A review of A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society, by Donald L. Horowitz.
About the Author
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, a former member of the South African Parliament and leader of the Progressive Federal Party, is director of planning and policy for the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA).
Survey data indicate that Africans support democracy and its formal institutions, but also point to the importance of the informal realm, particularly when formal institutions fail to meet popular expectations.
The United Nations did superb work in helping Mozambique to end its long-festering civil war and start down the path to recovery, but those gains could slip away amid ominous…