The right way up? South Africa ten years on

Critically surveying the political and social landscape of South Africa since 1994, the authors argue that hopes for a 'new South Africa' were worn down by a levelling process - especially the introduction of the market as a form of social mediation. Although popular and thrice elected to power, the governing ANC was drawn towards neo-liberalism by a series of deals which were carried by administrative continuity. The capacity of the ANC to implement neo-liberalism is a function of a dramatic centralization around the figure of Thabo Mbeki, the country's second democratically-elected President. Social chasms are widening but constitutionalism - especially though the rulings of the Constitutional Court - has offered footholds to improve the lives of the country's people. The HIV/AIDS social movement, the Treatment Action Campaign, suggest forms of political action that will occur in the next decade. © 2004 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.