The Siren's Song: The Political Logic of Power-Sharing in South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	The Siren's Song: The Political Logic of Power-Sharing in South Africa
Author:	Macdonald, Michael
Year:	1992
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	18
Issue:	4
Period:	December
Pages:	709-725
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	plural society National Party constitutions Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637100
Abstract:	This paper first deals with the work of Arend Lijphart and Donald Horowitz on South African politics, and particularly the relationship of their ethnic models to the proposals Lijphart and the National Party are making for a new constitution for South Africa. The concern is less with the empirical accuracy of their research, however, than with the political logic implicit in their thinking. Thus, the paper considers how the National Party has used similar ideas about ethnic politics to justify its proposals for a powersharing constitution. Second, the analysis of Lijphart and Horowitz sets up a discussion of the power politics of the National Party's proposals for powersharing institutions, which is the target of the paper. The thesis is that powersharing is an aggressive as well as a defensive proposal on the part of the National Party, that the argument for its workability is suspect, and that the ends powersharing is said to promote - moderation and stability - might end up moderating and stabilizing some of the inequalities of apartheid. Notes, ref., sum.