Abstract
Similarities between the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the African National Congress of South Africa pose the question whether South Africa faces a ‘Zimbabwean future’. In seeking to address this question, authors have compared the two parties in terms of ‘party dominance’ and ‘electoral authoritarianism’. However, this paper proposes that despite the utility of such approaches, greater explanatory power is provided by the notion of ‘competitive authoritarianism’ as developed by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way. Application of their approach suggests that although the ANC’s organisational ways and character emulate those of ZANU-PF, it is constrained as a ruling party by South Africa’s stronger linkage to the West and remaining Western leverage over South Africa in spite of the rising influence of Russia and China.
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Notes
An obvious criticism is that the neo-liberal economic policies proselytized by Western regimes undermine the social and economic foundations for democratic outcomes that extend beyond mere electoral democracy.
The Zimbabwe National Liberation Army and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army.
After seizure, Amplats’ platinum claims were sold for US$100 million, to Camac, 40 % owned by Dan Gertler, an Israeli diamond trader with close links to DRC president, Joseph Kabila. Camac was in turn quietly financed by Wall Street hedge funds (Simpson and Westbrook 2014).
Schulz-Herzenberg (2014, p. 39) indicates a decline in the participation of eligible voters from 86 % in 1994 to 57 % in 2014.
The ‘interim’ constitution was negotiated by parties participating in fora that had not been elected. It provided for a democratically elected parliament to negotiate a final constitution and to approve it by a two-thirds majority, a process completed in 1996.
Essentially this is the problematic tackled in Southall (2013).
National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega recently informed parliament that while the level of ‘protest related incidents’ remained largely constant from 2010 to 2011 to 2011–2012 (12,651 compared to 12,399), the number of violent protests doubled from 971 to 1,882 during the same period (Business Day, 08.09.2014).
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Southall, R. From party dominance to competitive authoritarianism? South Africa versus Zimbabwe. Z Vgl Polit Wiss 10 (Suppl 1), 99–116 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-015-0263-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-015-0263-8