Qualitative and quantitative perspectives on voter empowerment in South Africa: the Matla Trust voter education project

ABSTRACT

This article presents an applied comparison of qualitative and quantitative research data on voter empowerment in South Africa. It focuses on the period leading up to the April 1994 South African elections. The article is based on focus group and large‐scale national survey sections of the Matla Trust Voter Education Research Project, 1992–1994. Information on the dimensions of empowerment versus disempowerment to vote was selected for this article. Empowerment refers to the personal motivation, the extent of social and political facilitation, and the skills to participate in the elections and political process. The focus group findings provided insights into the voters’ feelings about and perceptions of voting, elections and democracy. It helped develop an inclusive conceptualisation of “disempowerment”. It illuminated feelings about election participation in turbulent times. Yet, it could not replace the detailed demographic understanding and regional breakdown of voter empowerment, gained from the quantitative research. This part of the study identified and detailed the “demographic fault lines” in empowerment to vote, and holds various lessons for future South African elections.