Building a Pluralist Democracy: An Examination of Religious Associations in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Source: (2000) Race and Reconciliation in South Africa: A Multicultural Dialogue in Comparative Perspective. Ed. by William E. Van Vugt & G. Daan Cloete. Lanham: Lexington Books. 77-104.

Observers who comment on South Africa’s democratic experience concentrate mainly on the domestic factors that have contributed to or are contributing to South Africa’s democratic successes. Case studies from neighboring countries, however, provide important insights, and in this sense, Zimbabwe offers poignant lessons for South Africa. Although Zimbabwe sustained a transition in 1980, its experimentation with regime change led to a restrained democracy, or more accurately, a de facto one-party state. How will South Africa’s consolidation phase differ from Zimbabwe’s, and what can it learn from Zimbabwe’s experiences? (excerpt)