THE CENTRALIZATION AND FRAGMENTATION OF SOUTH AFRICA'S DOMINANT PARTY SYSTEM

South Africa's first democratic election of 1994 provided thebasis for the African National Congress (ANC) to replace theformerly ruling National Party (NP) as the country's dominantparty. The new dominance was initially established by the ANC'smajority position within the postelection coalition Governmentof National Unity. Since the election, however, the ANC's dominancehas begun to be extended by a centralization of control exercisedthrough the machinery of state, notably through four processes:the rewriting of the transitional interim constitution and thepromulgation of a new constitution which, inter alia, abolishesthe necessity for coalition government after the next election;the attempted containment of autonomy of the ANC's structureswhich have been established at the level of the new provinces;the exercise of party discipline within parliament and somecurtailment of the government's accountability to parliament;and, fourthly, the imposition of administrative and financialdiscipline upon the provinces. These processes have taken placewithin a context of a fragmentation and fissure of Oppositionparty forces, which in the immediate future will only furtherenhance the ANC's dominance, despite some indication that thatparty is itself faced by a declining level of popular support.