Understanding The Road To A Liberal Democracy Politics Essay

Understanding The Road To A Liberal Democracy Politics Essaythither were fundamental changes in the world of politics in 1989 and 1990 with the collapse of evil empires that had swayerd since the barricade of the Second World fight. The hegemony of the Soviet Union came to an end in eastern Europe and at the same time the apartheid regime of the Afrikaner guinea pig Party in siemens Africa began a work of democratization. In 1990, Nelson Mandela, attraction of the African national Congress (ANC), was released after being impris unmatchabled for 27 years and collectable s awayh Africas root non-racial egalitarian options were held four years later on. The ANC later went on to gain the votes of the majority that led to the formation of an interim regimen of national unity under Nelson Mandelas presidency in 1994.It seemed like a miracle but unlike miracles, semipolitical processes argon susceptible to analysis. Firstly, this natural-fangledsprint aims to trace s iemens Africas passage from a racial oligarchy to a multi racial land. This piece provides a brief narrative regarding the historical context of African democratization.Secondly, the paper leave behind test the motley political factors involved in the democratization process and how they fit into the theoretical fashion model of Huntingtons typology of representative passageway. This section lead also focus on the everyday conditions within reciprocal ohm Africa in order to determine what triggered the novelty process. Through this, the paper will attempt to swear out the header of how and why democracy emerged.Fin anyy, the paper will examine the consolidation process of atomic number 16 Africa by looking at the prevalent state of matter of her democracy. In order to accurately ascertain the take aim of democracy and hence, gauge whether southeasterly Africa has undergone a consolidation process, various aspects of the democracy devote been described.South Afri cas Journey to DemocracyThree passages occurred in South Africa since the middle 1970s transitions through transformation, after regime segmentation and through alternate respectively.1 inflection through TransformationHuntington defined transformation as a process w herein the political relation in the bossy regime took the lead in ending that regime and changing it into a democratic governance2. backswept legitimacy is defined as attempts of democratizing governings to legitimize a preexisting authoritarian order by insisting that the latter give birth to a sore order.3In South Africa, the existing governing insisted in adjective continuity and at the same time promoted backward legitimacy. Both P.W. Botha and Gorbachev introduced youthful radiation patterns and laws that granted more than rights and freedom to the B omits. They included legalizing wispy trade unions, permitting blacks to strike free curb title, providing for electing Black township councils and cr eating houses of parliament for the colored and Asians but not for the Blacks4. However, these newborn rules and laws were not meant to fundamentally change the political system in the field but mainly to bolster the existing political system so as to make it more acceptable to all societies. Bothas reformed political sympathies attempted to neutralize standpatter opposition by weakening and reassuring them.5 inflection after Regime BreakdownThe ANC in exile held the assumption that the breakdown of the apartheid regime would eventually lead to the black rule. They were wrong. According to the ideology that the ANC held, South Africa was representing colonialism of a special type. Therefore, they felt that the ending of oppression would come in the form of decolonization. despite a series of talks mingled with the De Klerk government and the ANC, the latter continued to contend that dialogs and revolutionary transformations were not incompatible.There was a comprehensive break down of the authoritarian regime in the transitions of Greece, Romania and Argentina overimputable(p) to the disaffection of a part of the military. The military junta did not hold a major social base in the society. The situation in South Africa was antithetical because the military remained loyal to the government there were no defections to the ANC and the government rested on the social base of the ashen community. The white did not escort the ANC. As of 1993, white support still remained on a natural depressioner floor 5 percent6.Transition as TransplacementHuntington defines the transplacement process as a transition negotiated between the reformers within the government and the mode order of the opposition. In such a process, there is a balance of power between the opposition and the government. superior groups on both(prenominal) sides realize that they are equally incapable of find out the nature of the future political system alone and hence must co-operate with each opposite to achieve smooth transfer of power. In the transition process within South Africa, this can be seen in the various negotiations that took place within the government and the ANC between 1980 and 1994.Most of the negotiations in the first 3 years after the legalization of the ANC were focused on the uttermost of the armed struggle, neutrality of the security eviscerates and cont shapeing of the escalating violence in the townships. For example, in a negotiation between the ANC and the government, it was agreed that white and early(a) minorities had to allege their values and relate through an alliance or a companionship. The ANC and other parties also entered constitutional negotiations in 1991 and in the long run accepted the principle of a government national unity. The ANC accepted constitutional continuity, proportional representation and the intellection that a future chemical element multitude would not throw off arrest freedom to draw up a constitut ion but quite adhere to broad principles negotiated in fronthand.There were 3 stages in the negotiating phase of transition to liberal democracy in South Africa.7In the first stage, both the government and the ANC were forced to the negotiating table by sparing and outside(a) factors, which will be discussed in-depth later. However, both sides were reluctant to fully accept the need to via media on the means of negotiation, whether to choose a multi-party conference or dowery assembly, or the model of democracy to be pursued. The NP believed that negotiations could control the maltreat and limit the scope of democratization because the balance of power was still on its side. The ANC, on the other hand, was keen on ending the white rule by relinquishing the power that the government had without making assignments in return.The state of the economy deteriorated and the direct of violence within the country escalated, especially among the blacks. The lack of legitimacy of the police force and the easy availability of firearms resulted in laid-back level of criminal violence within the country. Protagonists on all sides manipulated the force both licitly and illegally so as to impede or influence the outcome of negotiations8. Discussions on the terms for negotiation were broken strike because ANC felt that de Klerk had failed to control anti-ANC violence. It was necessary to reduce the level of violence in the country for talks to begin again. This was done by including other interest groups, particularly the Inkatha Freedom Party that was responsible for most of the attacks, in the negotiation process.The second stage of negotiations, the Convention for a egalitarian South Africa (CODESA) showed how faraway South Africa was from the ideal of a transition pact by lites. The ANC withdrew from the negotiations delinquent to the influence of the institutions of apartheid, causing the CODESA to collapse in mid 1992. Both the NP and the Inkatha essentia led substantial agreement over a constitution before a constituent assembly was elected and a protracted transition of at least ten years. The ANC, however, wanted a constituent assembly and freedom to write the constitution. It was fearful of being locked in the interim government for indefinite duration where their decisions to improve the country would be hindered to a big(a) extent.In the last(a) stage of negotiations, the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum appeared to conform more intimately to the idea of a pact between the old and the new elites. There was a lack of progress by negotiators and the ANC adopted a insurance policy of rolling push-down list action, which pushed the leadership into a more military stance. The level of violence in the country escalated and the state of the economy worsened. As a result of the incident, the NPs support among all prospective voters in the re open unload from 25 percent in July 1992 to 14 percent in April 19939.The ANC do gains by f orcing the relegation of Inkatha to the position of a minor player. Both the ANC and the NP were convinced that it was necessary to reach a bilateral agreement due to the internal conditions of the country. This agreement could be used as a framework to constrain the disruptive potential of the Inkatha Freedom Party.On 5 litigate 1993, a new Multi-Party Negotiating Forum began its deliberation. There was a power-sharing system in which all parties receiving more than 5 percent of the votes would be given pose in cabinet in proportion to their strength and there was a substantial devolution of power to the provinces. Also, it was decided that elections would be held for a constituent assembly, which would also serve as an interim government for five years. totally parties were to play a role in the drafting of the constitution and the crest of rights that formulated the general constitutional principles. The government was to remain the highest authority between the adoption of t he constitution and the holding of elections but they had to consult closely with an all-party authority.10The ANC were ordain to promote black advancement via affirmative action and restitution of losings sustained under the apartheid at the cost of reducing the notion of nationalization.South Africas transition from an authoritarian rule to a liberal democracy was finally consummated in the April 1994 elections. The elections allowed the participation of all South Africans, regardless of background, to get in in the democratic process of choosing their own rulers. There were many challenges that hindered the democratic process in the country- voting had to be extended for several long time in order to satisfy voter demand and the reliability of the election results were highly skeptical. Nevertheless, the independent Electoral Com delegacy declared the contest advantageously free and fair and an outcome that all parties came to accept and celebrate.South Africas Transition An AnalysisHaving described the events that led to South Africas transition, it is straight off important to analyze these events in the context of political science discourse. This segment of the paper now turns to analyze some of the important conditions that led to the transition in South Africa at that time.Causes of the South African TransitionInternational InfluencesWithdrawal of big businessman support from the African governmentSouth Africa needed the support of the westernmost but the latter was only prepared to give if internal concession allowed the economy to stabilize. The collapse of Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War removed South Africas bargaining power as a replacing for the USA in the fight against communism in South Africa and the USSR pecuniary support for the supply of arms to the ANC. This led to the NP and the ANC coming to the negotiating table. initiation of Political Conditions for Western Development AssistanceDue to the reasons stated above, the economy kept shrinking. Hence, the government was forced to seek political accommodation with the West. By the end of the 1980, the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and easterly Europe deprived the ANC of its main source of political, economic and military support11. There was increasing pressure to negotiate the limitations of the strategies of armed struggle and mass insurrection and the success of town level negotiations within the country itself due to pressure by Soviet Union and neighboring African states.dissemination of mass pro-democracy protestsThe Second World War led to the development of new classes due to changes in the economic structure of the country. There was strong international emphasis on human rights and freedom. The Western governments indicated that political reform was a necessary condition for further assistance rendered to South Africa. Western governments gave due importance to democracies and encouraged countries to move towards greater plurali sm, responsibility, respect for human rights and the rule of law12.Economic conditionsPerhaps some of the more important factors lead story to democratization emerged as foreign upholds played an integral role in influencing the economic pressures. South Africa was not able to provide a true(p) environment for local businesses to invest in and for the country to enjoy economic growth despite having enough investment capital. The gross domestic harvest-home (GDP) of South Africa declined from 5.7 percent from 1960 to 1.5 percent in 198013. At the same time, South Africa was experiencing a budget deficit in the balance of payment as the government consumer spending rose sharply from 15 percent to 21 percent in 1991 so as to increase the employment level in the country.Private investment and the employment rate among the Blacks fell. The number of new jobs created decreased substantially from 448000 in the 1960s to 28000 in the 1980s14. This resulted in a wave of strikes across th e country as existing black unions strengthened and encouraged the formation of others who wanted to end the apartheid in the 1980s.The government had to increasingly borrow money from other countries to cope with the administrative demands of the disruptive growing Black population and to mollify the white population who worked for the populace sector causing the country to experience drastic budget deficits.The disinvestment sanction played a role in ensuring that no apartheid government could roll back sanctions in the industrialized world as state in the U.S. Congress adoption in 1986 of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. But countries refused to provide sanctions to South Africa unless she democratized. International pressure was brought on both the NP and the ANC and a UN mission headed by former US Secretary of Stae Cyrus Vance, was dispatched to South Africa to make it disentangle that the economic position of the country will not improve unless an agreement has been r eached15.Combined, these factors meant that that there were few options for the parties involved other than to engage in the final transplacement that took place.Has democracy in South Africa been consolidated?Democratic consolidation goes beyond the mere survival of democratic institutions it requires that participants hold themselves accountable to the rules of democracy, eschewing patronage and subversion16. This segment will now turn to assessing the quality of democracy in South Africa presently by utilizing Diamonds checklist of democratic quality to correctly close down if democratic consolidation is possible in the future. The higher the quality of democracy, the more stable the democratic institutions and the likelier consolidation will take place17. whole step democracy is defined as one which satisfies citizen expectations regarding governance (quality of results) allows citizens, associations, and communities to enjoy extensive liberty and political comparability (qu ality of content) and provide a context in which the whole citizenry can judge the governments executing through mechanisms such as elections, while governmental institutions and officials hold one another legally and constitutionally accountable as well (procedural quality)18. The state of democracy in South Africa will be assessed based on the following variablesanswerabilityAccountability is defined by the obligations of elected political leaders to answer for their political decisions when asked by votes and constitutional bodies. Horizontal accountability goes between different branches of the government while vertical accountability goes from leaders to citizens. Vertical accountability is the obligation of elected political leaders to answer for their political decisions when asked by voters or constitutional bodies19.In this aspect, South Africa seems to score rather low despite constitutional bodies monitoring each others actions and citizens being able to ferment their r ights to remove leaders from powers through elections. South Africa was ranked 55 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency Internationals 2009 Corruption Perception Index. For example, 920 government officials were charged with corruption linked with housing fraud in November 2009 by the charitable Settlement Department20. There have also been corruption charges against the authoritative president Jacob Zuma.CompetitionIn a democracy, there must be free, regular and fair elections held. An indicator of quality democracy is the additional dimension of competitiveness the ease at which incumbents can be defeated and the equality of different political parties in access to mass media and campaign sustenance21.Since 1994, there have only been 4 elections held in South Africa. The control party, ANC, has dominated electoral politics and has been winning supermajorities in every democratic election. However, parties such as the Congress of People (COPE), the Inkatha Freedom Par ty (IFP) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) are increasingly gaining support from traditional voters. The electoral process is generally fair but the state-owned South African Broadcasting confederation has been accused of being pro-ANC22.EqualityLegal and political equality is native in a democracy. Active prohibitions against unfairness must check all efforts to discriminate invidiously on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, political orientation, or other extraneous conditions23.All South Africans enjoy legal equality and political rights under the constitution. However racial imbalance still persists in oeuvre and majority of the countrys business assets are still white owned.Equal rights for women are guaranteed by the constitution and promoted by the Commission on Gender Equality. Despite a robust legal framework, South Africa still has one of the worlds highest rates on sexual abuse24. Wage discrimination prevails in the workplace and women are not well represen ted in the top focus positions. As of 2010, women hold 45 percent of seats in the National Assembly and lead 5 out of 9 provincial governments. Also, the promethium of Western Cape Province and the main leader of the DA party is lead by Helen Zille25.FreedomThere are basically 3 types of rights political, polished and social26.In South Africa, in addition to the political rights already mentioned, the constitution caters for the freedom of religion, academic freedom, freedom of association and passive assembly, the press, speech and expression. The Freedom House rated South Africa as free with a political right and cultivated liberties score of 2. However, according to Amnesty International, problems have emerged with allegations of police torture and excessive force during arrest, interrogation and detention27. dateDemocratic Quality is regarded highly when there is extensive participation in voting, political parties, and the civil society and in the discussion and monitoring of public officials and policy.All rights necessary for political participation including those deemed necessary by dahl have been enshrined in the constitution of South Africa. In terms of the civil society, more than 6000 groups have been formed in South Africa, many of them in general non-governmental organizations. Voter participation has increased to 77% in the 2009 elections up from 75% in 2004.Rule of LawEveryone is equal before the law, which is fairly and consistently applied to all by an independent judiciary. The laws need to be clear, know to all, universal, stable and no retroactive. Also, laws are democratic when the legal system defends civil and political rights and procedures as well as reinforces the authority of other agencies of horizontal accountability that ensure the legality and propriety of official actions28.The system of arbitrator in South Africa generally conforms to all of the above requirements concerning the rule of law. discriminative independen ce is guaranteed by the constitution and the courts operate with substantial autonomy. In South Africa, there are barriers to the assessment of justice system, poor court way and the lack of efficiency, thus affecting the delivery of justice. Also, there is a question of representation of all sectors of the society. Many people feel that the justice system within the country still reflects South African colonial and apartheid legacy. accent will exist between the judicial and the executive and legislative branches in South Africa, as a result of the problems created by legacies of apartheid.responsivenessResponsiveness is partly related to the aspect of accountability. A responsive democratic government is defined as one that has been induced to make and implement policies that the citizens want29.In South Africa, the infancy of democratic institutions seems to have led to the government being less than optimally responsive., The people were especially unhappy with council perform ance at integrating citizens into the agenda-setting and decision- making processes of local self-government. Only about one third feels that these leaders comprehend regularly to what their constituents have to say. The others either listen occasionally or dont bother at all. However, local councilors are seen as more responsive than leaders elected to national political positioning30.ConclusionThere are many areas within the South African government that still lack reform. Further consolidation is required for this new fledgling democracy is necessary. Threats to consolidation and room for improvement of the quality of democracy still remain. Nonetheless, democracy seems to be commonly accepted by the Whites and Blacks in South Africa after democratization indicating perhaps that democratic institutions are here to stay and democratic consolidation is possible in the future years.