The global and regional contexts of South Africa's democratic transition

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the global and regional (i.e. African and Southern African) contexts of South Africa's democratic transition. It argues and demonstrates that by the nature of the country — its multi‐racial, international population, strategic importance to the West, continued practice of the worst form of colonial oppression and exploitation long after colonialism had become an anachronism, and the power of the apartheid state which was difficult for the liberation movements alone to defeat — the pressures and forces unleashed in these contexts played a key role in democratic transition. The paper examines the various forces and pressures, and shows that the global context was the more critical because of the dependency and weakness of the African states which spearheaded the anti‐apartheid movement. Within the global context, the apartheid regime exploited the cold war to delay transformation, but once the war ended and the global democratic revolution was set in motion, the road to democratic transition was opened to South Africa.