The African National Congress and Participatory Democracy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction: A Battle of Ideas

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 1-34

3. Participation in the History of ANC Democratic Thought

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 35-61

4. Discourses of ‘People’s Power’

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 63-115

5. ‘The People Shall Govern’: The Codification of Ideas

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 117-163

6. Post-1994 Policy and Movement Discourse

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 165-218

7. Conclusion: The Power of Ideas

   • Heidi Brooks

   Pages 219-240

8. Back Matter

   Pages 241-244

   PDF

This book examines the development of democratic thought in the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, with a focus on the movement’s ideas about participatory democracy. It makes particular reference to two key periods: the 1980s ‘people’s power’ movement and the subsequent years of policy formulation from 1990 when the ANC began to design and implement a system of participatory democracy alongside a representative government. Through the examination of historic documents and in-depth interviews with former ANC activists, government officials and those involved in policy development, the author explores the inspiration for the party’s commitment to establishing participatory democracy. The book combines democratic theory and political and intellectual history to look at the role of popular participation as part of a broader trajectory of the ANC’s democratic thought. It critically engages with concepts used in the party’s participatory discourse with a view to deepening our understanding of how ideas have shaped the construction of South Africa’s democracy.

• participatory democracy
• ANC
• South African politics
• participatory policy
• democratic consolidation
• people’s power
• democracy
• discourse of democracy
• ANC democratic thought
• vanguardism
• vanguard movement
• radical democratic theory
• framing of participation
• citizen participation
• democratic crisis
• popular protest

“Amidst the mass of literature on the ANC, this book stands out for its conceptual clarity. By carefully analyzing the enormous diversity of the movement’s theoretical traditions, Heidi Brooks demonstrates how the ANC has sought (and ultimately failed) to combine political control from above with creative participation from below. This is more than an excursion into the ANC’s intellectual history. It shines a powerful light on the contradictions and travails of the liberation movement in power.” (Roger Southall, Emeritus Professor in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)

• Department of Political and International Studies, Monash South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

  Heidi Brooks

Heidi Brooks is Senior Lecturer in Political and International Studies at IIE MSA and Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She has produced several publications on the development of democratic thought in the ANC and on conceptions of democracy in South Africa.

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