Molteno's death at the end of the year likewise robbed the country and the Commission of clear and penetrating intelligence. The final signatories of the Commission's report are listed at the end of the report. The preparation of the final report of the Commission was entrusted to a committee consisting of Prof.
THE BASIC ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
The Commission is aware of the many difficulties inherent in the concept of social and political equality. The institutional formulation of the requirement that the government act ethically can also be found in the rule of law discussed below. The principle of the rule of law is an aspect of the Western and Christian ideal of justice.
THE PRESENT POLITICAL POSITION
THE PRESENT POLITICAL POSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA
A fourth example of the denial of freedom of association lies in the trade union movement. Under the Industrial Reconciliation Act, racially mixed unions were no longer permissible. So far, our analysis of the injustices and inequalities inherent in the political system has focused on the injustices inflicted on the disenfranchised _groups and.
POLITICAL ASPECTS OF SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT
It is obvious that the program of separate development is far from achieving the concept of "complete separation". The most educated and sophisticated Africans generally reside in urban areas. First and foremost, each of the countries was, to a greater or lesser extent, a developed, industrialized nation.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF CHANGE
Now it is much more difficult for these classes to gain an existence independent of the state. The effects of foreign policy on South Africa's domestic racial politics are not likely to be of critical importance as a source of change. But that misses the point that the whole tone of the Manifesto is overwhelmingly conciliatory.
THE PROBLEM OF POLITICAL
ALTERNATIVES
LONG- TERM GOALS AND THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION
In this context, it is certainly correct to insist that politics is an art. It is clearly not equivalent to the popular alternatives of 'integration' and 'apartheid'. Similarly, the ideal of a "common society" does not necessarily involve supporting social integration in.
The alternative of the ideals of 'common society' and 'separate states' is perhaps best seen as emphasizing the long-term or future ideals of current policies. The ideal of the 'common society' as a long-term objective certainly deserves the attention of the Commission. Can we endorse the notion of the common society as an adequate and unambiguous description of that future ideal?
In its investigations into the joint society as a possible long-term goal, it quickly became clear to the Commission that these various components do not necessarily go together. Others were convinced that 'the aim of the joint society program is not to produce a cultural melting pot'. In the event it turned out to be an even more elusive notion to define clearly and unequivocally than that of 'common society'.
In any evaluation of the 'multiple state(s)' approach, it will be of crucial importance whether or not it is compatible with these pervasive features of the current apartheid society (and of the projected policy of separate development).
THE CRUCIAL ISSUES UNDERLYING THE ALTERNATIVES
The answer - for it is not a rhetorical question - is to be found in the overall structure of the two societies. Is it in fact possible that the basic structure of society can be changed in the process and that the danger of divisive conflict can thus be eliminated. Indeed, the classic statement of the theory of progressive integration was formulated by the American sociologist Robert E.
Clearly, in the context of sectional dominance and privilege characteristic of a divided pluralistic society, this could hardly be otherwise. Perhaps the three main ideals are those of the melting pot, 'cultural pluralism' and 'base culture assimilation' (or 'Anglo-conformity' (45). We can be much briefer in dealing with the other ideal of assimilation. , the notion the famous melting pot.
As we have seen, even in the relatively favorable conditions of America's open pluralistic society, the facts bear out little of this. Indeed, for obvious reasons, anyone in South Africa's divided plural society rarely, if ever, engaged seriously with the melting pot ideal, except as a specter. It will now be clear to him that the controversial aspects of the ideal of (cultural) pluralism are not at all in the recognition of cultural diversity or the importance of (ethnic) groups as such.
It may be enlightening to quote Dahl's summary of other options that have been tried in the Western world.
DOMINATION AND DISCRIMINATION
A CRITIQUE OF
SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT'
It is clear that the policy of separate development cannot be judged solely on the basis of the current state of decentralization of government powers. The reason for this is the absence of an exclusive territorial base (hence the meaning of the somewhat fanciful discussion of the "colored homeland"). In South Africa this would apply to all Bantustans of the Transkei type.
Attempts at secession failed in the case of the southern states of America and of Biafra. Broadly speaking, this is the approach of the official policy of separate development. Third, the basic socio-economic and power-political structure, centered in the urban and industrial complexes of the common space, will remain essentially unchanged.
It is theoretically quite possible that the political evolution of the different homelands will ultimately result in independent Bantustans. There remains one last point he made regarding the present and future political development of the homelands. At the heart of the matter is continued economic integration with a white monopoly of political control in the common space.
This will of course depend on what the 'central principle' of the policy is supposed to be.
DEMOCRATIC STABILITY AND CONSENSUS
IN A DIVIDED PLURAL SOCIETY
LIBERAL-CONSTITUTIONALISM
The formal structure of a liberal-constitutional state can in practice, as in the American case, be related to general social and political pluralism. The bottom line is that liberal-constitutional proposals like those of the Molteno Commission can be accepted in two ways. In this sense, Heard says that "the first essential part of a democratic state is that the government should adhere to the methods embodied in the constitution".
This is not an unthinkable event that can be dismissed as logically contradictory; on the contrary, it is the core of the problem we are dealing with. A constitutional settlement whose viability depends on the prior disappearance of white and black nationalism is not a practical answer to the problem of the lack of effective political consensus in a pluralistic society. The classic liberal-constitutional mechanism for broadening participation in a system of representative government is extension of suffrage.
The specific nature of the liberal-constitutional qualifications of the franchise is perhaps not easily appreciated for what it is. But in white settler societies there is a de jure incorporation of racial and ethnic differentiation into the country's constitution. Our critique of the liberal-constitutional approach is focused on its practical feasibility in the context of a divided pluralistic society.
In short, the potential significance of the liberal-constitutional approach as part of a more comprehensive multi-pronged strategy remains undisputed.
DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVES TO THE 'WESTMINSTER' MODEL
They are found in many combinations with each other, as well as with components of the Westminster system. It has been argued, for example, that PR and multi-party systems largely contributed to the decline of Central European democracies in the 1920s and 1930s (10). In considering alternatives to the 'Westminster' model, it may be useful to turn to the strong defense of the classical two-party system of majority government on the basis of its general social and political consequences, by the political sociologist S.M.
Whether this happens depends on both the intensity of the conflict and the resilience of the political system in question. Political systems that provide some form of public competition for control of government may vary in the number, size, and organizational cohesion of competitors, which will affect the concentration of political conflict. The conduct of political conflict in a public struggle for control of government may follow more competitive or more conciliatory lines, depending in part on the concentration of the opposition.
Secondly, the decisive places of the political system in a broad sense are not all located in the representative system itself. In a sense this is just a reflection of the current system - at least if we limit ourselves to the electoral and party system. It may therefore be unjustified and misleading to think of this evolving political system solely in terms of the Westminster model.
On the contrary, we argued in chapter 8 that in terms of Special Development policy, i.e.
THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION AND THE PROSPECTS FOR A
PLURALISTIC DEVOLUTION OF POWERS
These are (a) non-parliamentary social and economic changes with direct or indirect political consequences; (b) political movements operating within the national system of representative government and party politics; (c) national political movements that have their base among those excluded from the limited electorate of the central system; In addition to the growing economic interdependence of all sectors of South African society, widespread social and cultural changes are taking place in the. Therefore, we need to look more at structuring the total situation of conflict and interaction.
Spokespeople and leaders of injustice as potential agents for political change. Is it possible to see the South African political system as currently in the early stages of developing an evolving framework of interaction between the central regime and the leaders of disenfranchised subjects. Much will depend on the social and political underpinnings of its politics and on the resulting internal dynamics of the particular development policy.
It is quite easy to state and discuss the main political principles of the special development policy, as we did in chapter 8. The dilemma is sharper in the government's relations with the new regional and municipal authorities, its own creations. We must further investigate the social and political foundations of politics if we are to assess possible responses and patterns of interaction.
In this way we can begin to understand some of the apparent paradoxes noted in the previous section.
