systems and antecedent issues such as electoral laws, gender, politics, violence, and youth challenges in Africa. It will enrich the discussion on four country-specific studies within a general regional framework that explains and explores a "home base" viewpoint of what occurs before, during and after elections. The book will bring together a discussion of diverse issues under one umbrella, which has never been done before. This book begins a discussion from an academic's and practitioner's view of elections, contrasting the intellectual discussion with the author's personal experience of practical realities on the ground. Additionally, the book will create long-standing and lasting literature that will compare elections in some of Africa's leading democratic countries, such as Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai is Head of the Department of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Sierra Leone. He is also a civil society practitioner working on elections and leading coalitions. He is a pro-democracy activist and was chair of the Political Affairs Cluster of the African Union's Economic Social and Cultural Council monitored several elections in Africa. He led the legal review process of Sierra Leone's election laws leading to the 2023 elections. .
Electoral Territoriality in Southern Africa by Stephen Rule Pdf
This title was first published in 2000. A comprehensive comparison of voting patterns in seven countries of Southern Africa. The modern democratic electoral histories of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are placed within the contexts of their pre-colonial and colonial polities. The extent to which urbanization and the regional distribution of language, ethnicity and race impacts on the electoral geography of the sub-continent is demonstrated statistically and cartographically. The analysis is complemented by anecdotal evidence gathered during personal interviews and discussions with voters, politicians, government officials and academics.
Political Parties in South Africa by Heather Thuynsma Pdf
Political parties and the party system that underpins South Africa's democracy have the potential to build a cohesive and prosperous nation. But in the past few years the ANC's dominance has strained the system and tested it and its institutions' fortitude. There are deeper issues of accountability that often spurn the Constitution and there is also a clear need to foster meaningful public participation and transparency. This volume offers a different and detailed assessment of the health of South Africa's political system. This study intends to unravel the condition of the party system in South Africa and culminates in the question: Do South African parties promote or hinder democracy in the country? The areas of the party system that are known to require continued work are the weakness of democratic structures within parties, the perceived lack of responsibility of elected parliamentarians towards voters, non-transparent private partner financing structures and a lack of attractiveness of party-political commitment, especially for women. Experts in the respective fields address all of these areas in this book.
National Elections and Political Apathy. A Comparative Study of Elections in Nigeria and South Africa by Leo the Great Ebenezer Ph.D Pdf
Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 4.5, , course: African Electoral Democracy, language: English, abstract: This research examines the impact of political apathy on electoral participation in Nigeria and South-Africa in the 2019 general elections in both countries. The objectives are to determine the causes of political apathy in the electoral participation of citizens of Nigeria and South-Africa in their 2019 general elections and to examine the impact of political apathy on the electoral process in both countries. Furthermore the author determines the trend of political apathy (voter turnout) in the general elections in Nigeria and South-Africa from 1999 to 2019, and from 1994 to 2019 respectively. The necessity of this research was borne out of the need to address the increasing rate of political apathy especially voter turnout in both democratic nations. Political participation (voter turnout) was 70% in 2003 in Nigeria when it peaked after four years of democracy. In South Africa, it was 89% in 1999 when participatory electoral democracy was restored. This had declined to 35% in Nigeria in 2019 and 63% in South-Africa in 2019 elections, representing 35% and 26% decline at the peak of electoral participation in both countries respectively. The causes of political apathy in the two countries have been attributed to lack of mobilization of the electorate, political marginalization, corruption, lack of political accountability, lack of motivation, lack of trust in the electoral process, failed promises by political leaders, lack of civic engagements, political violence, thuggery and militarization of the electoral process, political deception, powerlessness of votes etc. Citizens’ loss of interest in the electoral system in both countries has clearly undermined increased participation in the political and electoral processes. The Rational Choice Theory (Downs, 1959) was used. This work observed an obvious decline in political participation in both countries. This was evident in the 2019 national elections in both countries. Lack of trust in the electoral process has undermined electorate’s interest in the political system.
Framing the Race in South Africa by Karen E. Ferree Pdf
Post-apartheid South African elections have borne an unmistakable racial imprint: Africans vote for one set of parties, whites support a different set of parties, and, with few exceptions, there is no crossover voting between groups. These voting tendencies have solidified the dominance of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over South African politics and turned South African elections into 'racial censuses'. This book explores the political sources of these outcomes. It argues that although the beginnings of these patterns lie in South Africa's past, in the effects apartheid had on voters' beliefs about race and destiny and the reputations parties forged during this period, the endurance of the census reflects the ruling party's ability to use the powers of office to prevent the opposition from evolving away from its apartheid-era party label. By keeping key opposition parties 'white', the ANC has rendered them powerless, solidifying its hold on power in spite of an increasingly restive and dissatisfied electorate.