The African National Congress and the regeneration of political power / / Susan Booysen [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910168754103321
• Autore: Booysen Susan
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Johannesburg : , : Wits University Press, , 2011
• ISBN: 1-77614-166-0; 1-86814-553-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xix, 515 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 320.96
• Soggetti: Power (Social sciences) - Africa; Africa Politics and government 1960-; South Africa Politics and government 1994-
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Apr 2018).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction : ANC pathways to claiming, consolidating and regenerating political power -- Aluta continua, from Polokwane to Mangaung -- The ANC and its pillars of people's power -- Power through the ballot and the brick -- Participation and power through co-operation, complicity, co-optation -- Power through elections : serial declines, but the centre holds -- Floor-crossing and entrenchment of ANC electoral supremacy -- Subjugation and demise of the (new) National Party -- Countered and cowered Congress of the People (Cope) -- State institutions as site of struggle in ANC wars -- Between centralisation and centralism : the Presidency of South Africa -- Policy, pursuit of the 'turn to the left' and the paradox of continuity -- ANC at a critical conjuncture : movement, people, elections, governance.
• Sommario/riassunto: The African National Congress is light years beyond the liberation movement of old. It remains a juggernaut, but its control and dominance are no longer watertight. The ANC lives the contradictions of weaknesses, cracks and factions while retaining its colossal status. As a party-movement it draws on its liberation credentials, and extracts immense power from its deep anchorage in South Africa's people. It is immersed in electoral politics that marks the state of its overwhelming ; power cyclically. As government the ANC is the object of protest, but not protest designed to bring the ruling party to its knees. The ANC is in command of the state, yet fails to definitively counter the deficits that make South Africa's democracy seem so diluted. Its incredulous and thus far trusting supporters condemn but only rarely punish deployees who do not 'pass through the eye of the needle'. The ANC and the Regeneration of Political Power unpacks these contradictions. It focuses on four faces of the ANC's political power - the organisation, the people, political parties and elections, and policy and government - and explores how the ANC has acted since 1994 to continuously regenerate its power. By 2011-12 the power configurations around the ANC were converging to a conjuncture holding vexing uncertainties. This book presents insights into how South African politics - in many ways synonymous with the politics of the ANC - is likely to unfold in years and possibly decades to come.