Rethinking the South African Crisis: Nationalism, Populism, and Hegemony
2014; Boston University; Volume: 47; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2326-3016
Autores Tópico(s)Legal Issues in South Africa
ResumoRethinking South African Crisis: Nationalism, Populism, and Hegemony. By Gillian Hart. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013. Pp. xxiii, 268; abbreviations, map, illustrations, notes, bibliography. $74.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.After death of Nelson Mandela and near universal celebration of his life and character, it is time to get serious in our examination of present reality of South Africa. Gillian Hart is not alone in her dissatisfaction with trajectory of that country since its promising move to majority rule in 1994, and especially its backsliding into 2000s.South Africa is becoming too like so many other African states. It is no longer an avatar of open democracy with a vibrant economy and an equitable government, but rather a poster child for unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity. Rising unemployment and underemployment accompany South Africa's disadvantageous capture by global capitalist system, an integration in which ruling ANC has been a willing partner. We have seen rise of a Black bourgeoisie that has collaborated with white economic elite to disadvantage of proletariat of country. With a declining economic base and failure of government to provide basic services there has been growing civil unrest and violent protest and a government that lashes out at popular resistance in ways not unlike how apartheid regime reacted to protest. (Think of Marikana massacre in 2012 and Soweto uprising of 1976). I might add that this book is particularly good at describing and analyzing local dissatisfaction and in outlining dilemmas and failures of local government, indeed in locating local government as the impossible terrain of official efforts to manage poverty and deprivation in a racially inflected capitalist society marked by vicious inequalities ... (p. 142). Hart's long involvement in fieldwork in Ladysmith and Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal attest to efficacy of her analysis. In this volume she builds upon and seeks to elaborate on and refine arguments she introduced in Disabling Globalization (University of California Press, 2002). That South African polity has not erupted into a full-blown violent war is hardly grounds for elation. That future might not be far off.According to Hart's analysis, South Africa since 1994 has been gulled into a neoliberal project, one of her favorite words, in which capital in South Africa has been denationalized, relocated its base beyond reach of state, co-opted ANC government or key segments of it, and then sought to re-nationalize its power base. …
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