South Africa: A Case Study Analysis

South Africa is one of the most developed nations in Africa, though like all other developed nations, it was not always that way. The major developments occurred over an extended period of time and were, arguably, brought on by many different factors. Previous literature and theories tell what helped the nation come to a state of development. One such theory is that the apartheid’s previously established democratic institutions contributed to the government’s smooth transition into democracy. Additionally, an indigenous model employed in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also contributed to the transition from the old apartheid system of rule to the evenly applied democracy it currently has. A case study on poverty and well-being in South Africa, in the post-apartheid era, sheds some light on the truth to these theories. My hypothesis, based on data from the World Bank and this case study, is that South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, paired with the apartheid regime’s previously established democratic institutions, helped the nation democratize. However, some of the “traditions” under the apartheid have contributed to the stunting of South Africa’s economic development.

South Africa was initially colonized by the Dutch, who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Albeit, the tellers of South African history, mainly the Afrikaners, claim that the area was essentially unoccupied at the time the Dutch arrived, there were actually indigenous tribes already there which the Dutch then enslaved. Moving forward to 1795, the Dutch colony was seized by the British. Because of the British takeover, the Cape Colony Boers, the Dutch settlers and their slaves, migrated to interior portion of African in an...

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...he society has to get things done. The TRC was their indigenous way of being able to move on from the cruelties that possessed the apartheid era. The TRC was, for this reason, a crucial component to transitioning into a full-fledged democracy.

For this reason the indigenous model of development is easily identified within South Africa’s road to development. South Africa’s unique indigenous model falls under the fusion of traditional and the Western-model of governing in Wiarda’s definition of the term. (talk about the blending of the apartheid, the western portion, and the TRC).

Works Cited

O'Neil, P. H., Fields, K., & Share, D. (2010). Cases in comparative politics. (3rd ed., pp. 490-530). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Wiarda, H. (2007). Comparative politics: Approaches and issues. (pp. 106-128). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.