Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa

Institutions, Ethnicity, and Political Mobilization in South Africa

Author: J. Piombo

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-08-03

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0230623824

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An investigation of post-apartheid South Africa, which is notable for a history of politicized ethnicity, a complicated network of ethnic groups and for an expectation that ethnic violence would follow the 1994 political transition that did not occur following democratization.


Traditional Leadership and Democratisation in Southern Africa

Traditional Leadership and Democratisation in Southern Africa

Author: Sandra Düsing

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9783825850654

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What are the impacts of ethnically based, traditional political institutions on democratic state and nation building in Southern Africa and how do heterogeneous sources of legitimacy affect the prospects of long-term democratic regime consolidation? What are the impacts of "traditionalism" employed for purposes of party-political mobilization? An indicator for the political influence of traditional leadership in Southern Africa is the fact that a considerable number of democratically elected politicians in high office originate from aristocratic families, representing hereditary traditional leadership structures for centuries. This is evident for the charismatic founding president of the new South Africa; Nelson Mandela, as well as for his adversary, the prime minister-in-office, Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The careful reconsideration of this "state behind the state" has been identified as crucial, in this study, to make any realistic assessments of the prospects for sustainable democratization in Southern African countries in the near future.


Ethnic Diversity and Federalism

Ethnic Diversity and Federalism

Author: Yonatan Tesfaye Fessha

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-23

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1317140974

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How federalism can be used to provide recognition and accommodate ethnic groups is an important topic, not only in Africa, but in multi-ethnic communities around the world. Examining how institutions of multi-ethnic states have been designed to accommodate ethnic diversity while at the same time maintaining national unity, this book locates institutional responses to the challenges of ethnic diversity within the context of a federal arrangement. It examines how a federal arrangement has been used to reconcile the conflicting pressures of the demand for the recognition of distinctive identities, on the one hand, and the promotion of political and territorial integrity, on the other. Comparative case studies of South Africa and Ethiopia as the two federal systems provide a contrasting approach to issues of ethnic diversity. Suggesting new ways in which federalism might work, the author identifies key institutions lessons which will help to build an all-inclusive society.


Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa

Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa

Author: Bruce Berman

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2004-09-30

Total Pages: 669

ISBN-13: 0821442678

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The politics of identity and ethnicity will remain a fundamental characteristic of African modernity. For this reason, historians and anthropologists have joined political scientists in a discussion about the ways in which democracy can develop in multicultural societies. In Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, the contributors address why ethnicity represents a political problem, how the problem manifests itself, and which institutional models offer ways of ameliorating the challenges that ethnicity poses to democratic nation-building.


Opposition and Democracy in South Africa

Opposition and Democracy in South Africa

Author: Roger Southall

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9780714651491

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Sixteen essays consider the role, functions, legitimacy, and capacity of political opposition in South Africa, where there is increasing debate not just about whether democracy will survive, but about the quality of that democracy. Divided along lines of history, ideology, aspiration, race, and ethnicity as well as by more immediate competition for electoral support, South Africa's 12 fragmented opposition parties are seen as struggling against major questions of tactics and strategy. The contributors are researchers and academics in sociology, history, and political science from across South Africa. Distributed by ISBS. c. Book News Inc.


Making Race and Nation

Making Race and Nation

Author: Anthony W. Marx

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-12-28

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780521584555

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In this bold, original and persuasive book, Anthony W. Marx provocatively links the construction of nations to the construction of racial identity. Using a comparative historical approach, Marx analyzes the connection between race as a cultural and political category rooted in the history of slavery and colonialism, and the development of three nation states. He shows how each country's differing efforts to establish national unity and other institutional impediments have served, through the nation-building process and into their present systems of state power, to shape and often crystallize categories and divisions of race. Focusing on South Africa, Brazil and the United States, Marx illustrates and elucidates the historical dynamics and institutional relationships by which the construction of race and the development of these nations have informed one another. Deftly combining comparative history, political science and sociological interpretation, sharpened by over three-hundred interviews with key informants from each country, he follows this dialogue into the present to discuss recent political mobilization, popular protest and the current salience of race issues. Anthony W. Marx is Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and has been a Visiting Professor at Yale University


Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa

Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa

Author: Philip Roessler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 1107176077

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This book models the trade-off that rulers of weak, ethnically-divided states face between coups and civil war. Drawing evidence from extensive field research in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo combined with statistical analysis of most African countries, it develops a framework to understand the causes of state failure.