Consociational democracy as a means to accomplish peaceful political change in South Africa: an evaluation of the constitutional change proposed by the National Party in 1977

Abstract

The analysis of the 1977‐proposals advanced by the National Party is prefaced by an outline of a number of key determinants of South Africa's constitutional dilemma. The most important amongst these are the exceptionally high degree of heterogeneity in the South African population structure, the high degree of economic interdependence amongst the various population groups, the existing White‐dominated power configuration, the growing power aspirations of the Black, Coloured, and Indian groups, and the growing internationalization of South African political issues.

The South African political system is described as an artificial polity encompassing disparate and incompatible population groups and saddled with an inappropriate Westminster‐type governmental structure, The constitutional trends since unification in 1910, which led to the existing divergent constitutional arrangements for the various population groups are described as modifications to the Westminster‐system that were designed as efforts to accommodate the conflicting interests and power aspirations of the divergent population groups.

Following a brief outline of the essentiak of the proposed constitutional plan, a number of unresolved questions are analysed such as the position of the Blacks, the allocation of legislative and executive powers, the reconciliation of divergent principles of governmental jurisdiction (eg. functional, personality, and territorial), as well as the problem of gaining the acceptance and cooperation of the various population groups.

In conclusion the arguments are advanced that the incorporation of consociational elements in the proposals marks a substantial break with the past, represents a vast improvement on the status quo, and provides a mechanism for further constitutional engineering (including the possibility of regional devolution), which could lead to the development of a more equitable and viable political dispensation in South Africa.