Democracy and Apartheid Political Theory, Comparative Politics and the Modern South African State Anthony Butler DEMOCRACY AND APARTHEID Also by Anthony Butler and from the same publishers TRANSFORMATIVE POLITICS: The Future of Socialism in Western Europe Democracy and Apartheid Political Theory, Comparative Politics and the Modern South African State Anthony Butler Lecturer in Politics University of Nottingham FirstpublishedinGreatBritain 1998by MACMILLANPRESSLTD Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG2l6XSandLondon Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-349-39830-0 ISBN978-0-230-37460-7(eBook) DOl 10.1057/978-0-230-37460-7 FirstpublishedintheUnited StatesofAmerica1998by ST.MARTIN'SPRESS,INC., ScholarlyandReferenceDivision, 175FifthAvenue, NewYork,N.Y.10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21696-3 Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Butler,Anthony, 1964- Democracyandapartheid:politicaltheory,comparativepolitics andthemodemSouthAfricanstateIAnthony Butler. p. em. Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN 978-0-312-21696-3(cloth) 1.Democracy-SouthAfrica. 2.Apartheid-SouthAfrica. 3.Elections-SouthAfrica. 4.SouthAfrica-Politicsand government-20thcentury. 5.Democracy. 6.Democratization. 1.Title. JQ1981.B89 1998 320.968'09'049-dc2l 98-28376 CIP ©Anthony Butler1998 Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition 1998 Allrights reserved. Noreproduction,copy ortransmissionofthispublicationmaybemade withoutwrittenpermission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, orunder the terms ofany licence permittinglimited copying issued by theCopyrightLicensingAgency, 90TottenhamCourtRoad,LondonWIP9HE. Any person who doesany unauthorisedactinrelation tothispublicationmay beliable to criminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. The authorhas asserted his right tobeidentifiedastheauthorof thiswork inaccordance withtheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustainedforestsources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby Antony RoweLtd,Chippenham,Wiltshire This page intentionally left blank Tessa inja entle kakhulu something to chew on Contents Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 A Periodization of South African History 6 3 Historical Debates and Political Analysis 30 4 Democracy and Apartheid 54 5 Analysing Democratic Transitions 86 6 Political Science and the End of Apartheid 105 7 The Failure of Political Science 127 8 Conclusions 156 Notes 176 Bibliography 197 Index 205 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface I have incurred many institutional and personal debts in writing this book. I am grateful to the fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to the trustees of the Jan Smuts Memorial Fund, and to Nottingham University Research Committee, for invaluable assistance with research expenses. Rhoda Kadalie, Nomusti Ntamo and Zizi Ntamo were immensely kind hosts. South African academics too numerous to mention have been uncommonly generous with their time and profes sional advice. Julia Jellema-Butler in London offered incisive com ments on the final draft, and Cliff Butler was once again an exemplary proof-reader. Anne Jellema has been supportive throughout. I am grateful to colleagues in the Department of Politics at Notting ham, in particular Paul Heywood and April Pidgeon, for ensuring that a relaxed atmosphere and a lively research culture have remained compatible with the demands of teaching and administration. April Pidgeon also provided invaluable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Apartheid was organized around the classification of a population by race. I use the term 'African' to refer to those officially classified as 'Black'; and I use 'Black' to refer to all those not classified as White under apartheid legislation. I capitalize all such terms throughout in order to emphasize their problematic nature. Parts of Chapter 7 first appeared in Volume 32 of Government and Opposition, Winter, 1997. ix