%0 Journal Article
%T Polarization in South Africa: Toward Democratic Deepening or Democratic Decay?
%A Roger Southall
%J The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
%@ 1552-3349
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0002716218806913
%X Under apartheid, white oppression of the black majority was extreme, and South Africa became one of the most highly polarized countries in the world. Confronted by a counter-movement headed by the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling National Party (NP) was eventually pressured into a negotiation process that resulted in the adoption of a democratic constitution. This article outlines how democratization defused polarization, but was to be hollowed out by the ANC¡¯s construction of a ¡°party-state,¡± politicizing democratic institutions and widening social inequalities. This is stoking political tensions, which, despite societal interdependence, are provoking fears of renewed polarization along class and racial lines
%K apartheid
%K democratization
%K polarization and proto-polarization
%K inequality
%K African National Congress
%K party-state
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002716218806913