Power-Sharing in Südafrika. Ist der ANC eine Konkordanzpartei?

Although there is much debate about the extent to which South Africa after Apartheid was a consociational democracy, there is little doubt that the interim constitution contained power-sharing arrangements. However, the permanent constitution and the departure of the National Party from the Government of National Unity in 1996 have weakened political accommodation in this plural society. With the ANC emerging as the dominant party some observers now put their hope in the ANC becoming more inclusive and participatory. This development can be conceptualized as the transformation of a standard form of consociationalism between (segmental) parties to consociationalism within a single (consociational) party. This paper examines the prospects of the ANC becoming a consociational party. It focuses on party organization, internal representation, and internal accommodation of social cleavages within the context of the dominant position of the ANC in the wider political system. The analysis draws on the comparative experience of such parties as the Congress Party in India, the Alliance and National Front in Malaysia, and KANU in Kenya. The conclusion is that the ANC appears even more negative towards internal consociationalism than it has been towards inter-party consociationalism, pointing to the possibility of a long-lasting political marginalization of cultural minority interests.