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Politikon
South African Journal of Political Studies
Volume 27, 2000 - Issue 1
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Original Articles

Codetermination in post-apartheid South Africa?

Pages 117-132 | Published online: 18 Aug 2010

References

  • Adam , H. 1971 . Modernizing Racial Demination: The Dynamics of South African Politics , Berkeley : University of California Press . Chapter 2 mentions such differences as goals, regime rationality and experience with democracy
  • Adam , H. , van ZyI Slabbert , F. and Moodley , K. 1997 . Comrades in Business: Post-liberation Politics in South Africa , Cape Town : Tafelberg . Chapter 2
  • Adam , H. and Moodley , K. 1993 . The Negotiated Revolution: Society and Politics in Post-apartheid South Africa , 210 Johannesburg : Jonathan Ball .
  • Abelshauser , W. 1984 . 'The First Post-liberal Nation: Stages in the Development of Modern Corporatism in Germany' . European History Quarterly , 14 : 285 – 318 .
  • Schmitter , P. 1985 . “ Neo-corporatism and the State ” . In The Political Economy of Corporatism , Edited by: Grant , W. 36 London : Macmillan .
  • Ibid. As Schmitter adds, corporatist institutions 'have been the largely unintended outcome of a series of disparate interest conflicts and policy crises in which none of the class or state actors involved was capable of imposing its preferred solution upon the others. Typically, they began as second-best compromises which no one really wanted or defended openly … Neo-ccrporatism is … both conservative in that itreflects existing property and power relations, and potentially transformative in that it subjects them to explicit and repeated negotiation. Class compromise is thereby removed from the plane of individualistic adaptation and parliamentary maneuver to that of inter-organizational bargaining and contract formation' (p. 37).
  • Judith , R. , ed. 1986 . 40 Jahre Mitbestimmung-Erfahrungen, Probleme, Perspektiven , Köln : Bund Verlag .
  • Streeck , W. 1992 . Social Institutions and Economic Performance: Studies of Industrial Relations in Advanced Capitalist Countries , London : Sage . Chapter 5
  • Webster , E. , Macun , I. and Rosenthal , T. 1997 . “ '"Actually Existing Co-determination": Case Studies of South African Enterprises' ” . Johannesburg : Sociology of Work Unit, University of the Witwatersrand . Perhaps because this gap-or the gap between expectations and reality more generally-is so great, advocates of German-style codetermination refer in South Africa to 'actually existing codetermination' ; see
  • Friedman , S. 1987 . Building Tomorrow Today: African Workers in Trade Unions, 1970-1984 , Johannesburg : Ravan .
  • Kraak , G. 1993 . “ Breaking the Chains: South African Unions in the 1970s and 1980s (Johannesburg) ” . In 1996 Against the Current: Labour and Economic Policy in South Africa , Edited by: Baskin , J. 194 – 205 . Johannesburg : Ravan . Thus the number of opposition unions, in their adoption of industrial over craft principles of organisation, declined from more than SO in 1979 to less than 20 in 1989, even as total membership grew tenfold. Today, a dozen unions comprise 80 per cent of union membership. For a discussion and figures, see
  • Buhlungu , S. 1997 . 'Flogging a Dying Horse? Cosatu and the Alliance' . South African Labour Bulletin , 21 : 74 Thus former Cosatu member Sakhela Buhlungu argues that 'no union has been able to maintain a strong alliance on the basis of equality with the ruling party for any length of time'; see
  • Shilowa , S. 1997 . 'The Alliance Remains Relevant' . South African Labour Bulletin , 21 : 70 The then Secretary-General Sam Shilowa replied that Cosatu still has a constructive role to play in alliance with the ANC, and ending the alliance would 'hand over the ANC to conservative forces'; see
  • Pretorius , L. 1996 . 'Relations between State, Capital, and Labour in South Africa: Towards Corporatism?' . Journal of Theoretical Politics , 8 (2) : 257 – 67 .
  • Maree , J. 1998 . 'The Cosatu Participatory Democratic Tradition and South Africa's New Parliament: Are they Reconcilable?' . African Affairs , 97 : 46ff. Baskin (ed.) (1996), op. cit.. Chapter 6
  • Adler , G. and Webster , E. 1995 . 'Challenging Transition Theory: The Labour Movement, Radical Reform, and Transition to Democracy in South Africa' . Politics & Society , 23 (1) : 75 – 106 .
  • GeIb , S. 1997 . “ South Africa's Post-apartheid Political Economy ” . In Bridging the Rift: The New South Africa in Africa , Edited by: Swatuk , L. and Black , D. 47 – 9 . Boulder , CO : Westview Press .
  • Adelzadeh , A. and Padayachee , V. 1995 . 'The RDP White Paper: Reconstruction of a Development Vision?' . Transformation , 25 : 1 – 18 .
  • Marie , B. 1992 . 'Cosatu faces Crisis: "Quick Fix Methods" and Organizational Contradictions' . South African Labour Bulletin , 16 (5) : 20 – 26 .
  • Marais , H. 1998 . South Africa-Limits to Change: The Political Economy of Transformation , 160ff New York : Zed .
  • Baskin , J. , ed. 1994 . Unions in Transition: Cosatu at the Dawn of Democracy , 62ff Johannesburg : NALEDI . Regarding unions, Baskin speculates that several affiliates of other federations, or independent unions, are susceptible to joining Cosatu, with SASBO (South African Society of Bank Officials), formerly of FEDSAL and now one of the ten largest Cosatu affiliates and the first with a mostly white membership, symbolizing this potential. While obvious ideological differences between Cosatu and historically white unions serve as barriers to their affiliation, there are also inducements to greater co-operation, in the absence of a state guaranteeing their racial privilege-particularly since their traditional unions have no tradition of independent bargaining skills or militancy. See
  • Leminsky , G. 1998 . Bewährungsproben für ein Management des Wandels: Gewerkschaftliche Politik Zwischen Globalisierungsfalle und Sozialstaatsabbau , 213 273 Berlin : Sigma . As with unemployment figures, this statistic varies widely and is highly politicized. In South Africa, the rate among total formal sector employed excluding agricultural and domestic workers is about 50 per cent; including these sectors, about 40 per cent; and among all 15 to 65-year-olds, about 20-25 per cent. In Germany, roughly comparable figures are 38 per cent, 35 per cent, and (including non-citizen residents, IS to 65 years old) 25 per cent. See Baskin (ed.) (1996), op. cit., p. 24ff. for South African figures
  • Müller-Jentsch , W. 1995 . “ Germany-from Collective Voice to Co-management ” . In Works Councils , Edited by: Rogers , J. and Streeck , W. 56 Chicago : University of Chicago Press . This data does not however reflect the full extent of post-reunification erosion of participation in councils
  • Ibid, p. 64.
  • Ibid, pp. 64-5.
  • 1995 . NEDLAC Report 3 – 4 . 'An employer shall not be required to disclose information subject to the provisions of 16 (4) 2.1 which, if confidential, and which, if disclosed, may cause prejudice to an employee (based on the constitutional right to privacy) and 2.4 which, if confidential, and which, if disclosed, may cause 'substantial harm' to the employer'; see
  • Rogers , J. and Streeck , W. 1995 . “ 'The Study of Works Councils: Concepts and Problems' ” . Edited by: Rogers and Streck . op. cit.
  • Addison , J. , Schnabel , C. and Wagner , J. 1995 . 'German Industrial Relations: An Exclusive Exemplar' . Industrielle Beziehungen , 2 (1) : 25 – 42 . For an argument skeptical of the ability to empirically demonstrate the economic advantages of works councils, see
  • Adler , G. and Webster , E. , eds. 1999 . Hugging the Hyena: Trade Unions and the Democratisation in South Africa 4 Basingstoke
  • Ibid.
  • Herf , J. 1997 . Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanies , London : Harvard University Press . Chapter 4
  • Lauschke , Karl . 1997 . “ Die Praxis der Montanmitbestimmung im Ruhrgebiet ” . In Die Entdeckung des Ruhrgebiets in Nordrhein-Westfalen 1946-1996 Edited by: Barbian , J. and Heid , L. 175 Essen (my translation)
  • Ibid.
  • Cosatu . May 1998 . Report of the Central Executive Committee May ,

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