Conclusion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antina von Schnitzler
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Central Task ◽  
Liberation Struggle

This chapter concludes that the book has explored the political terrain in postapartheid South Africa, where infrastructure and administration had for decades been central political arenas in which much of the urban struggle unfolded. In particular, it has examined how producing liberal democracy, including the constitutive splits between the public and the private and the political and the administrative, became a central task of the postapartheid state, one that has always been prone to failure and contestation from multiple directions. The book has outlined the contours of this techno-political terrain beginning in the late-apartheid period when infrastructure and action on the administrative terrain became a central feature of the antiapartheid struggle. In conclusion, it considers how, in the postapartheid period, many of the questions that animated the liberation struggle are often continually being negotiated and re-articulated in a variety of spaces.

Chasing Rainbows: 2005–2020

2021 ◽  
pp. 253-294
Author(s):  
Justin Collings
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
The Government

This chapter highlights how the Constitutional Court of South Africa has engaged with the memory of apartheid since 2005. It shows how many of the patterns of earlier years persisted—aggressive invocations of apartheid in cases of criminal law or criminal procedure, or when the political stakes were low, but more reticence when confronting the government or applying socio-economic rights provisions. But there was a definite sea change as the Court increasingly confronted the clientelism, cronyism, and corruption that had become endemic to uninterrupted single-party rule. In 2016, the Court dramatically invoked the memory of apartheid to underwrite its decision requiring President Jacob Zuma and his abettors to repay the millions spent from the public treasury on a “security upgrade” to the president’s private residence in Nkandla. The chapter concludes by noting the problematic relationship between constitutional justice and collective memory, and describing how the Court, although it recognizes the problem, nonetheless remains committed to adjudicating in the present by the light of the past.

scholarly journals The political economy of capital gains taxation in South Africa - Part II: The public choice of capital gains taxation and public policy

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-253
Author(s):  
Zane A. Spindler
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
The Political ◽  
Capital Gains Tax ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Public

Public Finance and Public Choice principles are used to analyze the ideological and practical basis for the proposed introduction of a Capital Gains Tax into the income tax system of South Africa. The paper concludes that this is a flawed tax whose time has passed - especially for countries like South Africa.

Resources At the Institute for Contemporary History, University of the Orange Free State

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 409-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Jones
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Free State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
The Public ◽  
The University ◽  
Stimulation Of

Towards the end of 1964 a campaign was launched by the University of the Orange Free State to collect political documents dating back as far as 1902 throughout South Africa. It was an attempt to gather all politically relevant documents still in private possession under one roof in a centrally situated place of safekeeping, where they could be arranged systematically and made available to researchers. The success of this venture and the rate at which political documents poured into the then Political Archive undeniably proved the need for such a center in South Africa.It soon became clear that the function of the Political Archive extended beyond the mere collecting of documents. Scholarly interpretation of the material, the introduction thereof to the public and the stimulation of contemporary history were urgently necessary. This led to the establishment of an Institute for Contemporary History in 1970, formed around the nucleus of the Political Archive.

Left Pessimism and Political Science

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-19
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Left ◽  
The 1960S

I examine why contemporary social scientists on the political left are relatively pessimistic about the public arena and its trajectory. To develop an answer, I explore subsidiary questions: What is the evidence of social scientists’ left pessimism? Why is left pessimism not the only plausible stance? Why is left pessimism problematic, and surprising? Why does it nonetheless occur? How can social scientists counter left pessimism?My evidence comes mainly from research on American racial and ethnic politics, and on the societal use of genomic science. I explain left pessimism as a result largely of the trajectory of social science research since the 1960s, and of the loss of faith in revolutionary inspiration after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I call on social scientists to reinvigorate optimistic visions, perhaps especially in a political era fraught with dangers to liberal democracy.

scholarly journals Difficult tolerance: A Ricoeurian account and some practical theological reflections

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaco Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Political ◽  
Practical Theological

The aim of this article is to present Ricoeur’s view on tolerance, and to reflect on some implications of his view for practical theology in South Africa. I start with a very brief introduction of tolerance as a key principle of liberal democracy and refer to the political use of tolerance in the transition to a democratic South Africa. After clarifying the aims and location of this article, I present Ricoeur’s view on tolerance as an ongoing and challenging task for a capable subject. The last section is a brief reflection on some implications of Ricoeur’s view of difficult tolerance for practical theology as an academic discipline in (South) Africa. “Tolerance is a tricky subject: too easy or too difficult” (Ricoeur 1996b:1)

Sectarianism from Popular Participation in the Public Sphere to a Barrier to Participation

2021 ◽  
pp. 351-366
Author(s):  
Azmi Bishara
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Democratic Transformation

This chapter discusses the transformation of sectarianism from a channel for public participation in the political sphere into an obstacle to this participation. Identity politics, which includes sectarianism, means popular participation in service of political interests presented as the interests (in our case) of the ta’ifa. And although this sectarianism politicizes the masses and drives them into the public sphere, it nonetheless quickly becomes an obstacle to popular participation, and specifically to democratic transformation. It is no coincidence that there are no federations or confederations of ta’ifas. A federation in a modern state is either merely administrative or based on ethnic and cultural units. But collective rights are possible in a liberal democracy, assuming that they are based on citizens’ rights.

scholarly journals The political economy of capital gains taxation in South Africa - Part I: The public finance of capital gains taxation

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Zane A. Spindler
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Capital Gains ◽  
The Political ◽  
Capital Gains Tax ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Public

Public Finance and Public Choice principles are used to analyze the ideological and practical basis for the proposed introduction of a Capital Gains Tax into the income tax system of South Africa. The paper concludes that this is a flawed tax whose time has passed - especially for countries like South Africa.

Holidays in Kazan: The Public Sphere and the Politics of Religious Authority among Tatars in 1914

Slavic Review ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norihiro Naganawa
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
State Interaction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article demonstrates that it was the public sphere shaped by the Kazan city duma and the local press, rather than the tsarist state alone, that strengthened Muslim identity among the urban Tatars. Norihiro Naganawa argues that the invocation of the empire's ruling principle of religious tolerance split the duma along confessional lines and undermined its arbitrating role. He also examines the political discussions among the local Tatar intellectuals over the timing and meaning of Islamic holidays. While the Spiritual Assembly, the long-standing hub of Muslim-state interaction, provided leverage for the mullahs in their efforts to maintain a secure domain for religion, this security dissipated as it became entangled in the competition for authority among increasingly numerous actors speaking for Islam and nation. Naganawa also suggests that late imperial Russia was confronted by the profound theoretical challenge of religious pluralism, to which not tsarism, nor liberal democracy, nor secularism had or have easy answers.

Performing the sacred – Aspects of singing and contextualisation in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsabé Kloppers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Space ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Meaning Change ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sacred Songs ◽  
The Church

After an introduction and views on inculturation (i.e. adapting the liturgy to the context within which it is ‘performed’ or the context influencing the liturgy), the focus shifts to ‘incarnation’ and ‘contextualisation’ in a broader sense, to also include the transformation and adaptation of the ‘sacred’ for the secular or political sphere. Practices of performing faith through texts and music within diverse liturgical, spiritual, cultural and political contexts in South Africa are discussed. Aspects taken into account are the possible influence of landscape or seasons on the expression of faith and the possible sacro-soundscapes that could come from different contexts, such as the impact of the Karoo landscape on Khoisan descendants singing the sacred; performances in a contextualised music idiom, such as the Genevan Psalms in a Khoi music idiom; and celebrating the Church Year in different hemispheres. The discussion focuses also on contextualising within political contexts – that is, where political space is ‘sacralised’ through sacred songs and where sacred songs are given political meaning or changed for the political sphere. The article closes with the possibility of songs from Africa being sung in other countries and the meaning it could have, or could be given. It is argued that contextualisation from one context to another context of the sacred, or from a ‘secular’ to a sacred context, as well contextualising the sacred into the public (‘secular’) or political sphere, could lead to contexts and spaces being changed, enrich the performance of the sacred, stimulate creativity, allow for new processes of attributing meaning, change values and motivate people, form new identities and thus also could lead to changed communities.

South African policing at a crossroads

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Marks ◽  
Jennifer Wood
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Structures ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
The City

This article explores the distinct but related notions of ‘minimal’ and ‘minimalist’ policing in the context of South Africa. We argue that these conceptions can shape a new vision for the future of policing in this country, one which is especially needed at a time when the political elites are seeking to re-militarize and centralize policing. This article searches for an answer to the question: Who should the public police be in emergent democracies where there is a plurality of policing providers, state and non-state? Drawing on research conducted in the city of Durban this article demonstrates that, to a large extent, policing is being carried out by agents other than the police. In this context, the article articulates a more circumscribed role for the police in a time (and place) of uncertainty, one that is anchored in local structures of strategic planning and regulation. Within such structures, non-state actors should be supported to play meaningful roles in ‘everyday policing’, but in ways that are moderate and bound by legal constraints within a human rights framework.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document