Is South Africa heading towards authoritarian rule? Instability myths and expectations traps in a new democracy

Bibliographic Data

ID6214255
AuthorsAnthony Butler (0000-0002-0142-1259, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume27
Issue2
Pages189-205
Publication date2000-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitikon (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0258-9346 • E-ISSN: 1470-1014
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/713692335
OpenAlexW2141498534
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited11

Political analysts are ambivalent about leadership in new democracies. Such states need powerful leaders to establish fresh economic and political institutions, to deflect the demands of interest groups and activists, and to build consensus out of the inevitable conflict of transition. At the same time, however, weak constitutional forms and feeble countervailing forces make personal power dangerous. This article argues that ill-founded assumptions of inherent social instability and weak political accountability in South Africa have turned such ambivalence into an expectations trap that threatens the consolidation of democracy

Ambivalence · Authoritarianism · Consolidation (business · Democracy · Economics · Mythology · Political economy · Political instability · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · South African History and Culture

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