The African National Congress and the regeneration of political power / Susan Booysen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Booysen, Susan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African National Congress.

Power (Social sciences)--Africa.

Power (Social sciences).

Africa--Politics and government--1960-.

Africa.

South Africa--Politics and government--1994-.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 515 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Johannesburg Wits University Press 2011

Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The African National Congress is light years beyond the liberation movement of old. It remains a juggernaut, but its control and dominance are no longer watertight. The ANC lives the contradictions of weaknesses, cracks and factions while retaining its colossal status. As a party-movement it draws on its liberation credentials, and extracts immense power from its deep anchorage in South Africa's people. It is immersed in electoral politics that marks the state of its overwhelming power cyclically. As government the ANC is the object of protest, but not protest designed to bring the ruling party to its knees. The ANC is in command of the state, yet fails to definitively counter the deficits that make South Africa's democracy seem so diluted. Its incredulous and thus far trusting supporters condemn but only rarely punish deployees who do not 'pass through the eye of the needle'. The ANC and the Regeneration of Political Power unpacks these contradictions. It focuses on four faces of the ANC's political power - the organisation, the people, political parties and elections, and policy and government - and explores how the ANC has acted since 1994 to continuously regenerate its power. By 2011-12 the power configurations around the ANC were converging to a conjuncture holding vexing uncertainties. This book presents insights into how South African politics - in many ways synonymous with the politics of the ANC - is likely to unfold in years and possibly decades to come.

Contents:

Introduction : ANC pathways to claiming, consolidating and regenerating political power

Aluta continua, from Polokwane to Mangaung

The ANC and its pillars of people's power

Power through the ballot and the brick

Participation and power through co-operation, complicity, co-optation

Power through elections : serial declines, but the centre holds

Floor-crossing and entrenchment of ANC electoral supremacy

Subjugation and demise of the (new) National Party

Countered and cowered Congress of the People (Cope)

State institutions as site of struggle in ANC wars

Between centralisation and centralism : the Presidency of South Africa

Policy, pursuit of the 'turn to the left' and the paradox of continuity

ANC at a critical conjuncture : movement, people, elections, governance.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Apr 2018).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

ISBN:

9781776141661

1776141660

9781868145539

1868145530

OCLC:

1016765438

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.26530/oapen_626380