The Liberal Model and Africa: Elites Against Democracy

by K. Good

Overview

This book critically examines the realities of liberal democracy for contemporary Africa. Paying special attention to its elitism and non-accountability, its inequalities and injustices, Good interrogates the liberal legacy in the US, Botswana, and South Africa. Participatory systems and movements, whether in classical Athens or South Africa 1970-90, are more effective in satisfying democratic aspirations and in curtailing ambitious elites than what passes now as "'democracy." The need for a clear evaluation of what constitutes democracy emerges as a powerful message of Good's argument.

Author Biography: Kenneth Good is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Botswana, Gaborone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349418909
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	12/17/2001
Series:	International Political Economy Series
Edition description:	1st ed. 2002
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Kenneth Good is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Botswana, Gaborone. His works include Development and Dependence: The Political Economy of Papua New Guinea and Realizing Democracy in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Table of Contents

	List of Abbreviations	x
	Value of the Botswana Pula	xii
	Preface	xiii
Part I	Autocratic Elites and Enfeebled Masses: Africa, Botswana and South Africa	1
1	Autocratic Elites and Enfeebled Masses: Africa, Botswana and South Africa	3
	Capitalist barbarism	3
	Legitimized autocracy	6
	Toad Kings: old and new	7
	Barbarism intensified	9
	The insufficiency of elite democracy	13
	Empowered elites, passive masses	14
	Accountable to themselves	19
2	Routinized Injustice: The Situation of the San in Botswana	23
	The inheritance and the continuity	25
	Drought relief and food aid	28
	The low wages policy	30
	Cattle production and the absence of land rights	33
	Relocation and dispossession: repeated experiences	42
	Hunting and tourism	49
	Welfare: destitutes programme and pensions	57
	The Remote Area Development Programme (RADP): governmental keystone	60
	Routinized injustice: subordination in schooling and law	62
	Representations	65
Part II	The USA	69
3	The Liberal Capitalist Paradigm: Elitism and Injustice in the United States	71
	American capitalism	71
	American liberal democracy	76
	Manipulative elites and nihilistic liberalism	82
	Regulated/'stakeholder' capitalism and social democracy	85
	The American spectre	88
Part III	South Africa Prelude to South Africa	91
4	Elitism's Place in the ANC	93
	Talks and non-accountability	96
	Elite immunity and non-accountability	98
	Elite consensus, elite control	101
	Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the IFP	103
	Nurturing silence	107
5	Universalizing an Incomplete Predominance	110
	Deepening predominance	112
	Predominance and the opposition parties	113
	Elite non-accountability: the crimes and impunity of Madikizela-Mandela	116
	Predominance and the Mbeki-Zuma presidency	124
	Universalizing predominance	125
	Real predominance	127
	Predominance without content	127
6	Predominance and the Empowerment Goose	137
	The elite and big business	138
	Empowering the arms trade	142
	Getting rich quick	147
	The ANC and the promotion of black capitalism	152
	Entrenchment of the ruling elite	153
	Goose for the few, racism for the many	154
	The naked emperor: empowerment and racism	157
	Enduring alliances: elitism, racism and the people	161
Part IV	From Ancient to Future Worlds	165
7	Participatory Democracy: The Reality and the Continuing Aspiration--Athens, Britain and South Africa	167
	The Levellers' participatory impulse	170
	Equality and self-determination	172
	Towards participatory democracy in South Africa	173
	The trade union movement and the UDF	175
	Organization against elitism	176
	COSATU and a highly-unionized society	182
	Extending democratization in South Africa	184
	The Unending Struggle	191
	Notes	194
	Index	246

Editorial Reviews

This is indeed a useful and timely contribution to the democracy debate in Africa.

Francis B. Nyamnjoh

This analysis of the liberal democratic model as it is practiced in the US and Africa offers a detailed critique of the model's weakness in the area of accountability. Good (political science, U. of Botswana, Gaborone) describes the recent political history in South Africa and Botswana, comparing the extreme division of wealth and endemic social injustice to the capitalist elite system of the US. Subsequent sections provide a detailed history of the ANC in South Africa and accounts of two earlier democracies, that of Classical Athens and the Levellers in revolutionary Britain. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

'The Liberal Model and Africa: Elites Against Democracy delivers a searching, powerful and innovative critique of liberal democracy, notably as it has arrived in Southern Africa.' - Professor Roger Southall, Department of Politics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

'This is indeed a useful and timely contribution to the democracy debate in Africa.' - Dr Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Botswana

'[Kenneth Good] illustrates in this important book, no country (with the exception of Madagascar) has embraced participatory democracy with its egalitarian face, preferring instead the elitism of the liberal model.' - The Sunday Independent

From the Publisher