Title : Accounting for South Africa's Successful Transition to Democracy
Discussion Paper No : 5 (series 1)
Author(s) : Laurie Nathan
Date : June 2004
Abstract:
Revolutions always seem impossible
before they happen and inevitable afterwards. The same is true
of negotiated settlements to end civil wars. South Africans, now
accustomed to constitutional rule, tend to regard their
settlement as pre-ordained but this was certainly not the case.
The negotiations were repeatedly wracked by crises of various
kinds. Shortly before the first democratic election in 1994, the
level of violence was so high and conservative parties were so
opposed to the settlement that free and fair elections seemed
improbable. At that time the country appeared to be at the edge
of an abyss. The aim of this paper is to identify the reasons
for South Africa’s successful transition to democracy, through a
conjunction of favourable factors: political; leadership;
process; institutional; and social and structural.