Konfederale assosiasie van state of federasie as staatkundige toekomsbedeling in Suid(er)‐Afrika: teoretiese perspektiewe vir die Suid‐Afrikaanse party‐politiek

Abstract

Although federal forms of government have become particularly popular in the past century and a half, the federal political systems which have developed since the Second World War, particularly in the developing countries, have shown little stability and functionality. In most cases federation has been little more than a transitionary phase to a unitary structure. The constitutional guarantees upon which federal structures were based, have thus often been of only secondary importance.

This article attempts to isolate a précis of the theory underlying confederal associations of states and federal forms of government; to elucidate the policy standpoints of the most important South African political parties in this respect, including opinions expressed in reports in the South African press and enunciated by Black Homeland leaders; and finally to make an evaluation of the applicability of a federal formula in the plural South African context. It is argued that federation, calculated to reconcile unity and diversity, can only succeed if the most important diversities find territorial expression. The type of value framework in which tolerance and diversity flourish, as well as the necessary complementary factors and political sophistication which is needed to support a federal system, just do not exist in plural societies like South Africa. When a federal formula is thus used only as an ingenious apparatus to try to solve antagonism and potential conflict between groups, it is doomed to failure. Federation provides no solution for built‐in cleavages and basic divisions.

Furthermore reference is made to a number of realities in the South African political situation, which must be seen as problematical in the immediate future. Radical new concepts in this respect are pressingly urgent and there is a need to get away from the traditional callous party political rhetoric. Finally the conclusion is made that the solution for South Africa's many and complex problems lies along the road of a loose association or community of states, rather than in a federal formula.