tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/liberalism-6642/articlesLiberalism – The Conversation2024-03-19T19:42:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213032024-03-19T19:42:52Z2024-03-19T19:42:52ZLiberalism is in crisis. A new book traces how we got here, but lets neoliberal ideologues off the hook<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582433/original/file-20240318-22-yg77o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4396%2C1855&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Haruki Yui/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is post-liberalism? That is no simple question, though the simplest responses are given by those who identify with it as a movement. </p>
<p>Adrian Pabst, author of the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Postliberal+Politics%3A+The+Coming+Era+of+Renewal-p-9781509546817">most influential book</a> on the subject, proposes it as a way out of the impasse created by the excesses of hyper-capitalism on the right and identity politics on the left. He calls for a renewed focus on the collective identities of community, family and location. </p>
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<p><em>How We Became Post-Liberal – Russell Blackford (Bloomsbury)</em></p>
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<p>British journalist David Goodhart envisages an “<a href="https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/apostliberalfuture.pdf">embedded individualism</a>”, which acknowledges the messy realities of contemporary life, while insisting on traditional values of interdependence, mutual trust and social duty.</p>
<p>Both writers may be seen as part of a distinctly British mode of centrism, which combines left-wing commitments to economic justice and workers’ rights with principles of social conservatism. As advocates for consensus politics, they present their views with a reasoned account of the factors contributing to the crisis in liberalism, avoiding shrill statements and overly contentious assertions.</p>
<p>But the movement has less temperate adherents. In the United States, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/opinion-free-expression/a-postliberal-future/6199298e-6b01-44aa-9e3a-d272ba2fcea3">Patrick Deneen</a> has made the title of his book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/618154/regime-change-by-patrick-j-deneen/">Regime Change</a> a rallying cry, gaining him an enthusiastic audience among some Republicans in Washington. </p>
<p>The “regime” Deneen wants to change is the supposed cultural and institutional dominance of social liberalism – a longstanding shibboleth of the American right. He talks of a “distinct and pernicious” ruling class arisen from college campus liberals, who have created a new tyranny under which individual rights are the be-all and end-all. </p>
<p>The concept of post-liberalism, then, is ideologically ambiguous. It has the potential to embrace ideas from both left and right. Its one common assumption is that traditional liberalism – in its economic and social versions – is in trouble.</p>
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<p>Russell Blackford’s <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/how-we-became-postliberal-9781350322943/">How We Became Post-Liberal</a> purports to offer a detached, historical account of why liberalism is in trouble. As its proponents are keen to anchor their principles in deep tradition, the history matters.</p>
<p>There may be no simple answer to the question of what post-liberalism is, but Blackford shows how liberalism may be easier to define, at least in its origins. </p>
<p>His first three chapters chronicle the horrors of religious persecution, from late antiquity through to the early modern period, when liberalism began to mean something more than basic tolerance. Given the strong presence of Christian advocates in the post-liberal movement, it is interesting that Blackford places his emphasis on Christianity as a major player in the history of murderous intolerance. </p>
<p>If liberalism began as a bid to reverse some of the worst tendencies in Christian tradition, what has happened to cause a second u-turn in the movement?</p>
<h2>An impossible paradox</h2>
<p>This question underpins much of the argument in Blackford’s book, which pays sustained attention to the fuller realisation of liberalism in the long 19th century, when it became the subject of moral and philosophical treatises. </p>
<p>John Stuart Mill’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/on-liberty-9780140432077">On Liberty</a> (1859) argued for the free expression of opinion as a prerequisite to intellectual progress. Perhaps the founding work of modern liberalism, Mill’s essay has been reinvented by current advocates as a primer of post-liberalism.</p>
<p>The expansion of industrial capitalism, population growth and political revolution subjected moral thinking to radically changed conditions. Mill made the case for a shift in values that placed the individual at the centre of the picture. He emphasised the dangers of a new form of tyranny in “the moral coercion of public opinion”. </p>
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<span class="caption">John Stuart Mill (c.1870).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Stuart_Mill_by_London_Stereoscopic_Company,_c1870.jpg">Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>In the 20th century, the longstanding dynamic of liberalism, which defined the free individual in opposition to church and state, shifted in Europe and America, as political innovators introduced notions of liberalism to government. With the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/New-Deal">New Deal</a>, Franklin D. Roosevelt succeed in redefining the word liberal by associating it with new kinds of government intervention to address social problems. </p>
<p>Free speech became core business in US politics as the Soviet Union moved in the opposite direction. Then came <a href="https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare">McCarthyism</a>, described by Blackford as “one of the most severe episodes of repression in the universities that the United States experienced in the 20th century”. </p>
<p>The underlying rationales of liberalism, forged through the long 19th century, were threatened with an impossible paradox. What if freedom cannot be preserved without coercive measures? It only takes a significant minority of a democratised population to believe that for the ideals to become untenable. </p>
<p>The paradox played out through the 1960s. Countercultural movements and the rise of feminism introduced more widespread determinations to keep individual freedom paramount. There was never a golden age of liberalism, says Blackford, although for a time we seemed to be on the way. </p>
<p>The radical visions of the 1960s faded into disappointment and disillusionment. Neoliberal policies introduced another ideological twist, with their stringently economic interpretations of individual freedom. A strong element of backlash was in evidence.</p>
<p>Curiously, How We Became Post-Liberal does not really engage with this side of the story. By the time Blackford gets to the mid-20th century, his already sweeping historical canvas has stretched beyond what is really manageable. </p>
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<h2>A Rorschach test</h2>
<p>Cultural history at this level of generality is something of a Rorschach test. Points are selected from an infinite network of hubs and intersections. A selective design is composed, becoming ever more subject to distortion as it approaches the present. </p>
<p>Blackford’s focus is on the growth of rights movements and identity politics. He spends time examining the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses_controversy">controversy over Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses</a> as an Escher-like puzzle, in which contemporary notions of free speech came into conflict with stringent cultural definitions of blasphemy. Claims about rights and their infringement drive in both directions. </p>
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<span class="caption">Salman Rushdie at the Frontiers of Thought festival, Sao Paulo, May 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salman_Rushdie_no_Fronteiras_do_Pensamento_S%C3%A3o_Paulo_2014_(14196012581).jpg">Greg Salibian/Fronteiras do Pensamento, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>And so the atmosphere around liberalism heats up. Melbourne psychologist Nicholas Haslam has identified a trend he calls “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-08154-001">concept creep</a>”: an expansion in the use of terms related to the experience of harm – abuse, bullying, trauma, prejudice, vulnerability, being triggered, feeling unsafe.</p>
<p>As Blackford reminds us, harm is a central concern in Mill’s work. It is the philosopher’s guiding principle for where free speech should or should not be sanctioned. </p>
<p>But what happens when a society becomes so obsessed with the anticipation of and redress of harm that the obsession itself becomes a form of tyranny? We are finding out, Blackford suggests, as social justice movements move into a zone where permits for anger and indignation are handed out so keenly they lead to new modes of zealotry and intolerance. </p>
<p>Here lies the central problem with the post-liberal movement, and with the way it is explained in this book. There is too much animus and it is directed selectively. Why focus on social justice movements as the heart of the problem, rather than the culture of extreme individualism generated by neoliberal orthodoxies? </p>
<p>If people on college campuses are becoming prone to zealotry in their campaigns against racism, bullying and harassment, and in their determination to gain recognition for diverse sexualities, what about those in the corporate world who garner obscene levels of personal wealth at the expense of people working for <a href="https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/working-poverty/">below poverty wages</a>?</p>
<p>And where are campaigners like <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paine/">Thomas Paine</a> (1737-1809) and <a href="https://williammorrissociety.org/about-william-morris/">William Morris</a> (1834-96) in this history of liberalism? </p>
<p>Paine gets a passing mention as “pamphleteer, free thinker and political radical”. But there is no discussion of his commitment to the principles of social security and a version of basic income as means of redressing extremes of economic inequality. </p>
<p>Morris, who parted company with Mill’s doctrines on free-market capitalism, may be seen as an early example of post-liberalism, but one that moves explicitly towards socialism. Religious persecution may have been a primary cause of intolerance and oppression in the early modern period, but industrial capitalism rapidly took over as the most pervasive form of tyranny in Europe and America.</p>
<p>Here the secular liberalism of US philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/">John Rawls</a> (1921-2002) warrants more than the couple of paragraphs that allude to his work. Rawls’s vision of an economy based on social justice and the greater good has been an influential counterpoint to the orthodoxy of neoliberalism. His ideas, surely, may also be seen as an earlier version of post-liberalism.</p>
<p>The contemporary post-liberal movement is showing a distinct bias towards targeting identity politics and social justice campaigns. Pabst is one of the few to offer an evenhanded critique on this score. At their worst, the proponents of post-liberalism are starting to sound like Russian propagandist <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/23/who-is-russian-ultranationalist-alexander-dugin">Alexander Dugin</a>, who caricatures Western individualism as infantile indulgence, slurring the word “leeberaleezm” as if it were an obscenity.</p>
<p>Isn’t the problem that we get caught in one vituperative backlash after another? Beware of those who seek to herald new forms of sanity. They may be harbingers of the next wave of tyranny.</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Goodall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russell Blackford’s How We Became Post-Liberal purports to offer a detached, historical account of why liberalism is in trouble.Jane Goodall, Emeritus Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103432023-08-02T13:27:23Z2023-08-02T13:27:23ZSouth Africa’s new Marriage Bill raises many thorny issues - a balancing act is needed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539927/original/file-20230728-16043-9x88ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brides attend a mass wedding ceremony at the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, south of Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ihsaan Haffejee/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa is changing its marriage law to recognise all types of intimate partnerships – irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, or religious, cultural and other beliefs. </p>
<p>The Department of Home Affairs has <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/department-home-affairs-invites-public-submit-written-comments-draft-marriage-bill-11-jul">invited public comment</a> on the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/marriage-bill-draft-7-jul-2023-0000">Draft Marriage Bill 2022</a>. The bill amends some marriage laws, and prescribes what’s required for marriages to be considered valid, forms of registration, and the property consequences of marriage. As the <a href="https://static.pmg.org.za/48914_7-7_HomeAffairs-4-28.pdf#page=3">preamble</a> shows, it seeks to promote liberal values of equality, nondiscrimination, human dignity and freedom of thought. </p>
<p>While it is innovative for bringing all forms of intimate partnerships under one piece of legislation, the bill raises thorny questions. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberalism">Liberalism</a> – or openness to different behaviour, opinions or new ideas – is a strange beast. It pushes accepted conduct to its limits.</p>
<p>For instance, if the bill truly seeks equity, why does it not recognise intimate partnerships such as cohabitation? Why does <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202307/48914gon3648.pdf#page=20">section 22(6)</a> criminalise marriage between people who are related to each other by adoption or by blood (to certain degrees)?</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JgVz0yUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researched</a> these issues, notably as a member of the Advisory Committee on Matrimonial Property of the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/Salrc/ipapers/ip41-prj100E-MatrimonialPropertyLawReview-6Sep2021.pdf">South African Law Reform Commission</a>.</p>
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<p>I believe that even though the bill promotes important constitutional values, it does not sufficiently reflect changing social and economic conditions. Specifically, it ignores polyandry – marriage of a woman to more than one man – and unmarried partnerships. This is significant because other laws recognise <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a17-061.pdf">civil unions</a>, which include formalised marriage-like partnerships of same-sex couples.</p>
<h2>The thorny issues</h2>
<p>Firstly, radical socioeconomic changes require society to reevaluate traditional assumptions about accepted forms of relationships. Due to urbanisation and the interaction of different cultures, relationships such as cohabitation and polyandry are rising. A couple could live together for reasons such as exorbitant rent, distance to workplaces, and prohibitively high bridewealth (<em>ilobolo</em>). </p>
<p>The bill doesn’t recognise such intimate partnerships, which the Constitutional Court has accorded the same legal status as formal marriages. As the court has <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2021/51.html">acknowledged</a>, unmarried partnerships have serious implications for finances, human dignity, property ownership and child custody.</p>
<p>Secondly, the Marriage Bill <a href="https://static.pmg.org.za/48914_7-7_HomeAffairs-4-28.pdf#page=8">defines</a> <em>ilobolo</em> as</p>
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<p>property in cash or in kind … which a prospective husband or the head of his family undertakes to give to the head of the prospective wife’s family in consideration of a customary marriage.</p>
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<p>This implies that only (traditionally male) family heads can receive it. The definition does not anticipate a role for women, as happens among the Galole Orma people of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2744433">northeastern Kenya</a>.</p>
<p>Also, the position of family head could be disputed where the mother is divorced and raised the bride alone. As far back as 1997, the Transvaal High Court <a href="https://www.bbrief.co.za/content/uploads/2019/11/Mabena-v-Letsoalo-1998.pdf">ruled</a> that the bride’s mother could negotiate and receive <em>ilobolo</em>. The bill should therefore redefine bridewealth as “money, property, or anything of value given by the groom or his family to the bride’s family in consideration of marriage and/or to symbolise a union between the groom and bride’s families”.</p>
<p>This definition is consistent with the decreasing role of the extended family in the education or raising of the bride. Uncles and aunts should not benefit from bridewealth if they did not assist in raising the bride. </p>
<p>Thirdly, the bill is silent on the coexistence of a civil law marriage with a customary or religious marriage. For reasons like legal certainty and communal respect, <a href="https://www.saflii.org/za/journals/SPECJU/2018/14.pdf">double marriage is common</a>. Previously, if a couple in a civil marriage subsequently concluded a customary or religious marriage, the state regarded the latter marriage as invalid. </p>
<p>The bill creates ambiguity because it does not stipulate the fate of a subsequent customary or religious marriage. This could affect inheritance, property and child custody because legal systems may govern these issues differently.</p>
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Read more:
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<p>Furthermore, the bill defines polygamous marriage as “a marriage in which a male spouse has more than one spouse at the same time”. This patriarchal definition does not promote equality. It implies that a woman should not marry more than one man. </p>
<p>Finally, the bill imposes an omnibus standard for divorce on all marriages. This standard may complicate divorce under Islamic and customary law, where the standard is relaxed. Also, <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202307/48914gon3648.pdf#page=19">section 21(1)</a> of the bill states that a marriage may be dissolved by the “continuous unconsciousness of one of the spouses,” without specifying how long a spouse must be unconscious following an injury, for example.</p>
<p>If the thorny issues in the bill are not addressed, the eventual legislation could be challenged as discriminatory. Its amendment would then drain the public purse. </p>
<h2>A balancing act</h2>
<p>Significantly, the bill emerged from the 2022 <a href="http://www.dha.gov.za/images/PDFs/White-Paper-on-Marriage-in-SA-5-May2022.pdf">White Paper on marriages and life partnerships</a>. The advisory committee that worked on the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp152-prj144-SingleMarriageStatute-Jan2021.pdf">Single Marriage Statute (Project 144)</a> proposed two options for regulating life partnerships in its discussion paper.</p>
<p>These are a <a href="https://www.lssa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SALRC-discussion-paper-152-on-single-marriage-statute-plus-media-release.pdf">Protected Relationships Bill and a Recognition and Registration of Marriages and Life Partnerships Bill</a>. It appears Home Affairs did not add life partnerships to the bill because it is controversial. But legislative avoidance is unhelpful because it <a href="https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-37812021000100048">postpones inevitable problems</a>. The Constitutional Court <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2021/51.html">recognises</a> the right of a woman in a life partnership to inherit or claim maintenance from her deceased partner’s estate. </p>
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<p>Ultimately, new forms of relationships demand legislative recognition. Law reform should be carefully handled to ensure that non-discriminatory cultural and religious practices <a href="https://repository.uwc.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10566/7355/Diala_law_2021.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">are respected</a>. The bill should strike a balance between preserving these practices, promoting liberal values, and recognising the evolving realities of contemporary relationships.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Diala receives funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant Number 136532). </span></em></p>The Marriage Bill should strike a balance between preserving non-discriminatory cultural and religious practices and promoting liberal values.Anthony Diala, Director, Centre for Legal Integration in Africa, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047562023-05-22T20:05:48Z2023-05-22T20:05:48ZStan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?<p>This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. </p>
<p>“I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. </p>
<p>Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life.</p>
<p>Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. </p>
<p>Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him.</p>
<p>“This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.”</p>
<p>He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe?</p>
<h2>The death of the white queen</h2>
<p>In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. </p>
<p>Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. </p>
<p>Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. </p>
<p>History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">The End of History: Francis Fukuyama's controversial idea explained</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. </p>
<p>Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. </p>
<p>And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring.</p>
<p>Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok/AP</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">Racism is real, race is not: a philosopher's perspective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2>
<p>In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. </p>
<p>The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants.</p>
<p>In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. </p>
<p>In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2>
<p>In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. </p>
<p>Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. </p>
<p>The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. </p>
<p>The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. </p>
<p>In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. </p>
<p>The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. </p>
<p>In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. </p>
<p>And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heidi Norman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stan Grant’s new book, The Queen is Dead, is revealing in terms of his decision to step down from public life. ‘I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,’ he writes.Heidi Norman, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2019362023-03-23T12:39:42Z2023-03-23T12:39:42ZHow ‘Succession’ feeds the hidden fantasies of its well-to-do viewers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516416/original/file-20230320-20-bejszf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=172%2C8%2C1468%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where's the appeal in watching a group of obnoxious, pampered, backstabbing siblings?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://static.hbo.com/2021-10/succession-ka-1920_0.jpg">HBO</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660850/">Succession</a>” has returned for its fourth and final season, giving the show’s fans one last opportunity to watch <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a22638435/hbo-succession-review/">the kids of the wealthy Roy family</a> desperately try to gain the approval of their media mogul father by any means necessary.</p>
<p>I’ve watched every episode. But at one point, I started to wonder: Where’s the appeal in watching a group of obnoxious, pampered, backstabbing siblings?</p>
<p>Inspired by the family of Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, with themes and a premise <a href="https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/of-roys-and-kings-the-shadow-of-succession/">pulled from</a> Shakespeare’s “<a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/full.html">King Lear</a>,” “Succession” tells the story of an aging patriarch who must decide which of his four children will replace him at the top. </p>
<p>It’s easy to assume that much of the show’s appeal lies in its playful critiques of right-wing media and the billionaire class.</p>
<p>But in my view, the show actually caters to an audience that wants to condemn the main characters – while secretly identifying with their pursuit of power and pleasure.</p>
<h2>The contradictions of the liberal class</h2>
<p>As New York Times columnist David Brooks argued in his book “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bobos-in-Paradise/David-Brooks/9780684853789">Bobos in Paradise</a>” – “bobo” a portmanteau of “bohemian” and “bourgeois” – contemporary America is full of upper-middle class professionals who long to be seen as virtuous artists, even as they engage in the relentless pursuit of money and success that allow them to ascend the ranks of the bourgeois class. </p>
<p>To hide the guilt they may feel for their capitalistic careerism, they look to signal their virtue and style through their consumption habits. They might pay more money to purchase a hybrid car so they can appear to be good stewards of the environment. Or they might fork over an extra buck or two to buy fair trade coffee. </p>
<p>Art also plays a role in status signaling. In his book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674212770">Distinction</a>,” sociologist Pierre Bourdieu explained how class status and an appreciation of the arts are often intertwined. Wealthy people, he points out, have the time and resources to spend on activities that serve no direct practical function. </p>
<p>The working classes, however, have to constantly think about necessity and their limited time and money. </p>
<p>Bourdieu ultimately argues that the masses tend to avoid engaging with art and watching films and movies that place form over function because they do not have the luxury to spend time and money on these experiences. </p>
<h2>It’s HBO – not mass TV</h2>
<p>Like so many other <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Legitimating-Television-Media-Convergence-and-Cultural-Status/Newman-Levine/p/book/9780415880268">acclaimed premium cable TV shows</a>, “Succession” targets the very viewers – middle class and upper-middle class professionals – who can afford to pay for monthly streaming subscriptions. </p>
<p>To draw in these viewers, HBO needs to differentiate itself from TV networks and other streaming services. It does this, in part, by including nudity, violence and profanity <a href="https://www.tvguide.com/news/features/tv-censorship-nudity-profanity/">that wouldn’t be permitted on network TV</a>. It also seeks to highlight its series’ high production value.</p>
<p>In “Succession,” the series’ uncensored speech and behavior gives it a sense of gritty realism. But the show is also eager to flaunt its cinematic flair: <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/succession-cinematography">strange camera angles</a> and <a href="https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/blog-post/succession">saturated colors</a> suffuse each scene. These aesthetic techniques create a distancing effect on the audience; it is hard to escape a sense that this is a carefully crafted, fake world. </p>
<p>As I argue in my book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Political-Pathologies-from-The-Sopranos-to-Succession-Prestige-TV-and-the/Samuels/p/book/9781032403397">Political Pathologies from The Sopranos to Succession</a>,” this combination of the real and the fake allows prestige TV shows like “Succession” to present themselves as both a mirror of the world and a fictional painting full of stylistic flourishes.</p>
<p>This distance and duality allow the audience to feel like it’s a part of this world, while giving viewers the space to sever themselves from any sort of complicity and identification with the worst excesses of the show’s characters.</p>
<h2>Having it both ways</h2>
<p>Just as upper-middle class professionals may seek to hide their crass materialism through virtue signaling and status-based consumption, the show uses its own irony to reveal that it knows what it is doing, so that it can keep on catering to viewers’ anti-social desires. </p>
<p>The show’s well-to-do viewers may wish they could curse out their co-workers and underlings or indulge in wildly expensive luxuries, but they know that they have to restrain themselves – the rules of their social worlds demand it – and so they turn to fantasy and popular media to live out their repressed desires. </p>
<p>Like the politicians who say one thing but act in another contradictory way, the series itself sends two opposing messages simultaneously. One message is that people should all be free to say and do what they want. The other message is that this type of selfish behavior must be rejected because it undermines society and personal relationships.</p>
<p>New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/business/media/janet-malcolm-dead.html">who died in 2021</a>, often explored the ways in which these contradictions were ingrained in American culture. As she writes in her book “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/25/specials/malcolm-murderer.html">The Journalist and the Murderer</a>,” “Society mediates between the extremes of, on the one hand, intolerably strict morality and, on the other, dangerously anarchic permissiveness … Hypocrisy is the grease that keeps society functioning in an agreeable way, by allowing for human fallibility and reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable human needs for order and pleasure.”</p>
<p>One of the main ways that the opposing forces of social order and individual pleasure are mediated is through <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/231833/chic_ironic_bitterness">humor and irony</a>. The key to comedy, then, is that it allows people to both say and unsay the same thing – to transgress but be protected by the guise of humor. </p>
<p>In “Succession,” characters, like Tom, will state something and then immediately take it back and qualify it. Throughout the series, he is constantly threatening his younger colleague, Greg, before backtracking and telling him that he is only kidding – only to repeat the same threat again.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Tom and Greg meet for the first time in the show’s first season.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The power of cable news</h2>
<p>The contradictions of the show’s characters – and the liberal class, more broadly – are mirrored in the past few decades of American politics. </p>
<p>One example of this is former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/third-way-dlc-bill-clinton-tony-blair-1990s-politics/">ushered in a political strategy</a> called the “third way.” In order to maintain power, the Democratic president often pushed through Republican policies like <a href="https://www.history.com/news/clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts">welfare reform</a>, <a href="https://prospect.org/health/fabulous-failure-clinton-s-1990s-origins-times/">financial deregulation</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice">the war on drugs</a>. Underpinning this ideology is the desire to be both conservative and liberal at the same time. </p>
<p>Over time, the Democratic Party <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/democrats-long-goodbye-to-the-working-class/672016/">became representative of upper-middle class elites who still wanted to be seen as progressives</a>. The Republican party, meanwhile, hid its focus on policies catering to the super wealthy by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/07/college-degree-status-working-class-blue-collar-politics/">pretending to care about the plight</a> of the abandoned white working class. </p>
<p>In both of these cases, cable news and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/06/21/155501538/the-newsroom-caught-up-in-a-partisan-divide">fictional media</a> have played a big role in concealing the tensions of class conflict behind the wall of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44808-4">culture war</a>.</p>
<p>In “Succession,” Waystar RoyCo, the right-wing news conglomerate owned by Logan Roy, often fans the flames of the culture war. For his part, Logan often claims that he controls the president, and it is up to him to pick the nation’s next leader. Logan’s power, then, does not come primarily from his money but from his media influence. </p>
<p>Since the media is positioned as the show’s most powerful political entity, I sometimes wonder what “Succession” is saying about its own status as a popular TV show. Is the series claiming that it has immense social power, or does it use humor and metafiction to free itself from any responsibility? </p>
<p>The answer to these questions has to be both yes and no: The series reflects the country’s political reality – but it also feeds the underlying fantasies that shape viewers’ political beliefs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Samuels does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do the show’s fans secretly identify with the characters’ pursuit of power and pleasure?Robert Samuels, Continuing Lecturer in Writing, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986522023-01-26T22:45:07Z2023-01-26T22:45:07ZLiberal hawks versus realist doves: who is winning the ideological war over the future of Ukraine?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506691/original/file-20230126-22972-jlmetb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C12%2C8142%2C5444&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A German Leopard 2 heavy battle tank of the type destined for Ukraine.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent decision by Olaf Scholz’s German government to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/germany-leopard-2-tanks-ukraine">supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks</a> – after weeks of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64402928">clear reluctance</a> to provoke Vladimir Putin – was more than a domestic policy shift.</p>
<p>It also demonstrated how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could prove to be a tipping point in a long-running battle of ideas between two schools of thought in the field of international affairs. </p>
<p>Scholars refer to the two camps as liberals and realists. A defining characteristic of liberalism is its view that global politics is an arena where moral values, legal norms and institutions are crucial for regulating the behaviour of states, and increasing the prospects of cooperation and peace.</p>
<p>The classical realist or “realpolitik” tradition, by contrast, remains sceptical about peace. It believes states are essentially driven by the pursuit of power and national interests through a reliance on military might. It views the international arena as essentially anarchic.</p>
<p>These two approaches have been visible in much of the commentary following Russia’s full scale invasion in February 2022. In particular, the two camps have clashed over how the war in Ukraine should end.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506692/original/file-20230126-22972-dsyl9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">End game: Russian president Vladimir Putin visiting an arms production facility in Saint Petersburg, January 18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Appeasement or resistance?</h2>
<p>On the one hand, many realists believe the only way out of the current conflict is a negotiated peace. That involves recognising, in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/opinion/getting-ukraine-wrong.html">words of US political scientist John Mearsheimer</a>, the “taproot of the current crisis is NATO expansion”. </p>
<p>Ukraine must be encouraged, in some shape or form, to concede territory to Russia in order to end the invasion. Realists say it’s important for the West to recognise the legitimate security interests of a great power in Ukraine, and to avoid running the risk of Moscow forming a permanent alliance with China. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-will-give-military-tanks-to-ukraine-signaling-western-powers-long-term-commitment-to-thwarting-russia-198555">US will give military tanks to Ukraine, signaling Western powers' long-term commitment to thwarting Russia</a>
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<p>Moreover, they claim Ukraine cannot defeat the Russian occupation force because, if necessary, Putin will use nuclear weapons to ensure a “victory” – a prospect that worsens the stability of Europe and the world.</p>
<p>On the other hand, liberal hawks – sometimes called neo-idealists – maintain Russia’s Ukraine invasion is such a fundamental violation of the UN Charter that it has eliminated the moral and practical scope for a diplomatic compromise.</p>
<p>Negotiation in this context would only reward Putin’s aggression and undermine an international rules-based order that sought to uphold the territorial integrity and political independence of all states.</p>
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<h2>Hawks and doves</h2>
<p>Liberals acknowledge there are two ways of ending Putin’s annexation attempt in Ukraine. First, the Putin regime has the option of belatedly recognising its invasion is illegal, and withdrawing its troops to the internationally recognised borders of Russia.</p>
<p>Second, allies and supporters of Ukraine should ensure that Kyiv is sufficiently armed and equipped to fight a just war. Putin’s invading army is either defeated or the costs of the invasion become too high and Moscow is obliged to end its occupation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-recap-supply-of-german-and-us-tanks-to-make-kyiv-a-real-punching-fist-of-democracy-198637">Ukraine recap: supply of German and US tanks to make Kyiv 'a real punching fist of democracy'</a>
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<p>Nearly 12 months on, it’s clear among the states supporting Ukraine that the hawkish liberal view – that Putin’s military venture must fail – has steadily edged out the dovish realist perspective that Putin should be appeased with some sort of land for peace deal.</p>
<p>Germany’s decision to supply tanks to Ukraine exemplifies the shift in thinking. But the ascendency of the liberal hawks is the product of long and short-term trends before and during the Ukraine conflict.</p>
<p>For one thing, a realist worldview has not sat comfortably with an increasingly interconnected world. Having struggled to explain events like the end of the Cold War and 9/11, realist diplomats and scholars have nevertheless insisted that great powers still call the shots in world politics.</p>
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<h2>The NATO factor</h2>
<p>The Russian invasion has also significantly eroded the realist case for ending the conflict.</p>
<p>The argument that <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-follows-decades-of-warnings-that-nato-expansion-into-eastern-europe-could-provoke-russia-177999">NATO enlargement</a> caused the Putin regime to attack looks unconvincing. It was not Washington but the states of Eastern Europe, historically fearful of Russian dominance, that clamoured for NATO membership.</p>
<p>Indeed, many neighbouring states have backed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s view that Putin’s invasion is part of a Russian imperial project that can be traced back to Peter the Great and which seeks to reestablish a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Zelenskyy has successfully rejected any suggestion of moral equivalency between his democratically elected government and Putin’s authoritarian regime, whose invading troops are suspected of committing war crimes.</p>
<p>The Zelenskyy government has vowed it has the right to fight “until it regains all its territories” from Moscow, and the Biden administration in the US has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/25/us-m1-abrams-biden-tanks-ukraine-russia-war">swung strongly behind</a> this position.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-russias-war-in-ukraine-today-is-so-different-from-a-year-ago-198023">Why Russia's war in Ukraine today is so different from a year ago</a>
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<h2>Great powers can lose</h2>
<p>The Biden stance reflects US respect for the outstanding performance of the Ukrainian military on the battlefield and also the growing resistance to appeasing an outright aggressor. </p>
<p>That would be a recipe for encouraging more territorial demands from the Putin regime, and perhaps embolden China to put even more pressure on Taiwan.</p>
<p>At the same time, the successful <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2022/10/14/mapping-one-month-of-ukraines-counteroffensive">Ukrainian counteroffensive</a> in the last quarter of 2022 was a reminder to its supporters in NATO and elsewhere that great powers can and do lose wars against smaller adversaries. </p>
<p>With the right level of military support in 2023, Ukraine could realistically defeat Putin’s invading army.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the hawkish liberal vision of helping to ensure Putin’s defeat has seemingly prevailed because it offered the best prospect of justice for the victim of aggression. It also bolsters an international rules-based order threatened by the illegal use of force.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert G. Patman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How should the war in Ukraine end? That’s the question dividing two schools of geopolitical thought, but one side seems to be winning the argument.Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940222022-11-27T15:56:57Z2022-11-27T15:56:57ZIs liberal governance unable to deal with global threats?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497455/original/file-20221127-24-s38r78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1022%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri, heads the closing session of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Eid/AFP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The translated version of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/les-faiblesses-de-la-gouvernance-liberale-face-aux-menaces-globales-191630">original article in French</a> has been updated to include the authors’ comments on COP27.</em></p>
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<p>Since the Rio de Janeiro Declaration of 1992, government representatives have flocked to one Conferences of the Parties (COP) after the next in an attempt to halt global warming, in vain.</p>
<p>This year’s COP27 was no exception. Although delegates managed to strike a historic deal on a climate finance fund that would go some way in compensating developing countries for climate damage they are suffering, they were unable to produce measures to phase out fossil fuels, or protect biodiversity. This is despite the fact emission have now reached <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-carbon-emissions-at-record-levels-with-no-signs-of-shrinking-new-data-shows-humanity-has-a-monumental-task-ahead-193108">record levels</a>.</p>
<h2>A governance problem</h2>
<p>In this regard, governments’ repeated failure in preventing and managing “global threats”, such as global warming, pollution, biodiversity loss and pandemics, appears to be the rule and not the exception and can hardly be attributed to ignorance. Years of reports on the causes and consequences of these threats have not sufficed to move politicians into action, with scientists increasingly having to take on the role of whistle-blowers to raise awareness over <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776221001976?via%3Dihub">crises affecting their field of expertise</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494943/original/file-20221112-12607-te8e0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Variation of annual observed global average temperature (1850–2019) relative to the 1850–1900 average (blue line), as reported in the Summary for Policymakers from The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6, 2022) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).</span>
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<p>Since 1990, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC) has provided objective and comprehensive scientific information on anthropogenic climate change. In 2022, the last part of its <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-3/">6th report</a> made clear that failure to take climate action threatens the survival of humanity. At the same time, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergovernmental_Science-Policy_Platform_on_Biodiversity_and_Ecosystem_Services">Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services</a> (IPBES) published an <a href="https://ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment">alarming report</a> on the risk of extinction of one million species and pointed the finger at intensive agriculture as the main culprit.</p>
<p>Western governments have been the main organisers of the international political response against these threats. Largely guided by the principle of liberal economics, they have favoured pro-market, and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-16/carney-s-bid-to-boost-carbon-market-scaled-back-amid-controversy">controversial tools</a> such as <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/how-do-emissions-trading-systems-work/">carbon trading schemes</a>. More than a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.370.6514.284">much talked about leadership failure</a>, could it be that liberal governance’s failure to prevent and manage global threats draws its roots from structural causes? Otherwise, how can we explain our inability, in spite of an overabundance of warnings and scientific evidence, to solve these issues?</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.902724/full">study</a>, we argue that certain structural features of liberal democratic governance are responsible for our recurring failures to manage global threats, and spell out proposals to overcome this urgent problem.</p>
<h2>Controversial conceptions of the common good</h2>
<p>Liberalism was established in the West in the 18th century, in a world torn by wars of religion. The pioneers of liberal thought tackled this issue by proposing to dissociate political and moral governance from any religious or philosophical normative system.</p>
<p>According to philosopher <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0090591790018003001">Charles Larmore</a>, a liberal state has to be neutral, in the sense that public institutions and policies cannot be designed to support or favour one philosophical or religious conception of the common good over another.</p>
<p>Consequently, liberal society is characterised by “value pluralism” – values which can be incommensurable and mutually exclusive. And because there is no consensual way to prioritise values, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1065912908320666">“this pluralism of values frequently leads to a version of moral relativism”</a>.</p>
<p>Now, if there are no norms defining the common good, how can one govern in the name of the general interest?</p>
<h2>The legitimisation of “laissez-faire”</h2>
<p>Answering this question requires us to go back in time to understand the nature of liberalism itself. Influenced by English empiricist philosopher John Locke, in the 18th century the French philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Adrien_Helv%C3%A9tius">Claude-Adrien Helvétius</a> attempted to replace divine laws by natural laws and to introduce a mechanistic vision of human nature in order to legitimise political decisions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If the physical universe is subject to the laws of motion, the moral universe is no less subject to those of interest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These ideas would greatly influence the pioneers of philosophical and economic liberalism such as Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill or Adam Smith. The latter would go on to theorise that the free pursuit of private interest through trade is the natural driving force of the economy and must therefore constitute the self-organising principle of governance.</p>
<p>In <em>Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy</em> (1942), the economist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism,_Socialism_and_Democracy">Joseph Schumpeter</a> defined liberal democracy as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“An institutional system leading to political decisions, in which individuals acquire the power to make those decisions through a competitive struggle for the votes of the people.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thus, although often considered as such, liberalism is not axiomatically neutral. One of its fundamental traits is the belief in the ability of competition to self-organise and optimise economic, social and decision-making processes. Such a faith legitimises a “laissez-faire” approach to markets, as well as the process of deliberative democracy which submits various social projects to the public or representative assemblies for scrutiny.</p>
<h2>The ambiguous place of science</h2>
<p>In a liberal approach, what is good for all and what should be taken as true tends to be determined by a democratic process. This leads to a “competition of opinions” in order to define what is desirable by the greatest number. Thus, scientific judgements frequently tend to be considered by policy makers as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3109916">opinions among many others</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, as has been well documented in the fields of <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)66474-4/fulltext">health</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230277892">environmental policy</a>, pressure groups can distort the deliberative process through misinformation from the public or policy makers. This is particularly common when science comes into <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/195843">conflict with private commercial interests</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, during the Covid-19 crisis, many prominent liberal political leaders, such as presidents <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3046.long">Donald Trump</a> in the United States and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020731420968446">Jair Bolsonaro</a> in Brazil have publicly supported conspiracy theories and rejected the advice of official scientific agencies.</p>
<p>This denial of science has become too frequent an occurrence to be interpreted as accidental. Instead, it strikes us as symptomatic of a deep and very worrying structural problem linked to liberal governance.</p>
<h2>Improving the decision-making process</h2>
<p>Global threats are fundamentally different from traditional threats. First, given the seriousness and irreversibility of their consequences, it is necessary to prevent them, which requires being able to predict their effects. Second, these threats cannot be dealt with in the absence of a coordinated international response, which requires a broad consensus between States on their seriousness, their causes and on the priorities of the response.</p>
<p>Thus, the management of global threats depends on the value attributed to scientific knowledge and the meaning given to the common good. However, certain characteristics of liberalism, in particular the absence of norms defining the common good as well as the place of scientific arguments in the democratic process, make it ill suited to deal with global threats. We cannot therefore simply hope that a change in the composition of governments will solve the problem.</p>
<p>By referring to Hobbes’ <em>modus vivendi</em>, which <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0090591793021004004">aimed to ensure arrangements</a> between members despite their differences in interests, beliefs and values, we propose to work on a minimum definition of what the common good is and how achieve it. This modus vivendi should be based on at least two arguments:</p>
<p>First, responding to global threats involves convincing as many people as possible, regardless of their differences. Thus, we postulate that the survival of the human species as well as the preservation of health be considered as consensual ethical priorities of governance and embody the common good.</p>
<p>Human survival and health are worthy and just goals, capable of convincing the greatest number since they are prerequisites for any other need or desire. In addition, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-one-health-concept-must-prevail-to-allow-us-to-prevent-pandemics-148378">One Health</a>, Planetary Health and EcoHealth concepts, which form the conceptual basis of international public health agencies, recognise that human health is closely dependent on animal and ecosystem health.</p>
<p>Second, scientific advice shouldn’t be considered as one opinion among others. Science is fallible and does not produce absolute truths, but it is our most reliable method for understanding natural phenomena and producing universal knowledge as the consensus basis for global decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Muraille received funding from Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS-FRS), Belgium</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julien Pillot et Philippe Naccache ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>The absence of norms defining the common good and the insufficient place of scientific arguments in the democratic debate weaken the capacity of liberalism to face global threats.Eric Muraille, Biologiste, Immunologiste. Directeur de recherches au FNRS, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)Julien Pillot, Enseignant-Chercheur en Economie (Inseec) / Pr. associé (U. Paris Saclay) / Chercheur associé (CNRS), INSEEC Grande ÉcolePhilippe Naccache, Professeur Associé, INSEEC Grande ÉcoleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1944072022-11-13T05:32:26Z2022-11-13T05:32:26ZCOP27 shines light on civil liberties in Egypt, but it’ll take work to achieve real freedom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494822/original/file-20221111-2705-ixuiuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists gather in front of Tel Aviv's Embassy of Egypt to demonstrate in support of activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ability to speak freely in Egypt is currently very constrained. Individuals, groups and NGOs face significant barriers to participation in the political process. And the same holds for the exchange of opinions in the everyday public sphere. </p>
<p>But promising signs have emerged during the COP27 international climate change talks in the country. <a href="https://egyptianstreets.com/2022/11/09/human-rights-watch-and-mada-masr-websites-unblocked-in-egypt/?fbclid=IwAR1-1krMRWyRNs2KK7JHSl2qU_UfC8mIIoMQwDkhkWvVIIVew2ZCLTKnuqM">Egyptian Streets</a>, a grassroots online media outlet, has reported that the independent newspaper <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mada.masr/">Mada Masr</a> has been de-censored, along with <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/">Human Rights Watch</a>, for the first time in five years. </p>
<p>Other outlets, however, such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/">Al Jazeera</a> and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/">Huffington Post</a>, remain censored and unavailable online.</p>
<p>Back <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/opinion/sunday/egypt-censorship-crowdsourcing.html">in 2018</a>, journalist Yasmine El Rashidi called attention to the “novel” degree of censorship of political and social speech in Egypt. She labelled this a “moment of crisis” and alleged that the divided, antagonistic state of civil society in Egypt was part of the problem. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.madamasr.com/en/2016/02/20/news/culture/appeals-court-sentences-novelist-ahmed-naji-to-2-years-prison/">graphic novels</a> to <a href="https://egyptindependent.com/update-lebanese-tourist-who-insulted-egypt-is-released-from-arrest-deported/">Facebook</a> rants and now <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/1/375471/Egypt/-Egyptian-influencers-sentenced-to--years-in-priso.aspx">TikTok</a> dance videos, social speech and expression have been subject to significant governmental intervention. Young people have been imprisoned for multi-year terms for holding up <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/american-student-released-after-486-days-in-egyptian-prison/2020/07/06/e68c60f4-bfdb-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html">signs</a>, making <a href="https://egyptianstreets.com/2018/11/02/the-sherine-incident-a-tale-of-two-niles/">jokes</a>, producing <a href="https://egyptianstreets.com/2018/11/02/the-sherine-incident-a-tale-of-two-niles/">satirical songs</a>, eating <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/12/egyptian-pop-singer-sent-to-prison-for-video-that-incited-debauchery?CMP=gu_com">fruit</a> suggestively, or laying down <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-governments-fear-even-teens-on-tiktok-140389">dance moves</a>. Professors have <a href="https://www.egyptindependent.com/egypt-court-dismisses-university-professor-over-posting-videos-of-her-dancing/">lost their jobs</a> for posting dance videos to their personal social media.</p>
<p>So do the decisions taken during <a href="https://cop27.eg/#/">COP27</a> in Egypt suggest a change of heart? That the government is considering relinquishing the control of everyday space? And that it’s decided to fulfil its post-revolutionary republican promise?</p>
<p>The jury is still out, but much depends on swift correction of deficits in the judicial system, coupled with a broader and permanent opening of Egyptian society.</p>
<h2>Deep, internal tension</h2>
<p>The problem for the country is that the degree and scope of governmental intervention is countenanced by many stakeholders, for a variety of conflicting reasons. Feminists and hijabi women, human rights groups and progressives, parents and their children, do not necessarily agree on what it is permissible to regulate, or why.</p>
<p>Here are some examples that illustrate this. Electro-folk festival music (mahraganat), deemed a corruption of republican values, has been <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/entertainment/2022/10/17/Egypt-temporarily-bans-hugely-popular-mahraganat-singers">banned from public performance</a>. Female entrepreneurship and social media influence have been discouraged as a breach of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-governments-fear-even-teens-on-tiktok-140389">family values</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/17/egypt-spate-morality-prosecutions-women">normalising gendered guardianship</a> over female chastity and morality. Feminists will invite the public prosecutor to punish harassment, but also protest when female dress is surveilled and punished.</p>
<p>As a result, youth speech, political activism about rights, and Islamist expression have all been subject to shifting prosecutions. </p>
<p>Arguably, civil society is the ultimate loser, subdued by a powerful state that enforces vague laws against a variety of groups and speakers almost willy-nilly. </p>
<p>Expressing their own doubts about the freedoms of Egyptians, the bipartisan Working Group on Egypt has <a href="https://pomed.org/working-group-on-egypt-letter-to-president-biden-ahead-of-cop27/">sent multiple letters</a> to US president Joe Biden and the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/06/30/working-group-on-egypt-letter-to-secretary-pompeo-on-escalating-rights-abuses-pub-82212">Trump administration</a> over the past three years.</p>
<p>A group of Democrats penned a bicameral letter to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/19/us-legislators-call-on-egypts-el-sisi-to-release-prisoners">on 19 October 2020</a>. More recently, a group of past <a href="https://twitter.com/MadaMasr/status/1587741407292391424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Nobel Prize recipients</a> have witheringly asked whether a future without rights is a future worth saving. Of particular concern is the Egyptian-British activist and thinker <a href="https://twitter.com/MadaMasr/status/1589324235134193670">Alaa Abd el-Fattah</a>, currently imprisoned and on a hunger strike.</p>
<p>The barriers to speech and debate are not just accidents or occasional governmental heavy-handedness. They indicate a deep, internal tension within and between the <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Egypt_2014.pdf">2014 Egyptian constitution</a>, the current regime’s stated aim to advance civil society interests, and prevailing social and political practice.</p>
<p>The 2014 republican constitution guarantees substantial and conflicting freedoms. The preamble describes Egypt as a land of popular sovereignty. But Article 2 declares that Islamic sharia is the “principal source of legislation”.</p>
<p>Article 64 characterises freedom of belief as “absolute”, and freedom of thought, speech and expression are guaranteed to all in Article 65. But the liberal letter of constitutional law is hard to put into practice. </p>
<p>Take the Danish satirical cartoons published <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/charlie-hebdo-attack">in 2005</a>, and republished by Charlie Hebdo, as an example. My students routinely argue for the prosecution of religious blasphemy, citing freedom of religious belief, at the expense of freedom of expression. The tension between rights is hard to work out.</p>
<p>According to the close invigilation of independent media, legal practice clashes with constitutional commitments to a free civil society. Political and sometimes even apolitical speech is criminalised as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jul/27/fake-news-becomes-tool-of-repression-after-egypt-passes-new-law">“false news”</a> or <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/egypt">joining a terrorist organisation</a>. </p>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://mada33.appspot.com/www.madamasr.com/en/2022/11/01/news/u/security-crackdown-sees-arrest-of-hundreds-amid-calls-for-protest-on-nov-11/">about 150 people were detained</a> over possible economic protests. This heavy-handed reaction to ongoing dissent is paradoxical in a post-revolutionary republic. </p>
<p>Social media is a particularly fraught landscape, where careless or non-political speech becomes a permanent written record that can be held against speakers.</p>
<p>Civil society groups also argue that the criminal justice system fails to protect individuals in the exercise of their rights. Delays in justice, lengthy pretrial detention and rotation – detaining, eventually releasing, and then rearresting people under new charges – is the norm, not the exception. </p>
<p>So what are the signs of change, if any?</p>
<h2>Straws in the wind?</h2>
<p>Egypt recently introduced two new criminal justice initiatives amid complaints that its commitment to human rights was <a href="https://cihrs.org/egypt-national-strategy-for-human-rights-a-ruse-to-show-international-community-and-donor-states-that-political-reform-is-underway/?lang=en">more show</a> than substance. The first is a <a href="https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/116884/Exclusive-Egyptian-MP-Khouli-Presidential-pardon-committee-seeks-to-integrate">newly revived</a> Presidential Pardoning Committee, first formed in 2016. It extends leniency to detained or sentenced offenders who have not committed violent acts. </p>
<p>The second, <a href="https://www.madamasr.com/en/2022/07/01/feature/politics/how-power-blind-accountability-mechanisms-failed-nayera-ashraf-and-countless-other-women/">“Immediate Justice”</a>, looks to increase the swiftness of justice. But this could compress death penalty trials to a matter of days, potentially compromising the <a href="https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/17279.aspx">rule of law</a>. </p>
<p>Thousands of prisoners have been released since April, and President el-Sisi has asked for the <a href="https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/115496/President-Sisi-directs-pardon-committee-to-reintegrate-released-prisoners-into">social reintegration</a> of those pardoned, not just their release. These statements suggest that the end-game of current judicial reforms is transformative: to <a href="https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/465613.aspx">“close”</a> the political prisoners file, complementing the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/egypt/egypt-ending-state-emergency-start-insufficient">official rollback</a> of the state of emergency in October 2021. </p>
<p>Arguably, Egypt in 2022 might be described as currently at a crossroads. It is a young, massively online country. Progress is in the air. And while policy change is needed, change is also needed in a deeper and more logically consistent register. </p>
<p>The regime recently called for a <a href="https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/50/1201/467990/AlAhram-Weekly/Egypt/INTERVIEW-A-new-national-alignment.aspx">new national dialogue</a>, pointing towards a <a href="https://www.sis.gov.eg/UP/SIS%20English%20Publications/%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A1%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%20%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B2%D9%89%20%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%89.pdf">“new republic”</a> grounded in dignity and a “comprehensive concept of human rights”. This year has been declared the <a href="https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/422813.aspx">“year of civil society”</a>. </p>
<p>How might a new civil society theory for a new republic look?</p>
<h2>What needs to happen</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-018-0253-0">view</a> the desired outcome would be a liberal republic – with respect to the limits placed on speech, and with respect to the limits of governmental interference in civil society.</p>
<p>A liberal theory places quasi-absolutist rights of speech and expression at the heart of a tolerant republic, with equality under law. </p>
<p>In such a space, the ability to be wrong and to experiment with different ideas is respected. Violent contestation then can be distinguished from differences of opinion. Difference, as opposed to mere diversity, is respected.</p>
<p>In Egypt, that would mean tolerating self-expression by women, veiled and unveiled, and respecting the rights of the LGBTI community to be present in the public sphere. It also means accepting the inevitabilty of difference and dissent. </p>
<p>For liberty to work in Egypt, not just a national dialogue, but a clearer understanding of the normative politics – and power – of dialogue itself, should be the goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Barker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many people accept the Egyptian government’s restrictions on freedoms, for a variety of conflicting reasons.Chris Barker, Assistant Professor of Political Science, American University in CairoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876602022-08-04T07:26:04Z2022-08-04T07:26:04ZRacism in South Africa: why the ANC has failed to dismantle patterns of white privilege<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476919/original/file-20220801-77700-t3rcsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">ANC leaders led by Cyril Ramaphosa cut a giant cake to mark the ANC's 110th birthday in January.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the sources of social discontent in post-apartheid South Africa is the legacy of white racism. This toxic legacy is evident in racialised poverty and inequality. </p>
<p>It is a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/719876">historical fact</a> that the economic prosperity of whites in South Africa is based on the racist exploitation and impoverishment of blacks. </p>
<p>The long <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/719876">history</a> of racism enabled white South Africans to enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world by the 1970s. In his new book, titled <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31759">Can We Unlearn Racism?</a>, Jacob R Boersema, a New York University academic, shows that by the 21st century white South Africans’ “lifetime work-related earnings on average are four times higher than for Africans”. </p>
<p>Add to this <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">corruption</a>, rampant <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele-release-quarter-four-crime-statistics-202122-3-jun-2022-0000">crime</a>, frightening levels of <a href="https://theconversation.com/change-what-south-african-men-think-of-women-to-combat-their-violent-behaviour-167921">gender based violence</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-08-18-south-africas-profound-institutional-failure/">failing political institutions</a>: the outcome is a social horror show that produces misery for millions of black people. This is what former president Thabo Mbeki was referring to in his <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-22-thabo-mbeki-slams-anc-for-failing-on-unemployment-poverty-inequality/">recent scathing critique</a> of the governing African National Congress (ANC).</p>
<p>Mbeki also criticised the party for not being able to organise a racially diverse audience for the memorial service of the late ANC deputy secretary general <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jessie-yasmin-duarte">Jessie Duarte</a>. That, he said, showed that the ANC had failed to embody its fundamental value of <a href="https://repository.uwc.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10566/5829/Non%20racialism%20and%20the%20African%20National%20Congress%20views%20from%20the%20branch.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">non-racialism</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">Pandemic underscores gross inequalities in South Africa, and the need to fix them</a>
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<p>Mbeki’s thinking reveals deep confusion about “race”, racism, diversity and non-racialism. He falsely assumes that diversity means harmony. </p>
<p>Non-racialism is one of the unexamined dogmas of the ANC. It has its roots in the politics of Christian humanism that inspired the formation of the party in 1912. That humanism regarded Christianity as transcending race by offering <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rise-African-Nationalism-South-Africa/dp/0520018109">“an ultimate goal of inter-racial harmony based on the brotherhood of man”</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever solidarity there was between different racial groups in political structures like the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/significance-congress-people-and-freedom-charter">Congress Alliance</a> – which drew up the ANC’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-legacy-of-south-africas-freedom-charter-60-years-later-43647">“Freedom Charter”</a> in 1955 – did not translate to the social world outside politics. </p>
<p>The world outside politics was defined by racial segregation. That has not changed much. Apart from the workplace and in schools, ordinary blacks and whites continue to live <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-johannesburgs-suburban-elites-maintain-apartheid-inequities-169295">racially segregated lives</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-white-liberals-dodge-honest-debates-about-race-127846">How South Africa's white liberals dodge honest debates about race</a>
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<p>The ANC, since its formation, has been ideologically trapped in the 19th century black Cape politics of Victorian liberalism – which advocated for loyalty to the British Crown. This resulted in blacks making moral appeals to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/274742">white benevolence</a> for justice and freedom, instead of making political demands. The ANC has never fully understood how white racism functions.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>The ANC’s establishment in 1912 was driven by an ideological blending of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rise-African-Nationalism-South-Africa/dp/0520018109">British liberalism and a Christian vision of non-racialism</a>. This equipped it poorly to respond to and make sense of racism and modern South Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men and women give the thumbs up sign from inside a train coach reserved for whites only in 1952, during apartheid. A sign on the train says 'Europeans only'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C528%2C390&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476916/original/file-20220801-24-eadx6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Black commuters defiantly board a train reserved for whites during apartheid in 1952.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bettman via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>For most of the early 20th century, the ANC thought it could defeat racism by appealing to Britain’s sense of common justice. In his presidential address to the South African Native Congress (now ANC) in 1912 – which was published in the Christian Express, the Christian missionary journal published by the Lovedale Press – <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/john-langalibalele-dube">Reverend John Dube</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1arfjVg421EBuXh6iMRiWwC7e1-ouGFcn/view?usp=sharing">encouraged</a> black people to show “deep and dutiful respect for the rulers whom God has placed over us” because the</p>
<blockquote>
<p>sense of common justice and love of freedom so innate in the British character (would) ultimately triumph over all other baser tendencies to colour prejudice and class tyranny.</p>
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<p>Consequently, from its formation to the 1950s, when its leaders were subjected to government bans, the ANC failed to win a single political victory over white racism, as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520039339/black-power-in-south-africa">historians</a> have pointed out.</p>
<p>From the 1950s, it moved away from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24738360">“black Victorianism”</a> and incorporated a Pan-Africanist worldview, as well as Das Kapital – Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism. The Marxists in the ANC argued that the aim of the struggle was to overthrow capitalism, which they saw <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520039339/black-power-in-south-africa">in terms of class rather than race</a>.</p>
<p>Black people thus focused their hostility on the apartheid government, and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520039339/black-power-in-south-africa">“never on whites as such”</a>. Black people who dared to use race as an analytical category were eventually purged from the ANC. </p>
<p>By the turn of this century the ANC had rid itself of British liberalism and Christian politics. But it remained committed to the idea of non-racialism.
And it has <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237800101_The_ANC_black_capitalism_in_South_Africa">embraced capitalism </a> – in particular the capitalism entrenched in South Africa by white people.</p>
<p>There are three consequences.</p>
<p>Firstly, the ANC is an intellectually impoverished organisation that rewards incompetence and greed, and encourages individuals to strive to be the king of the rubbish pile. </p>
<p>Secondly, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gangster-State-Unravelling-Magashules-Pieter-Louis/dp/1776093747">corruption</a> and blatant disregard for the <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-03-crime-crisis-continues-in-first-quarter-of-2022-with-women-and-children-worst-affected/">law</a> have achieved ambient levels. </p>
<p>Thirdly, South Africa is dysfunctional and <a href="https://www.opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/900">social cohesion</a> has broken down.</p>
<h2>Failure of non-racialism</h2>
<p>Mbeki is one of the few ANC politicians <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpZlvfSP_A">to admit publicly</a> that non-racialism has failed to unite South Africans. The black intellectual ecosystem has yet to develop a compelling analysis of the relationship between white wealth and black poverty. </p>
<p>The white narrative that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2021.1878251?src=recsys">blames the black elite</a> for the persistence of <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2018/08/das-position-on-economic-empowerment">racialised inequality</a> erases white racism from post-apartheid South Africa. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/Report-03-10-19/Report-03-10-192017.pdf?_ga=2.14935350.1863706996.1659349869-103406588.1655989340#page=59">Statistics South Africa</a>: </p>
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<p>The labour market experiences of different population groups in South Africa continue to diverge substantially, and still reflect the strongly persistent legacies of apartheid policies … Thus, black African unemployment rates are between four and five times as high as they are amongst whites.</p>
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<p>The black middle class remains largely an academic construct. It consists of a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1750481317745750">mere 4.2 million</a> people whereas blacks make up 80% of the population of <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15601">60 million</a>. <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/publications/working-papers/">Research</a> shows no sign of a decrease in racialised wealth inequality since apartheid.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-pro-poor-policies-on-their-own-wont-shift-inequality-in-south-africa-117430">Why 'pro-poor' policies on their own won't shift inequality in South Africa</a>
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<p>The ANC’s failures mean that the vast majority of black people are trapped in poverty, with few prospects of escaping.</p>
<p>Thabo Mbeki is right to be worried. And it is not only the ANC that does not have the solution to the country’s problems. </p>
<p>Until black people break from the ideological capture of non-racialism, the legacy of white racism will never be dislodged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mandisi Majavu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Non-racialism is one of the unexamined dogmas of the governing ANC, which has never fully understood how white racism functions.Mandisi Majavu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1853312022-06-22T13:22:16Z2022-06-22T13:22:16ZWhy the ‘social democratic’ SNP needs some fresh thinking after 15 years in power<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470280/original/file-20220622-12-1pdqb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5447%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasgow-uk-october-9-2018-scottish-1202335303">Terry Murden/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite growing evidence of <a href="https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,nicola-sturgeon-popularity-ratings-drop-by-nearly-40-points-with-scottish-voters">disquiet</a> and even <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2021/11/is-the-snp-facing-a-winter-of-discontent">discontent</a> with the current Scottish government, the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party retains what many believe is an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61358666">unassailable position of dominance</a> after the local elections of May 2022.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the opposition is still a long way behind, but the cracks are starting to appear in the notion that Scotland is a <em>de facto</em> “<a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/scottish-independence-one-party-state-scotland-needs-to-find-a-resolution-to-its-perennial-problem-alastair-stewart-3686050">one party state</a>” under the SNP. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/15/nicola-sturgeon-second-scottish-independence-referendum-october-2023">announcement</a> of the intention to hold a further referendum on independence in October 2023 is likely to crystallise these tensions further.</p>
<p>For the radical left to make headway in these new times, fresh thinking is needed. This is high unlikely to come from <a href="https://scottishlabour.org.uk/">Scottish Labour</a> as it continues to tread the path taken by previous Scottish Labour party leaders – which lost the party its position as the official opposition to the SNP government in 2016. It appears <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/34ec43b9-5dcd-46cd-b284-093e8f13714d">“Blairism” has made a return</a> south of the border with Keir Starmer, and Scottish Labour has its own version of Starmer in the form of <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/anas-sarwar-praises-tony-blair-25904525">Anas Sarwar</a>.</p>
<p>North Ayrshire council, a pioneer of <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/02/scotlands-red-council">community wealth-building</a> as a form of local “municipal socialism”, was considered Scottish Labour’s one bright light – but the party <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/yjk-26922985">lost control of the council</a> on May 5022. And, as the Scottish Greens appear <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/04/scottish-green-party-snp-climate-crisis">increasingly compromised</a> by participating in government with the SNP, this fresh thinking is unlikely to come from them either.</p>
<p>The independent radical left in the form of the <a href="https://scottishsocialistparty.org/">Scottish Socialist Party</a> has failed to resuscitate itself after making initial headway in 2003 when it gained six MSPs and promoted ideas such as free school meals, free public transport and free prescriptions.</p>
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<h2>What is social democracy?</h2>
<p>The revitalised ideas and ideals of <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/social-democracy/v-1">social democracy</a> are critical to being able make headway for the left. Crucially, this means being able to recognise what is and is not social democratic.</p>
<p>Until the mid-1990s, politics in Scotland was dominated by Labour which was then still a largely social democratic party. Social democracy is the belief in using state intervention in the economy to make capitalism’s outcomes fairer for the many. Actually applying it once in government can sometimes be problematical if there is opposition from business and the media.</p>
<p>Labour, north and south of the border, moved away from this belief, as Margaret Thatcher recognised. When asked in 2002 what her <a href="https://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2008/04/making-history.html">greatest achievement</a> was, she said: “Tony Blair and new Labour. We forced our opponents to change their minds.”</p>
<p>The SNP’s edge became the portrayal of itself as the last bastion of social democracy in Scotland – so-called “old Labour” territory – and a bulwark against this move to the right. The SNP’s <a href="https://www.snp.org/">website</a> states it is “centre left and social democratic”.</p>
<p>But the SNP – in government since 2007 in Scotland – has had its own conversion on the road to Damascus, in that its ideology is best now described as social liberal and not social democratic. This is most obviously indicated by its vision of an independent capitalist Scotland set out in its 2018 <a href="https://www.sustainablegrowthcommission.scot/report">Sustainable Growth Commission report</a>.</p>
<p>This position was not fundamentally changed by the publication in June 2022 of its <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/independence-modern-world-wealthier-happier-fairer-not-scotland/">new prospectus</a> called Independence in the Modern World: Wealthier, Happier, Fairer – Why Not Scotland?</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2007.00828.x">Social liberalism</a> is based upon trying to create a successful capitalist market economy in order to raise the taxes to pay for a limited welfare state. Interference in the market is not tolerated because it is believed this might make capitalism less efficient or deter private investment and, either way, raise less tax for welfare expenditure.</p>
<p>This social liberalism is, of course, different from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">neoliberalism</a> which seeks to deregulate the market even further and introduce it into areas where it did not previously exist via state action – in the social care sector, for example. It is this distinction between social liberalism and neoliberalism which still allows the SNP to portray itself as left-leaning, especially when compared to its two main political opponents, Scottish Labour and the <a href="https://www.scottishconservatives.com/">Scottish Conservatives</a>.</p>
<h2>Changing inequalities</h2>
<p>Social democracy of old got itself somewhat of a bad name when it became associated in the 1970s with run-down public services and state-owned industries. They were increasingly starved of the resources needed to make themselves successful and effective for servicing the wider interests of the populace. British Rail was one such example.</p>
<p>But this social democracy was also of the redistributive kind. Fresh thinking suggests it should be of the “pre-distributive” kind. Redistributive social democracy is a case of trying to alter the unequal effects of capitalism after the fact, through the likes of welfare benefits like unemployment or housing benefit. By contrast, pre-distributive social democracy seeks to alter the processes by which capitalism operates so that the unfair effects are far less likely to occur in the first place. </p>
<p>Examples are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/30/minimum-wage-maximum-wage-income-inequality">maximum wages</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/07/basic-income-royal-family-living-wage-economy">universal or citizen’s basic income</a> and <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/04/we-need-price-controls-to-fight-the-living-standards-crisis">price controls on food, fuel and rent</a> as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-default-union-membership-could-help-reduce-income-inequality-110021">helping create stronger unions</a> by creating a union default system so that unions can more effectively represent their members’ interests. </p>
<p>Pre-distributive social democracy is more radical. While not socialism, which would see the abolition of the market and capitalism, it does attempt to deal with the problems of inequality at their root. Pre-distribution was an idea that Labour leader <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/sep/12/ed-miliband-predistribution">Ed Miliband toyed with</a> a decade ago – albeit briefly and superficially.</p>
<p>It is this kind of vision that the left – whether in the SNP, Labour, Greens or outside them – must articulate if wants to appeal to the interests of the bulk of the population in Scotland, and on this basis build the political forces for radical social and economic change. </p>
<p>This means that the debate about independence versus enhanced devolution is a rather misleading one unless either or both sides of the pro or anti parties are prepared to promote pre-distribution. These ideas are explored in a <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345062/a-new-scotland/">new book</a> published by the <a href="https://reidfoundation.scot/">Jimmy Reid Foundation</a> called A New Scotland: Building an Equal, Fair and Sustainable Society.</p>
<p>Independence or enhanced devolution which is not based upon pre-distribution will be another false dawn for Scottish people. It will simply repeat the flaws of the <a href="https://reidfoundation.scot/the-scottish-question-revisited-pamphlet/">1999 devolution settlement</a>, which was based on the idea of the Scottish parliament acting as a shield against the unjust inequalities produced by neoliberalism without intervening in the processes of the market.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is editor of the Scottish Left Review and director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation.</span></em></p>The party of government in Scotland has strayed from its ‘social democratic’ vision and desperately needs a new approach to solving inequalities across society.Gregor Gall, Visiting Scholar, School of Law, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787772022-03-10T18:54:54Z2022-03-10T18:54:54ZVital Signs: what the neoliberalism-hating left should love about markets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451148/original/file-20220309-743-z4t5r1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4281%2C2163&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is fashionable these days to dunk on markets. Show me something bad in the world and I’ll show you someone blaming it on “neoliberalism”.</p>
<p>Our collective failure to tackle climate change – that’s the fault of “neoliberalism”. Poverty, low wages, income inequality, housing affordability, imperfect health care and education systems – the <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">culprit is</a> “neoliberalism”. </p>
<p>Not so long ago – in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the eras of Hawke and Keating in Australia, Clinton in the US and Blair in Britain – markets were seen by those on the centre-left as the best way to create broad prosperity and what is sometimes called “inclusive growth”.</p>
<p>Then a funny thing happened on the way to the 2010s. </p>
<p>A semi-apocalyptic global financial crisis in 2008 turned “market” into a dirty word. A bunch of greedy but clever Wall Street types transformed mortgage-backed securities – a way to bundle up mortgages into bonds leading to lower borrowing costs and greater home ownership – into what famous investor Warren Buffett <a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2002ar/2002ar.pdf">once called</a> “weapons of financial mass destruction”.</p>
<p>In the wash-up of the financial crisis the good and bad aspects of markets were fused into one derogatory word: neoliberalism. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, outside the home of the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, on October 11 2011." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451188/original/file-20220310-25-5nbrg2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, outside the home of the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, on October 11 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Burton/AP</span></span>
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<p>Belief in the power of markets to lift people out of poverty, empower households, and provide the resources to create a meaningful social safety net has become <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA287386101&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=13626620&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=loyoland_main">conflated</a> with the free-market fanaticism associated with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. </p>
<p>This is a big mistake. Those on the left of politics should embrace markets. Not the fanatical laissez-faire views that oppose government and market regulation. But a view of liberalism – in the classical sense, emphasising individual liberty – that harnesses the power of markets for social and economic good.</p>
<h2>Towards democratic liberalism</h2>
<p>Two of my former colleagues at the University of Chicago, Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales, capture a version of this in their brilliant 2003 book <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691121284/saving-capitalism-from-the-capitalists">Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists</a>. So too does Joe Stiglitz with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/People-Power-Profits-Progressive-Capitalism/dp/039335833X/ref=asc_df_039335833X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459680637280&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6870205712395064671&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9057160&hvtargid=pla-901281214742&psc=1">his vision</a> of “progressive capitalism”.</p>
<p>My take is articulated in my new book with Rosalind Dixon, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/from-free-to-fair-markets-9780197625989?lang=en&cc=us">From Free to Fair Markets: Liberalism after COVID-19</a>, to be published by Oxford University Press next month, where we argue for “democratic liberalism”.</p>
<p>For us, democratic liberalism takes more seriously commitments to individual dignity and equality, as well as freedom, within the liberal tradition; placing the democratic citizen at the centre of a liberal approach. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-the-marketplace-for-ideas-can-fail-140429">Vital Signs: the 'marketplace for ideas' can fail</a>
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<p>It draws heavily on the “capabilities approach” to human welfare of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, which acknowledges it’s not enough just to have a “level playing field”. It insists on universal access to dignity, a “generous social minimum” for all. And it insists unregulated markets do not serve those ends.</p>
<h2>‘Capitalism is irredeemable’</h2>
<p>In particular, so-called “neoclassical” economists have long maintained that monopoly power (in business or politics) and externalities, such as carbon pollution, distort and damage markets. </p>
<p>We need to do more to make markets work better – not abandon markets altogether. </p>
<p>As Buffett <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-agree-bernie-sanders-capitalism-regulation-socialism-election-vote-2020-2-1028932198">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We ought to do better by the people that get left behind by our capitalist system. I don’t think we should kill the capitalist system in the process.</p>
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<p>Contrast this with the US left’s icon <em>du jour</em>, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who in 2019 said <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-says-capitalism-is-irredeemable-sxsw-socialist-2019-2019-3?r=US&IR=T">capitalism was irredeemable</a>. </p>
<p>Asked what she meant by this <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/02/06/alexandria_ocasio-cortez_capitalism_is_not_a_redeemable_system_for_us.html">last month</a>, she described capitalism as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the ability for a very small group of actual capitalists – and that is people who have so much money that their money makes money and they don’t have to work – to control industry. They can control our energy sources. They can control our labour. They can control massive markets that they dictate and can capture governments. And they can essentially have power over the many.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be fair, that doesn’t sound so great to me either. </p>
<p>And I get that Ocasio-Cortez is not a fusty scholar but a (very successful) politician and activist. Nuance doesn’t play well in those worlds. But nuance is required when thinking about how society should be arranged.</p>
<h2>We’ve been here before</h2>
<p>This isn’t society’s first rodeo on these matters. </p>
<p>One of the more consequential debates about liberalism versus socialism – which became known as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23722610?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">socialist calculation debate</a> – began in the 1920s between neoclassical economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek and socialist economists Fred Taylor, Oskar Lange and Abraham “Abba” Lerner.</p>
<p>At issue was whether Soviet-style socialism and its central planning could replicate the virtues of free markets without the downsides of inequality.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on-message at New York City's high-society event the Met Gala in September 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451180/original/file-20220310-25-ie0doi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on-message at New York City’s high-society event the Met Gala in September 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx/AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The clinching argument in this debate came from Hayek, who pointed out the market’s price mechanism is invaluable for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1809376?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">aggregating and communicating information</a>. </p>
<p>No central planner can ever replicate the price mechanism’s ability to give producers and consumers information they need to make the best decisions.</p>
<h2>Lower prices, higher incomes</h2>
<p>The character <a href="https://westwing.fandom.com/wiki/Toby_Ziegler">Toby Ziegler</a> in The West Wing succinctly expressed the virtues of free trade and free markets more generally when he said (courtesy of Aaron Sorkin and his fellow writers) “it lowers prices, it raises incomes”.</p>
<p>In 1990 more than a third of the world’s 5.3 billion people lived in abject poverty, on less than US$1.90 a day. </p>
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<p>Now about <a href="https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts">9%</a> of the globe’s 7.9 billion people live in such poverty. That’s about 1.2 billion fewer people, an extraordinary testament to the power of markets. </p>
<p>Since 2008 – and during the coronavirus pandemic – the limitations of free markets have come into sharp relief. More – much more – needs to be done to make markets fairer. That means a commitment to the dignity and freedom of all. </p>
<p>But it also means a commitment to the hard work of building a more prosperous society, not just shrieking from the sidelines, complaining about the things that are wrong, and misidentifying the solution.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Section editor’s note: I am sad to report that after six years and hundreds of contributions, this is Richard Holden’s final column for The Conversation. He is leaving us to write weekly and exclusively for <a href="https://www.afr.com/">The Australian Financial Review</a>. We are extraordinary grateful for all he has done. We will miss him. And we will keep reading him. – Peter Martin</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Holden is President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.</span></em></p>It’s time for a new brand of democratic liberalism that understands and harnesses the power of markets for social and economic good.Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1697432021-10-12T15:40:03Z2021-10-12T15:40:03ZWhat inflammatory election posters say about South Africa’s Democratic Alliance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425982/original/file-20211012-27-14uk6y2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Democratic Alliance has been accused of inflaming racial tensions in Phoenix. Local residents belonging to a protection group stand watch in July 2021 at the height of the violence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is “liberal” in South Africa another way of saying “right-wing”?</p>
<p>Liberalism’s apparent representative in the country’s party politics is the official opposition, the <a href="https://www.da.org.za/">Democratic Alliance (DA)</a>. Its current leadership does not flaunt its liberalism, and most of its voters are not liberals. But it is affiliated to the <a href="https://liberal-international.org/">Liberal International</a> and the <a href="http://africaliberalnetwork.org/">Africa Liberal Network</a>, alliances of liberal parties. So, it identifies itself as liberal and liberal politicians around the world agree.</p>
<p>Other liberal parties may be less eager to identify with the Democratic Alliance after it <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/siyakhumalo/siya-khumalo-the-case-for-putting-the-das-campaign-posters-back-up-20211011">distributed posters</a> in eThekwini (Durban), KwaZulu-Natal, which were seen by just about everyone outside the party – and some within it – as at best racially insensitive, at worst bigoted and divisive.</p>
<p>They were erected in Phoenix, an area which houses mainly people of Indian descent, and was hit by violent clashes between Indian and black people <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-28-phoenix-massacre-what-really-happened-in-the-deadly-collision-of-brutalised-communities/">in July</a>. Phoenix residents who are blamed for the violence say they were protecting themselves from violent attack. Many black people insist they were racial vigilantes. The DA’s response was to erect two posters. One read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/siyakhumalo/siya-khumalo-the-case-for-putting-the-das-campaign-posters-back-up-20211011">The ANC called you racists</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The other:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/siyakhumalo/siya-khumalo-the-case-for-putting-the-das-campaign-posters-back-up-20211011">The DA calls you heroes</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even at face value, the posters were inflammatory and insensitive. In an area crying out for a calming of racial tensions, they chose sides and inflamed them. </p>
<p>They become worse if we recognise that, in a racially divided society, what people read is filtered through stereotypes which are rarely expressed but are deeply felt. The posters reflected a (false) view common among racial minorities – that black people (the majority) are always responsible for violence; minorities are always defending themselves against them.</p>
<h2>Fallout over posters</h2>
<p>The DA’s leader in KwaZulu-Natal, the province in which Phoenix is situated, has <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/breaking-da-apologises-for-controversial-elections-posters-in-kwazulu-natal-removes-them-20211007">apologised</a> for the posters, for which he was reportedly responsible, and said they would be removed. But he did this only after its Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Mpho Phalatse, urged that <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/politics/2021-10-06-da-joburg-mayoral-candidate-breaks-ranks-with-party-boss-on-phoenix-posters/">they be taken down</a> and DA politicians in KwaZulu-Natal said he had not consulted them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-liberals-are-failing-to-wrap-their-heads-around-race-127029">South Africa's liberals are failing to wrap their heads around race</a>
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<p>The DA’s leader, <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/person/john-henry-steenhuisen/">John Steenhuisen</a>, said he would <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2639680/john-steenhuisen-will-not-apologise-for-da-election-posters-in-phoenix/">not apologise for the posters</a>; he endorsed their content while claiming, implausibly, that they were not racially biased.</p>
<p>While several DA politicians, and media commentators sympathetic to it, rejected the posters, its leader finds nothing wrong with them and it seems likely that his view is shared by others in the DA leadership. </p>
<p>The posters were not a bolt from the blue. They were consistent with messages the DA’s current leadership has been sending out for some time.</p>
<p>Its federal chair and former leader, <a href="https://www.da.org.za/people/helen-zille-2">Helen Zille</a>, has become notorious for Twitter outbursts which sound like those of Donald Trump. She has complained that <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/3/16/outrage-over-helen-zilles-colonialism-tweets">colonialism’s benefits are unappreciated</a> and that there were <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/Analysis/helen-zille-says-there-are-more-racist-laws-today-than-under-apartheid-we-compared-them-20200623">fewer racial laws under apartheid</a> than now. A DA MP claimed black members of parliament enjoyed singing because they were <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/backlash-against-da-mp-after-she-said-anc-struggle-songs-in-parliament-were-irritating-20190523">no good at thinking</a>.</p>
<p>Nor is the DA the only supposedly liberal vehicle which <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-14-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-south-african-institute-of-race-relations/">echoes the global right-wing</a>: the South African Institute of Race Relations, which recently filed court papers <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2021/29.html">supporting the DA’s position</a> in a dispute with the electoral commission, has moved from a pillar of the liberal establishment to a loud vehicle for hard right positions, so much so that 80 people, including some former employees and members, signed an open letter <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/letters/open-letter-we-are-concerned-about-the-direction-the-irr-is-taking-20210919">protesting at its right-wing stances</a>.</p>
<h2>Liberalism and white supremacy</h2>
<p>To many of liberalism’s critics in South Africa, the fact that two of its core vehicles seem closer to the global right than the Liberal International is no surprise. Liberalism, they insist, may talk of freedom for all, but is another form of white supremacy. Reality is more complicated.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-white-liberals-dodge-honest-debates-about-race-127846">How South Africa's white liberals dodge honest debates about race</a>
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<p>The Canadian political philosopher <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100124539">CB Macpherson</a> argued that there were two liberalisms. The first he called “<a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198717133.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780198717133-e-42">possessive individualism</a>”. It was an ideology of the property owner who believed that they enjoyed wealth and power not because they were privileged but because they were better than others. Liberals of this type were horrified at the thought that all adults should be allowed to vote because that would, they feared, give power to the ignorant poor. </p>
<p>The second he labelled “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3230297">developmental liberalism</a>” – it favoured votes and rights for all.</p>
<p>Both liberalisms have played a role in South Africa’s history, although the divide between them has a racial flavour. The “possessive individualists” believe in white supremacy but think that “educated” black people – those who see the world as they do – could also be admitted to the circle of the privileged. Developmental liberals campaigned for votes for all and engaged in civil disobedience and, in some cases, armed resistance to minority rule.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberal-party-south-africa-lpsa">Liberal Party</a>, which was active in the 1960s, housed both types. When it disbanded in the late 1960s to avoid implementing a new law which banned non-racial parties, its possessive individualists joined the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20111123105655574">Progressive Party</a>, one of the DA’s ancestors, which advocated votes only for black people who owned property and had formal qualifications.</p>
<p>So, the DA is a product of the liberalism that believes only some black people are equal to whites. So is the South African Institute of Race Relations, which was known during apartheid for <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-african-institute-race-relations">high quality research</a> but also for limiting its opposition to apartheid to convening discussions between whites and some black professionals.</p>
<h2>DA’s rightward lurch</h2>
<p>The DA’s rightward lurch is not its first – in 1999, the party fought an election using the slogan <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/das-history-of-identity-crises-1611459">Fight Back</a>. While it claimed it was rallying voters to oppose the governing African National Congress, it sounded very much like it was urging racial minorities to fight majority rule.</p>
<p>Later the DA tried, when Zille was leader, to shed its <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-helen-zilles-departure-means-for-south-africas-main-opposition-party-40104">white, suburban baggage</a>. But its white leadership found a liberalism that might allow for independent black leadership not to its taste. It has moved ever rightward since, despite the fact that this is likely to exclude it from government in most of the country forever: its current leaders clearly believe that their idea of whiteness is more important not only than liberalism but also than winning support.</p>
<p>But that does not mean the posters indict South African liberalism. Reactions to them suggest that the DA has become too right-wing even for many “possessive individual” liberals. It has arguably not been a liberal party for a while: even those who embrace the narrower form of liberalism may have begun to notice this. And, even in its liberal phase, it represented only one liberal strand – the other continues to influence South Africans, including many who are not liberals. It lacks a political vehicle but is found in the constitution and public debate.</p>
<p>So, the posters tell us much about the biases of the DA’s current leadership. They say far less about liberalism and its future in South Africa.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Democratic Alliance posters were not a bolt from the blue. They were consistent with messages the party’s current leadership has been sending out for some time.Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689472021-10-06T14:18:09Z2021-10-06T14:18:09ZCombating COVID-19 anti-vaxxers: lessons from political philosophy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424223/original/file-20211001-22-1otz9lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Challenging the scepticism and resistance in the public response to the COVID-19 vaccine is deeply important to the state of public health. This is a critical conversation because people are protesting the COVID-19 vaccines not just in South Africa, but globally too. </p>
<p>As a teacher of political philosophy, I think it’s important to dispel the notion that the call to vaccinate is an infringement on acceptable liberal freedoms. </p>
<p>Based on a significant number of years of studying, reading and teaching the works of the world’s most important philosophies, I am of the view that the anti-vaxxer position that being “forced to take the vaccine is an infringement on their liberal rights” is a misinformed stance. </p>
<p>Through a liberal lens that looks at <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/two-concepts-freedom/content-section-3.3">positive freedom</a> versus <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/">negative freedom</a>, I want to show how taking the vaccine essentially creates positive (or nett) freedom. Anti-vaxxers against the COVID-19 vaccine may be considered selfish by demanding freedom in an absolute sense. Negative freedom supports the idea that there should be no restrictions or boundaries on any free activity. This can become incredibly problematic when it comes to public health.</p>
<p>For example, think of restricting where people can smoke. These are in place to ensure that the majority of people (non-smokers) are protected from the risks associated with passive smoke inhalation.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, anti-vaxxers should perhaps be reprimanded and regulated for not willingly taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The ethical focus is to promote universal immunisation and positive freedom for everyone in society.</p>
<p>The liberal philosophies that we might use to challenge the “anti-vaxxer’s freedom to choose” position are <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/BENITT">Jeremy Bentham’s (1789) Utilitarianism</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill-moral-political/">JS Mill’s (1859) Harm Principle</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3877074">Isiah Berlin’s (1969) reflections on Positive Freedom</a>. </p>
<p>This trajectory of liberal thought over the last 200 years is pivotal to the development of the liberal democratic freedoms we experience today. Let’s unpack the theories a little more.</p>
<h2>What the philosophers have to say</h2>
<p>Let me start by addressing the philosophical dilemma of the anti-vaxxer’s “freedom to choose”.</p>
<p>The need to maintain individual freedoms is the most important mandate of the modern liberal state. </p>
<p>Today’s liberal democratic understanding of freedom (with acceptable restraint) was an idea first conceived over 200 years ago. In political philosophy, Jeremy Bentham’s (1789) Utilitarianism suggests that policies should be created to provide the greatest amount of felicity (or happiness) for the largest portion of society. </p>
<p>This forms the crux of the conversation surrounding COVID-19 vaccinations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-immunisation-record-risks-being-dented-by-anti-vaccination-views-153549">South Africa's immunisation record risks being dented by anti-vaccination views</a>
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<p>Presently, it is understood that for the sake of public health and the “common good”, all citizens should take one of the certified COVID-19 vaccinations. The reason for this is that it will create a greater nett freedom for everyone in that given society. </p>
<p>The alternative is absolute and unrestrained freedom not to vaccinate, which puts pressure on our common freedoms and could prolong lockdown measures.</p>
<p>Continuing this theme on a positive application of freedom, J.S. Mill (1859) provides us with a sophisticated ethical proposition, the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/utilitas/article/john-stuart-mills-harm-principle-and-free-speech-expanding-the-notion-of-harm/F1D77D5D5F9A4B8AA3BAD4058A9708B4">Harm Principle</a>. This principle suggests simply that we should be free to pursue our individual will, as long as it does not cause harm to someone else. </p>
<p>Whereas it may be an indirect influence, this principle nestles neatly into the ethical position held by many laws and policies passed in liberal democratic societies.</p>
<p>Many countries, including South Africa, have used it in public smoking legislation for instance, by regulating smokers to confined areas in public so that they do not bring harm to non-smokers.</p>
<p>This leads us to ask the same questions about the freedom of movement of unvaccinated people in public. It is unquestionable that someone who refuses the COVID-19 vaccine could effectively bring harm to their broader community. The science is clear on this, crowded hospitals all over South Africa are reporting that almost all COVID-19 related hospitalisations are presently coming from the unvaccinated portion of society. This creates a further detriment to the implementation of positive freedom in society.</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berlin/">Isaiah Berlin</a>’s (1969) thoughts on positive freedom best diagnoses the dilemma of the anti-vaxxer, as it allows us to ponder their desire for the unrestrained “freedom to choose”. </p>
<p>Absolute and unrestrained freedom is also known by theorists as negative freedom. While negative freedom may sound enticing, it could be severely detrimental to society and communities if applied strictly. It is acceptable in a progressive society that we accept limitations on our freedom, so as not to infringe on the freedoms of others. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/compulsory-covid-19-vaccination-in-nigeria-why-its-illegal-and-a-bad-idea-167396">Compulsory COVID-19 vaccination in Nigeria? Why it's illegal, and a bad idea</a>
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<p>It is important then to convey that the verifiable science on vaccines should not be politicised further.</p>
<p>There is also a link to be made between the African communitarian philosophy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-archbishop-tutus-ubuntu-credo-teaches-the-world-about-justice-and-harmony-84730">Ubuntu</a> (Humaneness) and positive freedom. Ubuntu remains somewhat of a clichéd call to civic nationalism and the fostering of a mutual help society in a fractured South Africa. </p>
<p>However, the isiZulu phrase, <em>Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu</em>, (I am, because we are) proves an important building block in society. “I am because we are” simply implies that: I am part of my community, where the good I do reflects back onto the society. This can be incredibly significant in the face of vaccine scepticism and anti-vaccination ideas. </p>
<p>South Africans in particular should heed the call of Ubuntu to mobilise toward vaccination, as it advocates for the “common good” and encourages communitarian benefits for broader society. This in turn promotes positive freedom.</p>
<h2>What it adds up to</h2>
<p>There are many debates to be had in an evolving society where freedom of speech and choice will take centre stage. But, in my view, the COVID-19 vaccination shouldn’t be one of them. Armed with ideas such as utilitarianism and the harm principle, the application of positive freedom might see many liberal democracies eventually prohibit the anti-vaxxer’s spread of misinformation and protests against vaccination.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-covid-19-vaccines-should-be-mandatory-in-south-africa-165682">Why COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory in South Africa</a>
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<p>It is imperative that citizens are made to understand that this is a matter of public health, the science is verifiable, and that 99.9% of the global medical community backs the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. </p>
<p>Hence, getting vaccinated is for the “common good” of society and promotes the more desirable aspects of positive freedom.</p>
<h2>There is no time to delay</h2>
<p>South Africa is a tinderbox for COVID-19 outbreaks and potential virus mutation. Embracing positive freedom’s emphasis on utility and minimising harm, while emphasising the communitarian benefits of vaccinating, provides a clear imperative for action. </p>
<p>The country needs to vaccinate as quickly as possible so that its people can return to some semblance of normal life. A life where all can freely pursue their goals, remaining mindful that freedom without reasonable restraint will inevitably bring harm to others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giovanni Poggi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many countries, including South Africa, use regulations to control smoking in public so that they do not harm non-smokers. Likewise, getting vaccinated is for the common good of society.Giovanni Poggi, Lecturer in Political Science, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1663672021-08-19T14:19:42Z2021-08-19T14:19:42ZConsumer borrowing was heavily restricted in 1940s to curb inflation – it’s time we did it again<p>There has been much talk about a potential inflation surge as countries lift pandemic restrictions and seek to resume normal economic activity.
In recent months, <a href="https://www.cityam.com/us-inflation-rises-faster-than-expectations-in-july/">US prices</a> have risen more than 5% year-on-year. In the UK, price growth has been slower and was even slightly below expectations <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/62405c6c-1dd5-4b8b-9203-c400428aa796">for July</a>, but is likely to accelerate again.</p>
<p>This situation closely resembles what happened after the second world war. Then as now, governments were confronted with consumers eager to spend and industry not yet ready to meet consumer demand. Whereas in 2021 firms and their supply chains are struggling to meet unpredictable demand amid COVID restrictions, in 1945 producers needed time to return to business as usual after years of manufacturing for the war. </p>
<p>With inflation looming, officials had the courage to impose bold controls on consumer credit to curb demand. This might seem unthinkable in today’s climate, but there are good reasons for doing this again. </p>
<h2>What happened after the war</h2>
<p>The US and UK actually introduced controls during the war, both to curtail inflationary, credit-fuelled demand and to redirect financial resources towards national defence. US President Franklin Roosevelt <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-congress-economic-stabilization-program">summarised the policy</a> crisply in 1942: </p>
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<p>We must discourage credit and instalment-buying [hire purchase], and encourage the paying off of debts, mortgages and other obligations; for this promotes savings, retards excessive buying and adds to the amount available to the creditors for the purchase of war bonds.</p>
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<p>The Federal Reserve duly introduced restrictions on lenders. For hire purchase, which commonly financed cars and household appliances, consumers were required to pay 33% of the price upfront and repay the rest over 12 months. The government also restricted retail credit accounts, requiring them to be repaid in 90 days. </p>
<p>The UK introduced <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-politics-of-consumer-credit-in-the-uk-1938-1992-9780198732235?cc=gb&lang=en&">similar controls</a>, limiting credit for hire-purchase of goods that required expensive foreign metal imports. This shrank hire-purchase credit to 10% of its prewar total.</p>
<p>After the war, the US and UK maintained these controls to restrain demand for goods at a time when they remained in limited supply. The controls were also about moderating the peaks and troughs of the business cycle. Officials believed that consumer credit had driven growth and inflation during previous upswings, but deepened the fall when consumers stopped spending their earnings and didn’t or couldn’t borrow. This, it was believed, had prolonged the great depression. </p>
<h2>The ensuing decades</h2>
<p>The US lifted its controls first. The government had struggled to enforce the rules during the war and subsequently faced a business backlash against government power, including objections to credit controls. As one bankers’ group <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HEsIO8aAu6QC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=Regulation+of+consumer+credit+by+federal+authority+is+unnecessary,+ineffective,+un-American,+unsocial,+inconsistent,+and+impractical.&source=bl&ots=5vOMymhX1F&sig=ACfU3U1rWqktxGa_qYzrhbX8mnu7LhFLuw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwwcTE-7zyAhUMHcAKHacID0gQ6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=Regulation%20of%20consumer%20credit%20by%20federal%20authority%20is%20unnecessary%2C%20ineffective%2C%20un-American%2C%20unsocial%2C%20inconsistent%2C%20and%20impractical.&f=false">explained to congress</a> in 1947: “Regulation of consumer credit by federal authority is unnecessary, ineffective, un-American, unsocial, inconsistent, and impractical.”</p>
<p>The US controls expired in 1949, were briefly revived for the Korean war in 1950-53, but extinguished thereafter. Nevertheless, controls remained part of the political debate. As late as 1980, President Jimmy Carter <a href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/frbatlreview/pages/66421_1980-1984.pdf">briefly reimposed</a> them to combat inflation.</p>
<p>Controls remained more consistently in place in the UK, where the fight against inflation blended with efforts to defend the pound. Besides maintaining hire-purchase restrictions, the government later capped the amount citizens could spend on credit cards abroad. There was also an ill-fated “credit corset”, which required banks to make special deposits at the Bank of England against new loans in the 1970s. Both Conservative and Labour governments continued experimenting with credit controls until 1982. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/consumer-lending-in-france-and-america/FA96366E2203CB20126876473E0B0EE0">On the continent</a>, postwar governments favoured more direct economic management, but this could lead to similar policies. In France, for example, the National Credit Council imposed consumer controls in 1948 and maintained them until 1979, occasionally requiring down payments as high as 50%. </p>
<p>In all these countries, credit controls restrained consumer borrowing and helped control inflation during the 1940s and beyond. They also ensured that wage growth, rather than consumer borrowing, would drive postwar prosperity.</p>
<h2>The modern era</h2>
<p>In the early 1980s, deregulation-mania swept away these controls as the new economic liberalism adopted by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher took centre stage. Credit controls were viewed as undesirable state intervention, and arguably remain taboo today. </p>
<p>Besides ideology, governments will be reluctant to consider controls when they are desperate for a consumer spending boom. Like the postwar era, many consumers are sitting on large cash reserves from <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9060/">saving much more</a> than usual during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Although they curtailed credit spending earlier in the pandemic, paying off balances instead of incurring new ones, <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current/">credit spending</a> has <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/visual-summaries/household-credit">since accelerated</a>. Consumer borrowing has been the motor of economic growth in recent years and will be seen as vital to achieving a recovery from the worst downturn in living memory. </p>
<p><strong>Consumer debt as a % of GDP</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Consumer debt as a % of GDP" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416981/original/file-20210819-15-9fxm76.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/households-debt-to-gdp">Trading Economics</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet the long-term arguments in favour of controls bear re-hearing. Credit drives growth, but also <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3124001">instability</a> in the form of booms and busts, and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3571907">inequality</a>, because consumers spend instead of saving – thus making it harder for people to build wealth. And while credit increases people’s buying power, when supplies are curtailed, it also causes inflation. </p>
<p>The pandemic, like war, offers a unique moment to reconsider our debt-dependent economy. Workers, <a href="https://time.com/6082457/hourly-workers-demand-pay-benefits/">empowered by</a> the current labour shortages, are <a href="https://capital.com/uk-workers-demand-higher-wages-as-labour-shortage-deepens">demanding higher wages</a>. Wages, not debt, are the appropriate foundation of consumer purchasing power. </p>
<p>Governments may have an easier time implementing and supervising credit controls in the digital era. Controls may also prove useful in addressing new goals, including combating climate change by limiting credit for carbon-intensive products (and generally by restraining consumer capitalism’s most wasteful impulses).</p>
<p>Finally, many of the poorest in society use excessive borrowing to survive. Governments found ways to protect the most vulnerable in the depths of the pandemic. They could continue to do so, rather than depending on exploitative private credit. </p>
<p>As US consumers ramped up borrowing after controls expired in the mid-1950s, the economist <a href="https://archive.org/stream/JohnKennethGalbraithTheAffluentSociety1998MarinerBooks/John%20%20Kenneth%20Galbraith%20-%20The%20Affluent%20Society%20%281998%2C%20Mariner%20Books%29_djvu.txt">John Kenneth Galbraith asked</a>: “Can the bill collector or the bankruptcy lawyer be the central figure in the good society?” We should ask that question again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean H. Vanatta is a member of the FRASER Advisory Board.</span></em></p>Consumer spending fuelled by credit cards and bank loans has become central to economic growth, but it wasn’t always.Sean H. Vanatta, Lecturer in US Economic and Social History, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1596472021-04-26T14:32:33Z2021-04-26T14:32:33ZSouth Africans hold contradictory views about their democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397048/original/file-20210426-23-162u9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters descended on the seat of government in 2017 to demand former South African president Jacob Zuma resign. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do South Africans view democracy? Are they in the camp of those who see democracy through a more authoritarian lens – in other words, where the state plays a more intrusive role? Or do they see democracy as more participatory, where citizens have a greater say?</p>
<p>This is an important question as the country commemorates 27 years of constitutional democracy after the historic founding election on <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/south-africas-first-democratic-elections">27 April 1994</a>.</p>
<p>The celebrations come against the backdrop of a gradual <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2019.1582029">decline of democracy</a> globally. This entails, among other ills, increased restrictions on media freedom and civil society as well as harassment of opposition parties. South Africa has not been immune to these <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/99/de/99dedd73-f8bc-484c-8b91-44ba601b6e6b/v-dem_democracy_report_2019.pdf">trends</a>. </p>
<p>To answer the question how South Africans view democracy, I drew on the <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/departments/sasas">South African Social Attitudes Survey data from 2011 to 2018</a>. </p>
<p>The findings show that while South Africans value some democratic principles, they also hold authoritarian views. This means that South Africans hold political values that could facilitate a further decline in the country’s democracy. </p>
<h2>Four key criteria</h2>
<p>To understand how South Africans view democracy I focused on four questions asked in the survey. These were whether</p>
<ul>
<li><p>government should have the authority to stop citizens from criticising it; </p></li>
<li><p>citizens should have the right to form or join organisations such as political parties, business associations and trade unions freely; </p></li>
<li><p>government should be in control of what information is given to the public; and </p></li>
<li><p>protest is an acceptable way for people to express their views in a democracy.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These questions are important indicators of the country’s political outlook. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/were-citizens-not-subjects-we-have-the-right-to-criticize-government-without-fear">right to criticise government</a>, <a href="https://www.solidaritycenter.org/un-report-freedom-of-associations-key-democracy/">freedom of association</a>, <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc1860.html">access to information</a> and the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/history/REPORTS/tc4-ASSEMBLY.PDF">right to assemble</a> are key principles for the durability of democracy. </p>
<p>Also, the apartheid state engaged in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/many-faces-apartheid-repression">political repression</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229408535714">media censorship</a> to control information. It banned <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/25/world/south-africa-bans-most-anti-apartheid-activities.html">political associations</a> and <a href="https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?kid=163-581-1">people</a> who criticised it. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://datacuration.hsrc.ac.za">survey results</a> showed that South Africans’ political outlook remained consistent between 2011 and 2018. It also showed that they consistently held both a democratic and an authoritarian political outlook. Thus, the country’s political culture could be constructed as holding contradictory views that might, in a context of dissatisfaction with democracy, support growing political radicalism and populism. </p>
<p>Most respondents believed they should have the right to freedom of association. They also believed they should be able to protest to express their views. Yet, between 36% and 49% believed that the government should have the authority to stop people criticising it. </p>
<p>Between 41% and 54% of people believed the state should be able to control what information was given to people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397061/original/file-20210426-21-qz3mjh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South African political values, 2011 - 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HSRC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>South Africans have, seemingly, forgotten the severe impact censorship had on their struggle for freedom. </p>
<p>We found that there was a difference in perceptions, based on political support, on whether government should control information and stop people from criticising it. We noted that 44% and 49% of responded who supported the governing African National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Front (EFF), the third largest party, respectively, supported repressive measures to stop people criticising the government.</p>
<p>Interestingly, 32% of supporters of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party, also held this view. This is contradictory to the <a href="https://www.da.org.za/why-the-da/values-and-principles">liberal values</a> that the DA espouses. </p>
<p>Across all three political parties, freedom of association was held in high regard, with 78% of ANC, 70% of DA and 75% of EFF supporters showing positive attitudes to the right of people to join and form political and civic associations.</p>
<p>Given the support for repressive measures to stop people criticising government as well as strong support for protests and freedom of association, South Africans hold contradictory political values for an open, transparent and democratic society.</p>
<p>Freedom of association and protest are valued, but so too are repressive government measures and control of information. Perhaps more worrying is the view that government control of information is acceptable. Fifty percent of ANC, 33% of DA and 50% of EFF supporters agreed that government should control what information was given to the public.</p>
<p>This perception does not support the basic democratic value of openness and transparency. The is even more worrying given the increase in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17533171.2020.1783086">fake news</a>, conspiracy theories and disinformation. Access to credible sources of information as the basis of a democratic society is now more important than ever. </p>
<h2>Civic education gap</h2>
<p>With the rise of populism in the context of the global decline in democracy, the contradictory political views of South Africans on basic democratic values point to a need for a <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1947-94172018000100004">new civic education</a> for democratic citizenship. </p>
<p>This is particularly important as <a href="https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-rise-and-rise-of-populism/">rising populism</a> undermines democratic political culture. South Africa has also seen an increase in <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-05-01-00-south-africa-is-ripe-for-right-wing-populist-movements/">populist political rhetoric</a>. Also on the rise are <a href="https://www.beyondintractability.org/bksum/gibson-overcomingintolerance">political intolerance</a>, as shown by <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-still-colours-south-africas-politics-25-years-after-apartheids-end-115735">racial and political polarisation</a>, as well as political disillusionment and violent and destructive protest action. </p>
<p>To build a political culture that supports democracy in South Africa, civic education needs to move beyond voter education. It should also focus on promoting civic citizenship and political values that support a democratic political culture. </p>
<p>If not, democracy may regress even more, undermining the high price paid for freedom in the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joleen Steyn Kotze receives funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>To build a political culture that supports democracy in South Africa, civic education needs to move beyond voter education.Joleen Steyn Kotze, Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584552021-04-06T14:15:19Z2021-04-06T14:15:19ZHow the gig economy finally went into retreat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393581/original/file-20210406-19-1khn56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Crash helmets at the ready. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/clYlmCaQbzY">Rowan Freeman/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A loophole that many self-employed people have used to avoid paying income tax and national insurance in the UK has closed. After a yearlong delay, the <a href="https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry/2021/03/22/ir35-reform-is-here-are-you-prepared/?page=2">IR35 regulation</a> came into force on April 6. It gives larger companies the responsibility for deciding contractors’ employment status, with a view to ensuring they pay the taxes that they are supposed to. </p>
<p>This will reduce the leeway thousands of voluntarily self-employed workers have to avoid tax payments and social contributions. It also makes it harder for companies <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05976/#_ftn9">to avoid taking</a> proper responsibility for these people by denying them employment rights and benefits such as pensions or holiday entitlements, while avoiding the considerable expense of paying employers’ national insurance for them. </p>
<p>The change in the rules for the voluntarily self-employed is mirrored by exactly the same trend regarding the involuntarily self-employed that saw investors criticising Deliveroo’s employment model ahead of its <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/02/investing/london-deliveroo-ipo/index.html">disappointing IPO</a>, and the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56123668">UK’s supreme court ruling</a> against Uber. The dominant liberal interpretation of the relationship between employers and their workers is becoming less and less acceptable within society. And it raises profound questions about the future of liberal capitalism.</p>
<h2>The loophole closes</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/april-2020-changes-to-off-payroll-working-for-intermediaries">new IR35 regulation</a> changes the rules around what is known as off-payroll working for private companies. It puts an end to workers who are really employees voluntarily working as self-employed by establishing their own intermediary company. </p>
<p>Many workers take advantage of the rules to pay themselves very low salaries through these companies and pay most of their income as dividends, meaning they paid far less tax on their take-home pay.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393584/original/file-20210406-19-1yfxm9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many engineers are being affected by IR35 changes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/vEoMKBdUIzs">ThisIsEngineering RA Eng</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2015, <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05976/">the government said that</a> 100,000 workers fell into this category, and only 10,000 were paying the income taxes and national insurance that they should have been. Since then, the number of self-employed people is estimated to have <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/june2020#:%7E:text=Looking%20at%20the%20estimates%20for,fewer%20than%20a%20year%20earlier">risen considerably</a>.</p>
<p>The IR35 loophole <a href="https://aquent.co.uk/blog/how-ir35-will-affect-employers-and-workers">was closed</a> for the public sector in 2017, notably <a href="http://www.nomoretvlicence.com/over-one-hundred-bbc-stars-are-facing-tax-avoidance-probes/">forcing the BBC</a> to convert many celebrity presenters into employees. The same change was supposed to have been introduced for private companies in 2020 but was delayed by a year. </p>
<p>In making these changes, the UK government has shown little sympathy with arguments by some contractors and employers that the benefits of contractual freedoms outweigh the costs. This is comparable to the recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56510493">Deliveroo</a> and <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2019-0029-press-summary.pdf">Uber</a> cases, where investors and the supreme court respectively dismissed suggestions that denying workers their rights in the name of freedom was acceptable. </p>
<h2>‘This is what we believe’</h2>
<p>The question of contractual freedom and the extent to which an employment contract reflects a power relationship between the employer and the employee is <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281756.001.0001/acprof-9780199281756?rskey=yINwf1&result=170">central to liberalism</a>. From a liberal perspective, contracts entered into under coercion are not compatible with the principles of individual freedom. The question is, when can we say that someone has been coerced into an employment contract?</p>
<p>The Austrian thinker Friedrich A Hayek, whose teachings <a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/Hayek">have inspired</a> conservative governments since Margaret Thatcher, adopted a very narrow definition of coercion. In <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo9253956.html">The Constitution of Liberty</a> (1960), he argued that “so long as the employer can remove only one opportunity among many to earn a living, he cannot coerce, though he may cause pain”. </p>
<p>The argument is that to coerce someone into an employment contract, you have to be a monopolist withholding an essential good – the owner of an oasis in the desert, say. All other contracts must be considered to have been entered into by free agents. This means that there is no need for the state to intervene to make them fairer. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Margaret Thatcher with Royal Bermuda regiment in 1990" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393585/original/file-20210406-15-odbvd3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thatcher hugely admired Hayek.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#/media/File:Thatcher_reviews_troops.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thatcher reportedly enthusiastically endorsed Hayekian views, by pulling a copy of The Constitution of Liberty out of her handbag during a Conservative party meeting and declaring, “<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/this-is-what-we-believe-margaret-thatcher-and-f-a-hayek">this is what we believe</a>”. </p>
<p>Similarly, the arguments in favour of very liberal contracts by Uber, Deliveroo and those opposed to IR35 all have a distinctly Hayekian ring to them. Deliveroo, for instance, has been making the case that its riders <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56515498">value the flexibility</a> that self-employed status gives them. </p>
<p>Clearly, however, such arguments have been losing their clout. Most explicitly, in the Uber case, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2019-0029-press-summary.pdf">supreme court</a> said that, rather than the content of a written contract, what matters in determining the employment relationship is the reality of the power differential between employer and employee. </p>
<p>The court decided that employers can often dictate contractual terms, and workers usually have little scope to negotiate them. Therefore, what Uber presented as its drivers’ choice were not actually choices of self-employed workers, so in realty they were employees. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>It was not long ago that chief executives and academics alike <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/whats-mine-is-yours-rachel-botsmanroo-rogers?variant=32130366373922">were hopeful</a> that the sharing economy, of which companies like Uber and Deliveroo were often seen as heralds, could be both fair and sustainable. Yet collective discomfort with growing inequality, partly driven by the rise in “gig work” and contractors’ high pay, has changed the dynamic. </p>
<p>It could be argued that we are seeing an epochal shift away from the type of liberalism that has been dominant since the 1980s. Since the global financial crisis of 2007-09, academics <a href="https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_2042536/component/file_2170448/content">have reminded us</a> that any social order – including liberal capitalism – is fundamentally a historical phenomenon and as such will eventually come to an end. </p>
<p>These challenges to the employment contract – a key pillar of liberal capitalism – may be signalling that we are moving a step closer to the end of this particular phenomenon. The big question, of course, is what will it be replaced with? </p>
<p>Humans are notoriously bad at reading the signs of their times until they draw to a close - “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at dusk” as the German philosopher GFW Hegel <a href="https://hesiodscorner.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/hegel-and-the-owl-of-minerva/">famously put it</a>. </p>
<p>What we can say with certainty, though, is that failing to address growing discontent with capitalism will jeopardise both liberal economic ideas like free trade and light-touch regulation, and also democracy itself – by fanning the flames <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/gsj.1369">of populism</a>. The new version of capitalism will clearly have to devise a new social contract between workers, businesses and the state. Changing our interpretation of the liberal employment contract is a good place to start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerhard Schnyder receives funding from the NORFACE Network (Grant no 462-19-080). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luda Svystunova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article.
</span></em></p>New changes to employment rules go hand in hand with the recent knocks to Deliveroo and Uber to suggest that a trend is emerging.Gerhard Schnyder, Professor of International Management & Political Economy, Loughborough UniversityLuda Svystunova, Visiting Fellow, Institute for International Management, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1539472021-02-25T13:27:39Z2021-02-25T13:27:39ZWhat is fascism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384567/original/file-20210216-17-1q0gdrt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=63%2C45%2C5885%2C3847&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Donald Trump supporter wears a gas mask and holds a bust of him after he and hundreds of others stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporter-of-us-president-donald-trump-wears-a-gas-mask-and-news-photo/1230458006?adppopup=true">Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since before Donald Trump took office, historians have debated whether <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164170">he is a fascist</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://history.case.edu/faculty/john-broich/">teacher of World War II history</a> who has <a href="https://abramsbooks.com/product/blood-oil-and-the-axis_9781468314014/">written about fascism</a>, I’ve found that historians have a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-twentiethcentury-political-thought/fascism-and-racism/CFB19146B5E63D20089DF0AAC5CD84D9">consensus</a> definition of the term, broadly speaking. </p>
<p>Given the term’s current – and sometimes erroneous – use, I think it’s important to distinguish what fascism is and is not.</p>
<h2>Race-first thinking</h2>
<p>Fascism, now a century old, got its start with Benito Mussolini and his Italian allies. They named their movement after an ancient Roman emblem, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fasces">the fasces</a>, an ax whose handle has been tightly reinforced with many rods, symbolizing the power of unity around one leader.</p>
<p>Fascism means more than dictatorship, however. </p>
<p>It’s distinct from simple authoritarianism – an anti-democratic government by a strongman or small elite – and “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stalinism">Stalinism</a>” – authoritarianism with a dominant bureaucracy and economic control, named after the former Soviet leader. The same goes for “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/">anarchism</a>,” the belief in a society organized without an overarching state.</p>
<p>Above all, fascists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NLiFIEdI1V4C&q=%22racial+thought+for+political+purposes%22#v=snippet&q=%22racial%20thought%20for%20political%20purposes%22&f=false">view nearly everything through the lens of race</a>. They’re committed not just to race supremacy, but maintaining what they called “<a href="https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1093/embo-reports/kve217">racial hygiene</a>,” meaning the purity of their race and the separation of what they view as lower ones.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/abs/racethinking-before-racism/02AAE753AAD57BAFB03A2F003EF12538">That means</a> they must define who is a member of their nation’s legitimate race. They must invent a “true” race.</p>
<p>Many are familiar with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime’s so-called <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-5/breeding-new-german-race">Aryan race</a>, which had no biological or historical reality. The Nazis had to forge a mythic past and legendary people. Including some in the “true race” means excluding others.</p>
<h2>Capitalism is good</h2>
<p>For fascists, capitalism is good. It appeals to their admiration of “the survival of the fittest,” a phrase coined by <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/herbert-spencer-survival-of-the-fittest-180974756/">social Darwinist Herbert Spencer</a>, so long as companies serve the needs of the fascist leadership and the “Volk,” or people. </p>
<p>In exchange for protecting private property, fascists demand capitalists <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-big-business-bailed-out-nazis">act as cronies</a>. </p>
<p>If, for example, a company is successfully producing weapons for foreign or domestic wars – good. But if a company is enriching nonloyal people, or making money for the imagined subrace, the fascists will step in and hand it to someone deemed loyal.</p>
<p>If the economy is poor, the fascist will divert attention from shortages to plans for patriotic glory or for vengeance against internal or external enemies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Benito Mussolini in Agro Pontino, Italy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384568/original/file-20210216-23-1ec0ygi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Benito Mussolini taking part in the inauguration of the first rural settlements in Agro Pontino, Italy, on Oct. 29, 1939.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/head-of-government-benito-mussolini-taking-part-in-the-news-photo/141555664?adppopup=true">Mondadori via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Might makes right</h2>
<p>Important to most fascists is the idea that the nation’s “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/260578?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">patriots</a>” have been let down, that “good people” are humiliated while “bad people” do better.</p>
<p>These grievances cannot be answered, fascists say, if things remain under the status quo. There needs to be revolutionary change allowing the “real people” to break free from the restraints of democracy or existing law and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130930081524/http:/www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_blackshirt.html">get even</a>. </p>
<p>For fascists, might makes right.</p>
<p>Since for them the law should be subservient to the needs of the people and the need to crush socialism or liberalism, fascists encourage party militias. These enforce the fascist will, break <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14058/14058-h/14058-h.htm">unions</a>, distort elections and intimidate or <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss-and-police">co-opt the police</a>. </p>
<p>The historical fascists of Germany and <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/mussolinis-racial-policies-in-east-africa-revealed-italian-fascists-ambitions-to-redesign-the-social-order.html">Mussolini’s Italy</a> extended the might-makes-right principle to expansion abroad, though the British fascists of the 1930s, led by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49405924">Oswald Mosley</a> and his British Union of Fascists, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/1932729.pdf">preferred isolationism</a> and preached a sort of internal war against an imagined Jewish enemy of the state.</p>
<h2>What fascists reject</h2>
<p>First and foremost, fascists want to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/128540/the-anatomy-of-fascism-by-robert-o-paxton/">revolt against socialism</a>. That’s because it threatens the crony capitalism that fascists embrace. </p>
<p>Not only does socialism aim for equal prosperity no matter the race, but many socialists tend to envision <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tH0jwbnj7BgC&q=%22withering+away+of+the+state%22#v=snippet&q=%22withering%20away%20of%20the%20state%22&f=false">the eventual extinction</a> of separate nations, which offends the strong fascist belief in nation states.</p>
<p>Along with getting rid of aristocrats or other elites, fascists are prepared to displace the church or seek a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/265794658/pope-and-mussolini-tells-the-secret-history-of-fascism-and-the-church">mutually beneficial truce with it</a>. </p>
<p>Mussolini, Hitler and the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/02/spains-civil-war-produced-a-fascist-movement-that-was-disorganized-but-just-as-authoritarian-as-italys.html">Falangists in Spain</a> learned that they had to <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state">live with</a>, not replace, the church in their countries – as long as their regimes weren’t broadly attacked from the pulpit.</p>
<p>Fascists also reject democracy, at least any democracy that could potentially result in socialism or <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-or-who-is-antifa-140147">too much liberalism</a>. In a democracy, voters can choose social welfare policies. They can level the playing field between classes and ethnicities, or seek gender equality. </p>
<p>Fascists oppose all of these efforts. </p>
<h2>Fascism grows from nationalism</h2>
<p>Fascism is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Extreme-nationalism">logical extreme of nationalism</a>, the roughly 250-year-old idea that nation states should be built around races or historical peoples. </p>
<p>The first fascists didn’t invent these ideas out of nothing – they just pushed nationalism further than anyone had before. For the fascist, it’s not just that a nation state makes “the people” sovereign. It’s that the will of righteous, real people – and its leader – comes before all other considerations, including facts. </p>
<p>Indeed, the will, the people, their leader and the facts are all one in fascism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Broich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Given the current, often erroneous, use of the term ‘fascist’ to describe political movements and leaders, it’s important to determine what fascism is and is not.John Broich, Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1553772021-02-22T00:38:08Z2021-02-22T00:38:08ZHow China is remaking the world in its vision<p><em>This is an edited extract of an essay in the latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/essay/2021/02/the-march-of-autocracy">The March of Autocracy</a>, published today.</em></p>
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<p>It is the year 2049. China is celebrating having reached its second centenary goal – to become a “prosperous, powerful, democratic, civilised and harmonious socialist modernised country” by the 100th anniversary of the people’s republic.</p>
<p>Its economy is three times the size of the United States’, as the International Monetary Fund predicted back in the 2010s. The US remains wealthy and powerful – it has functioning alliances in Europe – but its pacts with Asian allies have fallen into disrepair.</p>
<p>For decades, Hong Kong has been accepted as just another province of China. Few dare to criticise the ongoing human rights abuses there, or in Xinjiang and elsewhere, because of the extraterritorial application of China’s national security laws. Taiwan, if not annexed, is isolated, with no diplomatic partners.</p>
<p>The legacy of Xi Jinping, who led China for more than 30 years, monopolises ideological discourse in China. His successors rule under his shadow.</p>
<p>Outside China, many of the third-wave democracies that transitioned in the second half of the 20th century have become far less liberal. Elections are held, but increasingly authoritarian governments have adopted many of Beijing’s technological and legal tools to manage markets and control politics. The internet is heavily censored.</p>
<p>Mistrust permeates every aspect of China’s relations with the West. International co-operation on climate change and the strong carbon-reduction commitments of the early 2020s have long been abandoned. The focus is on individual adaptation.</p>
<p>Australia remains a liberal democracy and a staunch defender of free markets and human rights. But these are no longer the default standards of global governance – they are minority positions associated mostly with Western traditions. No longer a top-20 economic or military power, Australia’s opportunities to make its mark internationally are few and far between.</p>
<h2>An unsettling but plausible vision</h2>
<p>This vision of a fragmented and decidedly less liberal international order is highly speculative, but also dispiritingly plausible.</p>
<p>It is unsettling to an Australian reader, not just because Australian foreign policy has been centred on a global set of rules and institutions since 1945, but because Australian identity is so enmeshed with the values of liberal democracy.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/minisite/2017-foreign-policy-white-paper/fpwhitepaper/pdf/2017-foreign-policy-white-paper.pdf">2017 Foreign Policy White Paper</a> states that Canberra is “a determined advocate of liberal institutions, universal values and human rights”, in stark contrast to Beijing.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/xi-jinpings-grip-on-power-is-absolute-but-there-are-new-threats-to-his-chinese-dream-118921">Xi Jinping's grip on power is absolute, but there are new threats to his 'Chinese dream'</a>
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<p>All nation states, especially rising powers, desire a favourable global environment in which they can acquire power, prosperity and prestige. The postwar system greatly aided China, and it would be incorrect to claim Beijing wants to dismantle it entirely.</p>
<p>Similarly, it would be disingenuous to overlook the many instances where the US and other liberal democracies have behaved inconsistently. </p>
<p>But the Chinese Communist Party, which leads an authoritarian state, sees the liberal values embedded in the present order as a threat to its rule. Unlike the US, which at times ignores or violates these principles, China needs many of them to be suppressed, even eliminated.</p>
<p>As China seeks to remake the international order, the challenge is to understand where and how Beijing’s efforts will undercut its liberal character, and to identify where it is possible to resist.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385426/original/file-20210221-15-whj46k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chinese state media lauded Xi Jinping as a ‘champion of the UN ethos’ ahead of the UN General Assembly last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Wong/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How China is changing the world</h2>
<p>Rather than upend the existing international system, Beijing’s approach today is to co-opt, ignore and selectively exploit institutions.</p>
<p>Xi has said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>reforming and improving the current international system do not mean completely replacing it, but rather advancing it in a direction that is more just and reasonable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In late 2019, for instance, the World Trade Organisation’s appellate body <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/09/trump-may-kill-wto-finally-appellate-body-world-trade-organization/">ceased to function</a> after the US – complaining about the organisation’s soft stance on China – blocked the appointment of replacement judges.</p>
<p>In many ways, the WTO’s structure is the epitome of a liberal rules-based system: countries relinquish some sovereignty and are bound by judicial decisions in the interests of resolving trade disputes.</p>
<p>In response, China joined with the European Union, Australia and other governments to <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6597846/eu-china-aust-agree-to-temporary-wto-fix/">set up</a> a parallel stop-gap legal mechanism.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1220703685963124737"}"></div></p>
<p>This was a reflection of the CCP’s nuanced relationship with the liberal international order. China needs a stable trading system and will agree to binding rules to preserve it. The odd trade dispute does not substantially threaten China’s ideological security.</p>
<p>In the future, Beijing should be expected to exert its influence on the current order. The challenge for states such as Australia is to identify when Beijing’s behaviour exceeds influence and begins to erode the system’s liberal foundations.</p>
<p>China is already skilfully manoeuvring within international institutions to guide their operations, press for reforms and promote the China model.</p>
<p>Chinese nationals run four of the 15 United Nations specialised agencies, including the <a href="http://www.fao.org/director-general/biography/en/#:%7E:text=Qu%20Dongyu%2C%20who%20took%20office,sure%20the%20world%20is%20fed.">Food and Agricultural Organisation</a> and the <a href="https://www.icao.int/secretariat/secretarygeneral/pages/default.aspx#:%7E:text=The%20Council%20of%20ICAO%20first,2015%20to%2031%20July%202018.">International Civil Aviation Organisation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385430/original/file-20210222-17-5uh7pk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Qu Dongyu, the new director general of the Food and Agricultural Organisation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Riccardo Antimiani/AP</span></span>
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<p>Ironically, the democratic nature of international institutions benefits Beijing. Chinese representatives in a variety of forums, such as the World Health Assembly and committees of the UN General Assembly, muster coalitions of the Global South to ensure favourable votes on issues such as <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/China-seeks-to-deny-Taiwan-seat-at-key-WHO-meeting">Taiwan’s (non)participation</a> or to <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1202794.shtml">counter criticism of its repressive policies in Xinjiang</a>.</p>
<p>China also elevates its government-organised NGOs, presenting an image of independence while drowning out the voices of independent civil society.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.chinahumanrights.org/html/CSHRS/">China Society for Human Rights Studies</a>, for example, has official consultative status at the United Nations as an NGO, but is co-located with Chinese government offices and staffed by Chinese government officials. It has vigorously prosecuted China’s human rights agenda.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-china-us-rivalry-is-not-a-new-cold-war-it-is-way-more-complex-and-could-last-much-longer-144912">The China-US rivalry is not a new Cold War. It is way more complex and could last much longer</a>
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<p>The use of deft diplomacy and inducements to generate voting blocs is unsurprising. But China also seeks to change the system, diluting the liberal elements that threaten the China model and thus the CCP’s rule.</p>
<p>For instance, China has already succeeded in weakening the liberal character of international human rights. In 2017, it <a href="https://www.right-docs.org/doc/a-hrc-res-35-21/">proposed</a> its first-ever resolution to the UN Human Rights Council, headed: “The contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights”.</p>
<p>It prioritised economic development above civil and political rights, and put the primacy of the state above the rights of the individual. Despite objections and nay votes from Western members, the resolution passed. The subsequent report by the council’s advisory committee, a body of 18 experts supposed to maintain independence, referred mainly to Chinese party-state documents.</p>
<p>Chinese diplomats also block human rights resolutions at the UN Security Council, such as a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/2/5/un-fails-to-take-action-on-order-against-myanmar-on-rohingya">February 2020 resolution</a> on the plight of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/385424/original/file-20210221-15-12mvgg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a UN Security Council briefing in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Evan Vucci/AP</span></span>
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<p>While the US has arguably been <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-un-idUSKCN1UJ2ZW">similarly obstructive</a> on resolutions about Palestine, it is for the narrow purpose of protecting an ally, rather than the broader project of weakening the rights themselves.</p>
<p>China has even been able to marshal the international system to defend and commend its behaviour in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.</p>
<p>In 2020, at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council, a joint statement <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/43rd-hrc-joint-statement-id-hc-xinjiang-hong-kong.pdf">signed by 27 countries</a>, including Australia, expressed concern at arbitrary detention, widespread surveillance and restrictions in Xinjiang and the national security legislation in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>A competing statement supporting the Hong Kong legislation received support from <a href="https://www.axios.com/countries-supporting-china-hong-kong-law-0ec9bc6c-3aeb-4af0-8031-aa0f01a46a7c.html">53 states</a>, only three of which are considered “free” by the non-governmental organisation Freedom House.</p>
<p>By working within the system to rally a voting bloc, Beijing was able to compromise the world’s peak human rights body. Tactics that have been successful in watering down human rights are now being employed in areas where norms are still being established, such as internet governance.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1279027163988017154"}"></div></p>
<h2>Preparing for the new world disorder</h2>
<p>The history of liberal internationalism is replete with contradictions. Some say that in recent decades it is Washington, not Beijing, that has damaged the order most. </p>
<p>So can China really do more damage to an order already on life support? Liberalism is not just facing an external challenge, but one from within.</p>
<p>The answer requires optimism about liberalism’s capacity to self-correct across the arc of history, and scepticism that illiberalism can do likewise. As much as Donald Trump belittled, criticised and attacked America’s institutions, he also created the conditions for a course correction – Joe Biden’s victory.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/china-enters-2021-a-stronger-more-influential-power-and-australia-may-feel-the-squeeze-even-more-150943">China enters 2021 a stronger, more influential power — and Australia may feel the squeeze even more</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>The CCP is a well-resourced and well-organised political force. It has the potential to be far more effective than any iconoclastic but capricious populist in permanently weakening the liberal foundations of the global order. Much of China’s influence abroad is unavoidable. A rising power with the economic and military strength that China wields is unlikely to be deterred.</p>
<p>On this logic, optimism has no place. But it would also be mistaken to adopt a fatalistic approach. Instead, Australia and its partners must focus their efforts on those elements of the liberal order most worth preserving and most under threat.</p>
<p>The centenary of the people’s republic is still 28 years away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Kassam is also a director at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Lim does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Chinese Communist Party sees liberal values as a threat to its rule and needs many of them to be suppressed. Its approach? Co-opt, ignore and selectively exploit global institutions.Natasha Kassam, Fellow, ANU National Security College’s Futures Council, Australian National UniversityDarren Lim, Senior politics lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1502962020-11-19T14:38:03Z2020-11-19T14:38:03ZSouth Africa’s main opposition party caught in an unenviable political bind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370049/original/file-20201118-15-12vkytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A real problem for the Democratic Alliance is that it cannot hope to displace the dominant African National Congress.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kevin Sutherland</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The results of the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-by-elections-in-south-africa-say-about-the-ruling-party-and-the-state-of-opposition-150314">municipal by-elections</a> have confirmed that the Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s leading opposition party, is in trouble. Whereas the governing African National Congress (ANC) retained 64 wards, won six new ones and lost just two, the DA retained 14, won just two new ones, and lost nine, mainly to smaller opposition parties. And the party has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.</p>
<p>Although it ran a slick virtual federal congress <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-10-31-south-africas-slickest-political-show-goes-virtual-in-impressive-style/">in October</a> at which <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/person/john-henry-steenhuisen/">John Steenhuisen</a> trounced <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/my-youth-age-and-race-are-a-great-advantage-for-any-leader-mbali-ntuli-20201026">Mbali Ntuli</a> by securing the <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2020/11/01/john-steenhuisen-elected-da-s-new-leader">backing of 80%</a> of those who voted in a party leadership contest, it attracted <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/columnists/adriaanbasson/adriaan-basson-why-is-the-da-afraid-to-let-ntuli-debate-steenhuisen-in-public-20201026">negative headlines</a> by preventing the pair from holding virtual “town halls” in the lead-up to the vote. It then restricted viewership of the two contestants’ debate at the congress itself to its members, rather than to the public at large. </p>
<p>The congress also turned down the proposal that the party appoint a deputy leader, a position which Ntuli might confidently have been expected to fill (and thereby posture as future leader-in-waiting).</p>
<p>This congress took place following a string of high-profile resignations by prominent <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/moodey-resigns-from-da-laments-partys-defence-of-white-interests-4a7a1af0-ef42-4a11-8bbf-a47cd7525113">black members</a> of the party since <a href="https://theconversation.com/imposter-syndrome-explains-why-first-black-leader-of-south-africas-main-opposition-party-quit-125826">the resignation as leader</a> of Mmusi Maimane after the 2019 general election. The party registered a first decline in its percentage vote <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-2019-poll-showed-dangerous-signs-of-insiders-and-outsiders-121758">since 1994</a>.</p>
<p>Steenhuisen’s election was matched by the congress simultaneously making a contentious change to its policies. It now <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2020/09/da-is-the-party-of-economic-inclusion">renounces the use of “race”</a> as a means of identifying and empowering categories of people who suffered historical disadvantage under apartheid. This was merely the latest shift in the party’s long-running agonising about how to tackle racial disadvantage.</p>
<h2>Politics of ‘race’</h2>
<p>First introduced during the years of <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/newandevents/Pages/DAmovestoattractmoreblackvoters20111034.aspx">Helen Zille’s leadership</a>, in a bid to attract black support and enable the DA to grow, the forswearing of “race” at the congress was now hailed as a return to <a href="https://theconversation.com/liberalism-in-south-africa-isnt-only-for-white-people-or-black-people-who-want-to-be-white-125236">liberal principles</a>. The party’s head of policy, <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/person/amanda-ngwenya/">Gwen Ngwenya</a>, <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-08-da-policy-conference-ditching-race-based-policies-amid-a-racial-storm/">described the move</a> as the abandonment of</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a false binary option of choosing between non-racialism or redress.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead, she said, the party was introducing an economic justice policy which would implement both (basically by substituting educational, social background and income criteria for “race”).</p>
<p>Since the congress, the DA has been widely accused of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-white-liberals-dodge-honest-debates-about-race-127846">“race denialism” </a>. For instance, University of Johannesburg professor of politics Steven Friedman, commenting on the message of the US elections for South Africa, argued that the elections showed it was impossible to make non-racialism a reality if race and racism <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2020-11-10-steven-friedman-growing-racial-divide-in-us-sends-important-message-to-sa/">remain a reality</a>. </p>
<p>He did not state it explicitly, but this was a clear dig at the DA. Yet Friedman might well be one of those who in a university context might be happy to argue that “class” criteria should trump “racial” ones for admission of students. In short, as sociologist Gerry Mare has indicated in a celebrated book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Declassified-Moving-Beyond-Dead-End-Africa/dp/1431420204"><em>Declassified</em></a>, there is a fundamental contradiction involved in attempting to overcome apartheid-era disadvantage by using apartheid era “race thinking”.</p>
<p>This is a contradiction which progressives continue to wrestle with, and the DA cannot be fairly criticised for attempting to overcome it in policy terms. </p>
<h2>The DA’s dilemma</h2>
<p>Critics would probably accept this but would then likely introduce a qualification: the DA has introduced the change in policy for the wrong reasons. In other words, it is attempting to assuage white racism in the party by eliminating racial criteria from its policy for counteracting historical disadvantage. “Heads you win”, would claim the DA, “tails we lose”.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there is a substantial issue here. The very real problem for the DA is that it can never aspire to displacing the dominant ANC, whether on its own or as part of a wider opposition coalition, without attracting more black votes.</p>
<p>Under the leadership of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/anthony-james-tony-leon">Tony Leon</a>, it established itself as the major party of opposition by capturing the racialised constituency of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party</a>, leading ultimately to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/partys-woes-signify-historical-dilemma-of-south-africas-liberals-126358">latter’s demise</a>. Yet the DA’s 1999 <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/das-history-of-identity-crises-1611459">“fight back!”</a> electoral slogan inevitably alienated potential black voters. This forced the party to realise that its only sure route to growth was attracting black African support.</p>
<p>This was to become the project of the Zille leadership, and was to prove not unsuccessful. The DA support base continued to grow through <a href="https://pari.org.za/book-launch-election-2019-change-and-stability-in-south-africas-democracy/">successive elections</a>. A significant segment of primarily black middle class support became attached to the party’s base among racial minorities. This provided the platform for Maimane’s elevation to the leadership.</p>
<p>Yet it’s now clear that the experiment has gone badly awry. Although the DA can correctly claim to have become the most racially diverse party in South Africa, it is regularly <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-01-28-das-black-leaders-live-with-racism/">accused of racism</a>. This may or not be fair, but it’s politics.</p>
<p>The outcome of the DA’s recent turmoil has been a classically South African one: the formation by former DA Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba of what is, in essence, a black liberal party (<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/herman-mashaba-launches-new-party-promises-to-bring-back-the-scorpions-88402191-dd03-43d9-b239-aed5b1649c36">Action SA</a>) to match the “white” one. </p>
<p>The omens are that this will drain black support from the DA as well as attracting votes of blacks wanting to desert the ANC. Its rise will confirm the DA on what many see as its likely future trajectory: as primarily representing South Africa’s racial minorities and defending its redoubt in the Western Cape in the <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/electoral-commission-welcomes-start-public-consultations-draft-wards-local-government">2021 local government elections</a>.</p>
<h2>Unenviable position</h2>
<p>The problem for the DA is not one of policy. There is real substance in its commitment to substituting “non-racial” for racial criteria for overcoming the historical disadvantages associated with being black. The real challenge is the one that has always confronted liberalism in South Africa’s racially structured society: liberalism has never been able to detach itself from its image among blacks that it is a cover for white interests and white “leadership”. </p>
<p>An established narrative argues that <a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/lindiwe-mazibuko">Lindiwe Mazibuko</a>, Mmusi Maimane, <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/public-works-and-infrastructure-ministry/patricia-de-lille-ms">Patricia De Lille</a>, Herman Mashaba – black people who all achieved leadership positions within the DA – were all undermined by a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/analysis/da-is-still-looking-after-white-interests-14949941">backroom white leadership cabal</a>. The cabal allegedly wanted to control them as puppets on a string. So now, the narrative continues, under Steenhuizen, decent man that he may be, the party is simply reverting to type: a party for whites, led by whites.</p>
<p>Although the DA seemingly possesses an uncanny ability to shoot itself in the foot, its real dilemma is how to escape a vicious circle. When it sought to attract black voters by <a href="https://www.da.org.za/2018/08/das-position-on-economic-empowerment">endorsing</a> <a href="http://www.economic.gov.za/about-us/programmes/economic-policy-development/b-bbee">“black empowerment”</a>, it alienated white voters to the right and classic liberals. When it abandons “racial criteria” as a proxy for disadvantage, it alienates its potential support base among the black middle class.</p>
<p>The DA occupies an unenviable political space from which there is no obvious route of escape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The problem for the Democratic Alliance is not one of policy. There is real substance in its commitment to substituting racial criteria for overcoming historical disadvantage.Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1466902020-09-23T14:28:30Z2020-09-23T14:28:30ZWhy South African opposition’s policy on racial inequality is out of sync with reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359348/original/file-20200922-22-1bz77r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Democratic Alliance wants an end to race-based affirmative action policies</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Claiming, as South Africa’s official opposition the Democratic Alliance (<a href="https://www.da.org.za/our-people">DA</a>) does, that policy must ignore race in South Africa, is like insisting that economic inequality should have been ignored in nineteenth century Europe. </p>
<p>The party resolved at a <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/policy-conference-da-leaves-race-out-of-redress-equation-20200905">recent policy conference</a> to oppose policy that uses race and gender as a criterion. This aims to set it apart from the governing African National Congress, which <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/097492840205800113?journalCode=iqqa">endorses affirmative action</a> as a means of addressing the inequities created by centuries of minority white rule.</p>
<p>Although this <a href="https://cdn.da.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11063418/Draft-DA-Economic-Justice-Policy-Discussion-Document.pdf">decision</a> must still be ratified by the federal congress, its highest decision-making body, it is sure to become DA policy. When it does, it will settle, for the moment, an internal argument between supporters of this view and those in the DA who want it to accept that race is a <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-21-black-caucus-sets-out-its-agenda-for-first-da-policy-conference/">measure of disadvantage</a>. </p>
<p>Those within the DA who reject racial redress are overwhelmingly white; those who support it are almost all black (although a black DA official has been the public face of the “colour blind” policy). The references to gender seem to be an afterthought since this was never a source of division within the DA.</p>
<p>As in other countries with a history of racial domination such as the United States, positions on whether race-based redress makes sense are a product not of academic analysis but where people are in society. Whites have been challenging race-based redress in the US <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/us/affirmative-action-50-years.html">for decades</a> because it signifies that they continue to benefit unfairly at the expense of blacks. Black attitudes in the US to racial redress are a subject of debate. </p>
<p>In South Africa, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236703540_The_colour_of_success_a_qualitative_study_of_affirmative_action_attitudes_of_black_academics_in_South_Africa">most whites</a> react in much the same way as American whites. Just about all politically active black people believe that prejudice continues to disadvantage them and that racial redress is essential.</p>
<h2>Why race still matters</h2>
<p>But the fact that many people believe something to be true does not mean it is. </p>
<p>The DA resolution says that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(each) individual is unique and not a racial or gender envoy… Individuals, when free to make their own decisions, will not be represented in any and every organisation, sector, company or level of management according to a predetermined proportion. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Translated, that means no-one should be given a post or an advantage because of their race. Isn’t that a reasonable position in a society which rejects race discrimination?</p>
<p>No, it isn’t. The claim that each individual is “unique and not a racial or gender envoy” bears no resemblance to the reality in which people live. Each black person and woman may be an individual but, because they are black and women, they face obstacles which whites and men don’t. </p>
<p>White people are not considered unqualified for tasks unless they prove themselves (and sometimes even then). Men are not constantly faulted for their emotions, accused of being aggressive when they stand up for themselves and submissive when they don’t. Nor are men subjected to violence simply because they are male. So, we are not “envoys” (whatever that means) for our race or gender, but our experiences are shaped by them.</p>
<p>We are all individuals in theory but, in practice, when one group has occupied all the top positions in business and the professions for more than a century, people assume that only that group has the abilities those positions need. And so “merit” becomes another word for belonging to the dominant group. </p>
<p>If race or gender are ignored, the people who decide who is appointed are likely to assume that only people like them have “merit”. And so, the individuals appointed to top positions will almost always be those who look like the person making the appointments. “Not seeing colour” would be to see only one colour, that of the group in charge.</p>
<h2>Racism in sports</h2>
<p>Those who hold this view often claim businesses will always appoint on “merit” because they need to hire the best person to make profits. But who decides who the best person is? People are not calculators and their understanding of who is good at a task is shaped by the biases mentioned here. That favourite South African pastime, sport, provides evidence.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cricbuzz.com/profiles/216/makhaya-ntini">Makhaya Ntini</a>, who became one of South Africa’s most successful cricketers, would never have played for the country if one of the game’s administrators had not thought it politic to instruct the selectors <a href="https://jacana.co.za/our-books/reverse-sweep-a-story-of-south-african-cricket/">to choose him</a>. </p>
<p>Cricket is a useful indicator because personal averages are recorded measuring each player’s performance. In the early years of officially “non-racial” cricket, black players were <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/can-we-move-from-hollowness-of-transformation-and-speak-of-idea-of-systemic-change-57b43044-e342-443d-ba47-d42998146e48">often passed over for whites</a> whose averages were lower. If selectors were not told to take colour into account, no black person may have played cricket for South Africa.</p>
<p>Opponents of race- or gender-based policies often like to claim that they divert attention from poverty and economic inequality: they may make the problem worse by giving opportunities to well-off people only. If help goes to people who live in poverty, whatever their race or gender, those who really need it will get it and the fat cats won’t be rewarded because they are black or female.</p>
<p>This view scrambles together two issues which are related but not the same: racial barriers and poverty. Racial barriers affect middle-class people. It is they who compete for university places, or professional and business jobs. And so, the poor do not benefit from them. But, unless you want to end all <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/overview">inequality</a> (which few if any opponents of race- or gender-based policy do), they only benefit at the expense of people living in poverty if they receive benefits which would otherwise go to a poor person.</p>
<h2>‘Colour blind’ myth</h2>
<p>Those who know South African realities will find it weird to imagine “colour blind” policies opening up university places to people too poor to afford the better schools and business and professional opportunities to people who could not afford to go to university. </p>
<p>Of course, it could be argued that race- and gender-based policies disadvantage the poor because the best people will not be appointed to the posts in government, the professions and management on which they rely for service. But that is only true if the best people would be appointed if there no race and gender criteria, which, we have already shown, they would not. </p>
<p>In effect, this claim implies that appointing blacks and women lowers standards and so it becomes another way of saying that black people and women are not up to the job.</p>
<p>So, “colour blind” policies (and their gender equivalents) would not usher in non-racialism, which means that each human being is judged on their ability alone. </p>
<p>They would retard it by ensuring that those who dominated in the past will remain on top. The DA’s policy proposal is not blind to race. It is blind to racism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Friedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Each black person and woman may be an individual but, because they are black and women, they face obstacles which whites and men don’t.Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1356172020-05-18T12:16:39Z2020-05-18T12:16:39ZClaims of ideological bias among the media may be overblown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332865/original/file-20200505-83736-bgjyay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=98%2C53%2C5838%2C3889&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-takes-questions-from-reporters-news-photo/1208678177?adppopup=true">Madel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a recent trip to the Lincoln Memorial, President Donald Trump <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/495898-trump-says-hes-been-treated-worse-than-lincoln-by-the-press">claimed that the media has treated him worse</a> than any previous president. </p>
<p>Such claims are not new or limited to Trump. Political elites across the spectrum <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1149345678814060545?s=20">constantly</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2012/08/mitt-camp-williams-wrong-unfair-080350">complain</a> about <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/28/810150316/bernie-tv-how-the-sanders-campaigns-live-videos-help-it-build-community">what the media covers</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/video/2020/03/19/trump-accuses-media-of-treating-him-unfairly-in-their-coverage-of-coronavirus-preparedness-069920">how they cover it</a>. The public shares that distrust. Less than half of Americans say they can identify a source that they believe <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-trust-media-and-democracy">reports the news objectively</a>, despite strong journalism norms aimed at <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/ask-ppil-on-bias-in-journalism">minimizing bias</a>.</p>
<p>But are voters and politicians right? Is the media really biased? </p>
<p><a href="http://myweb.fsu.edu/hanhassell4/">We</a> <a href="http://www.matthewrmiles.com/">are</a> <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/johnbholbein/">political</a> <a href="https://www.kevinreuning.com/">scientists</a> who study journalists covering political news and the factors that affect political news coverage. In our <a href="http://journalismsurvey.org/">research</a>, conducted in 2017 and 2018, we examined media bias two different ways.</p>
<p>First, we studied whether the media displays bias by the stories they choose to cover. For example, a media outlet might cover a politician’s initial <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true">failure to respond to COVID-19</a> while another outlet chooses to bypass that story. This is what we call gatekeeping bias. What journalists cover, or <a href="https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/agenda-setting-theory/">their agenda setting</a>, has a powerful effect on the issues people care about. Media bias, in other words, can occur if journalists ignore stories not aligned with their ideological preferences. </p>
<p>Second, we studied whether the media discussed stories differently – if they used a different tone or perspective to cover the same story. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/trump-us-coronavirus-briefing-latest-media">Two news outlets</a>, for example, might cover a politician’s press conference <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-renews-focus-on-reopening-us-after-coronavirus-hits-economy-way-of-life">very differently</a>. News framing, studies show, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2691806?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">has an effect</a> on public opinion, though it’s often short-lived. </p>
<p>In the summer of 2017, we visited the website or Facebook page of every newspaper in the United States to gather email addresses of political journalists and editors. We collected email addresses for over 13,000 political journalists. We surveyed those journalists and combined what we learned with a separate analysis of newspaper content. </p>
<p>We found no evidence of the first form of bias – gatekeeping.</p>
<p>Although there is bias in how newspapers cover politics – the second kind of bias – the effects were largely limited to small shifts in tone. Moreover, our research shows that most newspapers are politically moderate, further reducing the impact of bias. </p>
<h2>Journalists are liberal</h2>
<p>To test for <a href="https://theconversation.com/you-are-the-new-gatekeeper-of-the-news-71862">gatekeeping</a> and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-first-impression/201706/media-framing-effects">framing bias</a>, we needed information about journalists’ ideological preferences and the ideology of the newspapers that employ them. In the <a href="http://journalismsurvey.org/">survey</a>, we asked journalists to “describe (their) own personal (political) ideology” on a five-point scale ranging from very liberal to very conservative.</p>
<p>Many claimed to be independent or moderate. This could be because journalists are moderates or because they do not want to be accused of bias. Many other journalists didn’t answer the survey, perhaps because they didn’t want their ideology to be perceived as influencing their coverage. While our response rate of 13.1% is nearly double that of other surveys of journalists, there are lots of journalists who didn’t answer. </p>
<p>To overcome this hurdle, we used <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcc4.12001">a method</a> that identifies an individual’s ideology using <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users/">who they follow on Twitter</a>. For people who also answered the survey, the results closely matched. This allowed us to estimate of the ideology of every political journalist in our sample on Twitter. </p>
<p><iframe id="8Xbe4" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8Xbe4/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>No gatekeeping bias</h2>
<p>We found that most journalists are very liberal. The average journalist is to the left of prominent liberal politicians like former President Barack Obama. </p>
<p>However, simply being liberal does not make journalists biased. </p>
<p>To test for gatekeeping bias, we ran a correspondence experiment where journalists had a real coverage choice concerning a potential news story. We sent an email to every journalist requesting an interview for a purported candidate for a state legislature. Journalists randomly received an email from either a liberal or conservative candidate.</p>
<p>We found that journalists were just as likely to respond to very conservative candidates as very progressive candidates. Journalists also weren’t more interested in covering a candidate of their own ideology.</p>
<h2>Minimal framing bias</h2>
<p>Yes, but what about how newspapers cover the story? Though the liberal media might cover all candidates, some may wonder if they simply write “hit pieces” about conservatives. </p>
<p>Using our survey, we identified the ideology of almost 700 local and national newspapers. We asked journalists to tell us the ideology of the newspaper where they worked, along with seven other well known media outlets such as The New York Times and Fox News. </p>
<p>Journalists know the ideology of their own newspaper, but their perceptions might be impacted by assumptions about the <a href="https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444">ideological center and ideological extremes</a>. Having journalists rate other media outlets allows us to account for these perceptions using a process called <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajps.12151">Aldrich-McKelvey scaling</a>, which uses a respondent’s evaluation of well known media outlets as a way to adjust evaluations of their own media outlets. </p>
<p>Compared to national newspapers and other salient media outlets, our research shows that most local newspapers are moderate and very close to the ideological center. </p>
<p><iframe id="oWUKJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oWUKJ/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>To see whether newspaper ideology affected the tone of coverage, we downloaded every story available about President Trump during his first 100 days in office. To measure tone, we used <a href="https://liwc.wpengine.com/">Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count</a>. This software estimates the emotional tone in written language on a scale from 0 to 100. If a story has a neutral tone, the software will score it a 50. </p>
<p>While there is a relationship between a newspaper’s ideology and the tone of coverage, the effect is small. We considered the average tone of three papers, one on the far right of our scale, one in the center, and one on the far left. For all three the tone is close to 50. Conservative newspapers are not overt Trump cheerleaders, and liberal outlets are not overly negative.</p>
<p>Our research also shows that there is no bias regarding which candidates newspapers cover. Additionally, there are only small shifts in the tone of coverage of one of the most polarizing news topics – Trump. Most newspaper coverage is moderate and exhibits few easily identifiable biases. </p>
<p>Contrary to President Trump’s claims, we find little blatant news bias in what the media covers and how it covers it. While the nature of politics encourages politicians to undermine negative coverage through claims of bias, our research suggests that ideological bias in U.S. newspapers is largely nonexistent.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though political elites complain about what the media covers, and how they cover it, research shows that ideological bias among media outlets is largely nonexistent.Hans J.G. Hassell, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Florida State UniversityJohn Holbein, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education, University of VirginiaKevin Reuning, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Miami UniversityMatthew R. Miles, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1344782020-04-06T20:34:00Z2020-04-06T20:34:00ZCoronavirus isn’t the end of ‘childhood innocence,’ but an opportunity to rethink children’s rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324427/original/file-20200331-65509-lqe4x3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4669%2C2345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elementary school student Adrian Zak works with his teacher online in Vienna, Austria, March 25, 2020. The Austrian government has restricted freedom of movement for people in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ronald Zak</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes to the lives of families across the globe and parents have had to decide <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-19-coronavirus-kids-1.5495831">how to talk with children about coronavirus</a>. </p>
<p>Many experts, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/opinion/coronavirus-children.html">child psychologists</a>, <a href="https://childmind.org/article/talking-to-kids-about-the-coronavirus/">trauma and resilience specialists</a> and advocates from <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059622">the United Nations Children’s Fund</a> agree that while parents should be mindful of their own anxieties and thoughtful about how they discuss coronavirus, children shouldn’t be kept in the dark. </p>
<p>But shouldn’t we protect children from fear and worry? In this uncertain time, some parents may feel concerned that COVID-19 is causing a <a href="https://www.thebigsmoke.com.au/2020/03/29/coping-with-covid-the-9-11-of-this-generation/">loss of innocence</a>.</p>
<p>As a researcher in critical childhood studies, I examine how the myth of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568218811484">childhood innocence</a> informs social practices in the North American context. For some parents, talking with children about the realities of a pandemic may be a disturbing prospect, given the widespread belief that childhood <a href="https://www.mother.ly/life/i-am-responsible-for-my-childs-innocenceand-nothing-is-more-important-to-me">should be carefree</a>. </p>
<p>Combined with contemporary pressures to entertain, exercise and educate children into successful adults, many parents today may feel compelled to manufacture an innocent, even <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/849250/myth-magical-childhood">magical childhood</a> by protecting them from sadness, grief, fear and even disappointment. </p>
<h2>Exclusionary innocence</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324963/original/file-20200402-74889-16knc7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean-Jacques Rousseau portrait published in ‘The Gallery Of Portraits With Memoirs Encyclopedia,’ 1833.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Childhood innocence is a modern construction largely inspired by the work of early modern thinkers like <a href="https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/perceptions-of-childhood#">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a>. His and others’ notions of childhood innocence was rooted in a white, middle-class, Euro-centric and hetero-patriarchal worldview that excluded the lived realities of all but the most privileged. </p>
<p>Since the 19th century, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25144411?seq=1">such beliefs fuelled</a> concerns over child labour, health and education and shaped social policy and law in Europe and North America in ways that have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2018.1552071">advanced particular white and upper-class economic interests</a>. The ideal of childhood innocence was and is still exclusionary. </p>
<p>These 19th century ideas about childhood innocence also made difficult experiences — like those of historically marginalized children — seem abnormal, and made inexperience the marker of who could be a child and whose rights would be seen as most important.</p>
<h2>The innocence myth</h2>
<p>The reality is that childhood as a state of innocence — of not-knowing or inexperience — is a myth. All children experience sadness, grief, fear and disappointment, some earlier and in greater measure than others. </p>
<p>For many children, such as those who have experienced disease, natural disasters, poverty, homelessness, refugee dispossession or trauma — and for Black, racialized or Indigenous children who experience racism — the current pandemic isn’t the first time they’ve grappled with adversity. This is particularly true for those who face <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-intersectionality-all-of-who-i-am-105639">multiple or intersecting</a> vulnerabilities and barriers.</p>
<p>Now, however, COVID-19 is forcing everyone, young and old, to confront the realities of social isolation, illness and death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324434/original/file-20200331-65537-1fljwjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I go out because my children have nothing to eat,’ reads a sign carried by Digna Ojeda, in Asuncion, Paraguay, March 23, 2020, as she collects trash to recycle. Paraguay’s government has limited movement of people to prevent the spread of COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jorge Saenz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Re-think beliefs</h2>
<p>COVID-19 can be an opportunity to rethink pervasive and dominant western beliefs in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568218811484">innocence as a universal childhood ideal</a>. We can create space for more open dialogue about children’s rights and capabilities. </p>
<p>The global pandemic is a compelling reminder that no child is exempt from difficult emotions and experiences, because no one is immune. Even parents with the most abundant financial, cultural and even political resources cannot entirely shield their children from COVID-19’s profound and widespread effects.</p>
<p>Yet the pandemic also reminds us that hardship discriminates. While social distancing inconveniences families who are able to work from home, the challenges are far more pronounced for those working on the front lines in essential services or facing layoffs, as well as those experiencing <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-poverty-advocates-call-for-protection-of-vulnerable-amid-covid-1/">homelessness or living in shelters or social housing</a>. </p>
<p>These inequalities are brought into sharper focus in light of the present crisis, but they aren’t new: children in Canada and across the world experience the discriminatory effects of inequality every day. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-guilty-of-forging-crisis-in-indigenous-foster-care-90808">Canada guilty of forging crisis in Indigenous foster care</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When we focus on protecting children’s innocence by sheltering them from adversity, we silence difficult emotions and experiences. What’s more, we may risk teaching them to ignore injustices. </p>
<h2>Children have rights</h2>
<p>In these uncertain times, it’s logical that we should be concerned about children’s well-being. But supporting their <a href="https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text">human rights</a> today and every day means taking seriously their questions, concerns and capabilities. </p>
<p>Some world leaders have modelled this kind of respect, including Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who held a <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6701272/coronavirus-norway-kids-press-conference/">kids-only press conference</a> about <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/covid-19">COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1239700530651262976"}"></div></p>
<p>Canadian <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6702700/justin-trudeau-letter-question-twitter-coronavirus/">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau</a> responded via <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau">Twitter</a> to an eight-year-old’s handwritten letter and <a href="https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-provides-daily-covid-19-update-2188356">later spoke directly to children</a> to acknowledge their fears, concerns and disappointments, and to thank them for their efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus by practising social distancing. </p>
<p>He also announced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-announces-more-help-for-vulnerable-canadians-1.5514055">$7.5 million in funding to Kids Help Phone to provide mental health support to children and youth impacted by school closures</a>.</p>
<h2>Children’s poignant, urgent words</h2>
<p>These examples are in keeping with the spirit of the <a href="https://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/UTILITY%20NAV/TEACHERS/DOCS/GC/CRCPosterEN_FA.pdf">United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)</a>. </p>
<p>Article 12 identifies as fundamental a child’s right to give an opinion, and for adults to listen and take that opinion seriously. Article 13 acknowledges that children have the right to find things things out and share what they think. </p>
<p>These two articles were the motivation for <a href="https://writersfestival.org/youth">The Republic of Childhood</a> Youth Forum 2019, which I co-organized in Ottawa to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the CRC. The event brought <a href="https://writersfestival.org/youth/writing">171 young authors</a> together to share their insights on the challenges of their daily lives, including climate change, health and well-being, and identity. One young person wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Small, Silent, Insignificant</p>
<p>Those three words are what we’re told to be</p>
<p>You’re too young, you’ll understand when your older</p>
<p>We’re told our opinion doesn’t matter, but we see things differently.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I found the young authors’ poignant, often urgent words to be a powerful reminder of how important it is for adults to make space for children to express themselves and to take their opinions seriously.</p>
<p>When it comes to COVID-19, children and adults alike have a part to play in flattening the curve. These are difficult and dire times, but holding on to the myth of childhood innocence will not make this crisis any easier.</p>
<p>Adults can take advantage of this opportunity to model compassion for ourselves and others, acknowledge and talk about privilege and inequality, and practise and celebrate social responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Garlen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The Republic of Childhood Youth Forum was funded by a SSHRC Connections Grant.</span></em></p>These are difficult and dire times, but holding on to the myth of childhood innocence won’t make this crisis any easier.Julie C. Garlen, Associate Professor, Childhood and Youth Studies, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1278462019-12-16T13:37:03Z2019-12-16T13:37:03ZHow South Africa’s white liberals dodge honest debates about race<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306555/original/file-20191212-85391-bs6ima.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former leader of the Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane. The politics of race in the party ended his tenure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ideological position of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s main opposition party, on how to achieve racial justice and equality in post-apartheid South Africa is morally confused. </p>
<p>John Steenhuisen, its new interim national leader, <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/cape-times/20191118/281526522887911">says that</a> the party does not believe in the use of race categories to address racialised inequality. As far as he is concerned, affirmative action and black economic empowerment policies indicate that post-apartheid South Africa is <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/cape-times/20191118/281526522887911">“obsessed with race”</a>.</p>
<p>He is <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/cape-times/20191118/281526522887911">convinced that</a> to bring about transformation in post-apartheid South Africa,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we don’t need to resort to crude racial classification.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But in my view it is morally and intellectually dishonest to disavow a race discourse as identity politics gone awry in a country that is divided along racial lines, socially and economically. </p>
<p>White South Africans make up 7.8% of the country’s population. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/south-africa-economy-apartheid.html">they own</a> more than 90% of the country’s wealth. And a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/blacks-own-the-least-land-report-13145254">government land audit</a> in 2017 showed that white people own 72% of the land, followed by coloureds at 15%, Indians at 5% and Africans at 4%. (The <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">racial delineations used here were adopted under apartheid</a>, which distinguished between various race groups. Broadly, Indians referred to South Africans descended from people who came to the country from the Indian subcontinent, many as indentured labour, while coloureds referred to people of mixed race.)</p>
<p>And according to <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12744">Stats SA</a>, in addition to having worse employment outcomes, Africans also earn the lowest wages. </p>
<p>To imply, as the Democratic Alliance does, that there is a moral equivalence between apartheid’s use of race categories and their continued use by the democratic government is a deliberate distortion of reality. </p>
<h2>Race categories</h2>
<p>The apartheid regime used race categories as part of a white supremacist project. This was underpinned by a racist <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/">eugenics vision</a> of creating a racist white utopia in southern Africa, through racial segregation. The government introduced a range of laws to advantage white people and disadvantage black people. One of the most pernicious was the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/group-areas-act-1950">Group Areas Act</a>. This segregated social groups by race, making it a crime for social groups to interact. </p>
<p>The logic of the continued use of the race categories <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/employment-equity-act-employment-equity-amendment-bill-comments-invited-21-sep-2018-0000">post-apartheid</a> has been to achieve the liberal objective of correcting historically unjust racial inequalities. It is a truism to point out that race-conscious policies would be unnecessary if post-apartheid South Africa were racially just and equitable society. But it is not. </p>
<h2>False claims to a liberal tradition</h2>
<p>The Democratic Alliance <a href="https://www.news24.com/Analysis/10-questions-to-helen-zille-its-a-fight-between-nationalists-and-liberalists-20191007">claims</a> the liberal tradition as its brand of politics.</p>
<p>But true liberals know that liberal democracy cannot function successfully in a society without social justice. John Rawls, the esteemed American social justice <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/">philosopher-warrior</a>, advocated for the principle of redress in the face of undeserved social inequalities.</p>
<p>A liberal theory of justice disavows a society that rewards people for privilege, or for being born in a certain social class. Honest modern-day interlocutors, such as George Fredrickson, an American historian of race, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691167053/racism">argue</a> that black people in power in post-apartheid South Africa cannot</p>
<blockquote>
<p>adequately compensate blacks for three and a half centuries of expropriation, exploitation, and deprivation to the extent that would be required to make them truly equal to the whites.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-11-15-00-steenhuisen-promises-team-work">Democratic Alliance</a> is of the view that to effectively address the legacy of apartheid, race has to be removed in redress as a proxy. It brands this as a form of liberalism. </p>
<p>But it is quite the converse, and simply a denial of the current realities of South Africa. It was partly this realisation that led Mmusi Maimane, the Democratic Alliance’s former party leader, to resign from his leadership position. According to <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2019-10-27-rise-of-the-zillenators-helen-zilles-allies-set-to-take-top-jobs-at-the-da/">Maimane</a>, the party</p>
<blockquote>
<p>is not the vehicle best suited for achieving racial justice and equality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his resignation speech, Maimane effectively conceded that the party’s brand of politics is white liberalism – a prominent strand within the liberal tradition.</p>
<h2>Hypocrisy</h2>
<p>In post-apartheid South Africa, the spectrum of white liberalism ranges from white political organisations like the Democratic Alliance to <a href="https://www.afriforum.co.za/en/about-us/">Afriforum</a> and <a href="https://solidariteit.co.za/en/who-are-we/">Solidariteit</a>. The latter is historically a white trade union, while Afriforum portrays itself as a “civil society” organisation. </p>
<p>Afriforum’s campaign to end farm murders can be traced back to apartheid racist propaganda of <a href="https://findwords.info/term/swart%20gevaar">“Swart Gevaar”</a> – a racist narrative that characterises black people as criminals and a danger to whites and their interests. </p>
<p>In my view white liberals in South Africa are in denial, and hence refuse to accept a liberal truism that whites do not deserve the privileged position resulting from centuries of black exploitation and oppression. Pointing that out is not synonymous with victimising whites. Rather, it’s a first step towards a just society built on liberal values of fairness and equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mandisi Majavu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is no moral equivalence between apartheid’s use of race categories and their continued use by the democratic government.Mandisi Majavu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1271512019-11-28T14:12:22Z2019-11-28T14:12:22ZSex education raises questions about the role of the state in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303965/original/file-20191127-112522-11ouyy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's new sex education curriculum is seen by some as infringing on the rights of parents. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Jon Hrusa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Passions are running high in South Africa about a proposed new curriculum for <a href="https://www.education.gov.za/Home/ComprehensiveSexualityEducation.aspx">education about sexuality in schools</a>. Aimed at children in grades 4 to 12, it’s intended for roll out in public schools in 2020. </p>
<p>Concerns raised by parents, schools and <a href="https://forsa.org.za/press-release-for-sa-refutes-false-statements-by-dbe-on-cse/">civil society organisations</a> include that elements of the curriculum are not appropriate for the age of the children who will be targeted – mostly 10-year olds – and that it undermines the authority of parents.</p>
<p>Another concern is that key stakeholders, including parents, schools and teachers were not consulted. Anger about this is reflected by the fact that a parent-based Facebook group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/leaveourkidsalone2020/">#LeaveOurKidsAlone</a> gained over 100 000 members in less than four weeks. </p>
<p>The political question that the new curriculum has raised is: does it show that the government has over-reached its powers? Has it overstepped the mark in the delicate relationship between the state and society? And what does this say about the divide between what is public and what is private? </p>
<p>The Department of Basic Education has retracted the option for <a href="https://www.parent24.com/Learn/Learning-difficulties/want-to-opt-out-of-sex-ed-classes-private-or-home-school-are-you-only-options-it-seems-20191112?fbclid=IwAR0XXzzZxgp0wHC1-V6YAd9g-asvY_GwzxVinXeyYd9ZGL2E5ywDc8l3Cc0">parents to</a> have their children excluded from the lessons. This, and the fact that parents were not widely consulted, contravenes the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/white-paper-education-and-training">White Paper on Education and Training </a> which stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Parents or guardians have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, and have the right to be consulted by state authorities with respect to the form that education should take and to take part in its governance. Parents have the inalienable right to choose the form of education which is best for their children, particularly in the early years of schooling, whether provided by the State or not, subject to reasonable safeguards which may be required by law. The parents’ right to choose includes choice of the language, cultural or religious foundation of the child’s education, with due respect to the rights of others and the rights of choice of the growing child.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition, the new curriculum is not in keeping with the spirit of section 15 of the Bill of Rights of the <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng.pdf">South African Constitution</a>, which protects individual rights, such as the freedom of opinion, religion and expression. </p>
<p>It is indicative of a prescriptive state in terms of shifting the imparting of norms and values in a sensitive area such as sexuality from parents in the family context, to the state through public schools. This is a move towards a more moralistic and intrusive state.</p>
<h2>Theories of the state</h2>
<p>The state is either limited in power, a neutral umpire in society that doesn’t favour any particular group, individual, family, religion or ideology. Or it is overarching and prescriptive in terms of beliefs, <a href="https://www.macmillanexplorers.com/political-science/theories-of-the-democratic-state/14242522">norms and values</a>.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1997-11-01/rise-illiberal-democracy">classical liberal</a> understanding of the role of the state, the authority given to those in power through elections is limited by a constitution; checks and balances, either horizontal (such as an independent judiciary) or vertical (such as organised civil society and an independent media); and the recognition of sphere sovereignty.</p>
<p>The idea of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-8810-6_4">sphere sovereignty</a> implies an institutionally pluralistic society, where power and authority are divided among various “spheres”. Thus, the state, the family, religious institutions, civil society have their own jurisdiction. And, as long as they don’t do any harm, other spheres of authority should not intrude on them. It recognises that societies are pluralistic. </p>
<p>These countervailing distributions of power protect the liberties of citizens and guard against the centralising impulse of the state from infringing on them. Philosophical pluralists, ranging from <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/">John Stuart Mill</a> to the contemporary <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a>, contrast this recognition of diversity with the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/monism/">monist </a> nature of totalitarian states, which penetrate all aspects of society.</p>
<p>The other form of state-society relations is one in which a state actively intrudes into the personal or private realm and becomes prescriptive, especially around beliefs, norms and values. Such a state becomes more than a neutral arbiter and rather dictates how people should live and conduct their lives. </p>
<p>On a scale, less extreme forms of this would be a <a href="http://nannystateindex.org/">nanny state</a>, with its extensive social responsibilities, as some would classify the welfare state of the UK. But the scale moves towards totalitarianism, as evident in North Korea. </p>
<p>The common feature is that the distinction between the public and the private becomes blurred, and the state prescribes moral values, behaviour and meddles in every aspect of human life. </p>
<p>Historical examples include the <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Holy_Roman_Empire">Holy Roman Empire</a>, which conflated church and state, imposing one religion on all. There are also the communist systems of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/russia/history-of-the-soviet-union">Soviet Union</a> and its satellite states; and the fascist states such as Nazi Germany and Italy under the dictator <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini">Benito Mussolini</a>. In both, only civil society organisations and religion approved by the state were allowed.</p>
<p>As Mussolini <a href="http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm">argued</a> in the Doctrine of Fascism: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>South Africa’s state</h2>
<p>South Africa’s governing party, the <a href="https://www.anc1912.org.za/">African National Congress</a>, has long historical and ideological ties with <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/the-anc-and-the-soviets">communism</a>. It continues to understand itself as the vanguard of society.</p>
<p>Marxist ideology advocates that a prescriptive state is necessary for correcting social inequalities. Coupled with this is the growing interest in <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-55801-5_12">Critical Theory</a>. This takes the Marxist ideas of a prescriptive state further, into the realm of culture, and thus norms and values. </p>
<p>Unlike other theories, which seek to understand or explain society, Critical Theory actively seeks to change it. </p>
<h2>Reclaiming parents’ rights</h2>
<p>The push-back against the curriculum by parents, teachers, schools, religious bodies and civil society alike, is a clarion call to the state to stay out of their homes. </p>
<p>Parents are reclaiming their sphere of jurisdiction, in particular the right to teach and raise children in accordance with their norms and values. Will the South African government respect this?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola de Jager receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) as a rated researcher. </span></em></p>Objections raised about the school syllabus by parents, schools and civil society point to a bigger problem with the state.Nicola de Jager, Associate Professor, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1270292019-11-14T15:30:38Z2019-11-14T15:30:38ZSouth Africa’s liberals are failing to wrap their heads around race<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301744/original/file-20191114-26229-1scidwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is reeling from self-inflicted political damage. Its newly elected parliamentary leader <a href="https://www.pa.org.za/person/john-henry-steenhuisen/">John Steenhuisen</a> recently appealed to his colleagues to “stop the political hara-kiri that’s going on in the DA – <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-10-28-steenhuisen-says-big-blue-wobbly-jelly-da-needs-to-find-its-spine-again/">pulling out entrails to show everybody”</a>.</p>
<p>This follows the <a href="https://theconversation.com/partys-woes-signify-historical-dilemma-of-south-africas-liberals-126358">departure</a> of two more prominent black members, party leader Mmusi Maimane and Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, apart from national chair Athol Trollip, who is white. Other black members the party has shed include Cape Town mayor <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/de-lille-resigns-as-cape-town-mayor-quits-da-20181031">Patricia de Lille</a>, forced out last year, and former parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, who <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2014-05-10-lindiwe-mazibuko-quits-da-as-parliamentary-leader">left under duress in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>The recent resignations come in the wake of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-helen-zille-wins-da-federal-council-chair-vote-20191020">election</a> of former party leader Helen Zille to the powerful position of chairperson of the DA’s federal council. </p>
<p>She and other contenders for the post promised to return the party to a vague <a href="https://twitter.com/helenzille/status/1156067508136415234">“classical liberalism”</a>. What this would mean in light of the history of the party is left unexplained. It does seem that the dominant bloc in the Democratic Alliance wants to convince some South African voters that a version of liberalism exists which is untouched by history and context. Judging by recent events, they also seem to insist that liberalism has not and cannot be adapted to <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-10-31-helen-zille-calls-for-da-to-dump-race-analysis/">address the problem of racism</a>. </p>
<p>This reflects a growing dearth in political imagination in South Africa’s white liberal establishment in recent years.</p>
<h2>Success and new complexities</h2>
<p>The current malaise was triggered by the Democratic Alliance’s slightly poorer results in the May 2019 national election. It attracted <a href="https://www.elections.org.za/NPEDashboard/App/dashboard.html">20.8% compared with 22.2% in 2014</a>. </p>
<p>At the heart of the party’s problems lies what can be called “white denialism” – the inability to acknowledge the continuing repercussions of race and racism in the country. This has affected its analytical capacity to the point of endangering its electoral fortunes. </p>
<p>“Losing” more black leaders shows a greater concern with keeping the party as a base for white interests than growing it to a possible future government.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301763/original/file-20191114-26243-aa7n8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mmusi Maimane, former leader of the Democratic Alliance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Democratic Alliance was one of the political success stories of the democratic era. In its previous manifestation as the Democratic Party, it managed to grow from a mere 1.7% in the first racially inclusive election in 1994 to <a href="https://www.elections.org.za/NPEDashboard/App/dashboard.html">12.4% </a>in the 2004 national elections, demolishing the former party of apartheid, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/partys-woes-signify-historical-dilemma-of-south-africas-liberals-126358">National Party</a>. </p>
<p>But with success come new dynamics and complexities.</p>
<p>The boost in growth was among white South Africans, leading to the party routinely being labelled <a href="https://www.news24.com/Columnists/MahlatseGallens/da-has-its-work-cut-out-to-show-its-not-a-white-party-with-a-black-leader-20180413">“white”</a>, and its relevance in a context of a majority of black voters was questioned. </p>
<p>Commendably, significant efforts ensued under Zille to recruit black leaders and break the white glass ceiling in the party. In the 2011 local government election, the <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-no-party-for-racists-says-zille-1430039">slogan was</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>reconciliation, redress, delivery and diversity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With the promotion of young stars such as Mazibuko and Maimane, and the merger with De Lille’s Independent Democrats <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-16-anc-shrugs-off-daid-merger">in 2010</a>, the Democratic Alliance’s complexion changed. </p>
<p>But this brought the question of race to the fore.</p>
<h2>Racial liberalism</h2>
<p>For many people who live the experience of being racialised as “black” in the world, it is impossible to negate the effects of race – both negatively, as a system of oppression, and positively, as a source of resistance and identity. As Maimane put it poignantly,</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2019-10-23-flashback-what-mmusi-maimane-said-when-he-was-elected-in-pe/">if you don’t see I’m black, you don’t see me</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These views ran head-long into the Democratic Alliance’s historical white denialism, sparking an intense political battle for the party’s soul. Hence, when Steenhuisen talks about the <a href="http://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/steenhuisen-to-contest-position-of-interim-party-leader/">“slavish race-based obsession of the last few years”</a>, he is sniping at black leaders’ attempt to turn the party away from its legacy of race-blindness.</p>
<p>The white liberal establishment, both inside and outside the party, holds on to its race-blindness by distorting the South African idea of “non-racialism”. Non-racialism is a political concept that hails from the first half of the 20th century, and is included in the country’s democratic constitution. It envisages a society beyond race that would be achieved through anti-racist action.</p>
<p>As a counter position, the Democratic Alliance has defanged non-racialism by presenting it as <a href="https://democracyworks.org.za/race-the-das-elephant-in-the-policy-room/">“colour-blindness”</a>. This convenient misrepresentation of non-racialism fits with what Jamaican philosopher Charles W Mills calls <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25501942?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“racial liberalism”</a>, the most prominent version of liberalism which has been pivotal to Western political thinking.</p>
<p>Racial liberalism has historically been characterised by a double standard, which is reflected in its role in the crimes of colonialism. Only some human beings could lay claim to the essential values of the rule of law and equality in the eyes of the colonial state. Hence, white and male privilege was entrenched. </p>
<p>In the Democratic Alliance’s case, its original predecessor the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/progressive-federal-party-pfp">Progressive Party </a> clung to the 19th century British colonial position of a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberal-party-south-africa-lpsa">qualified franchise for black people</a> until the 1970s.</p>
<h2>Liberalism and historical injustice</h2>
<p>Mills makes the case for a colour-conscious liberalism. Extending this idea to other differences such as gender, this translates into a liberalism that actively acknowledges and advances the correction of historical racial, gender and other injustices. Such an agenda must be driven from the vantage points of those who have been wronged, that is, black people and women.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/liberalism-in-south-africa-isnt-only-for-white-people-or-black-people-who-want-to-be-white-125236">Liberalism in South Africa isn't only for white people -- or black people who want to be white</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Democratic Alliance’s black leaders embarked on the crafting of what could be called an African liberalism in 2013. Its parliamentary caucus, led by Mazibuko, <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/lindiwe-got-it-wrong-zille-1607434">supported affirmative action</a> on the basis of race and gender during the consideration of the <a href="https://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/en/news/press-releases/2013/Employment/newly-tabled-employment-equity-amendment-bill-will-enforce-stricter-compliance-with-employment-equity.html">Employment Equity Amendment Bill</a>. A black parliamentarian said at the time that “there is no way that you can solve a problem caused by race without referring to race”. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301765/original/file-20191114-26237-8y6sjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Helen Zille heads the DA’s powerful federal council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Efe-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The white liberal establishment was outraged, including the Institute of <a href="https://irr.org.za/media/articles-authored-by-the-institute/towards-non-racial-aa-in-employment-2013-politicsweb-27-november-2014">Race Relations</a>. Former party leader Tony Leon sounded the bugle about an <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-14-is-black-the-das-new-true-blue">offence against liberal values</a>. The caucus was called to order. A policy conference followed where race was acknowledged as a “<a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-rejects-race-quotas-1611643">proxy for disadvantage</a>” but with no corrective mechanism, apart from “expanding opportunities”.</p>
<p>Mazibuko resigned under pressure and was replaced by Maimane. But the contestation intensified. Maimane <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2019/10/23/maimane-and-zille-s-political-bromance-how-it-all-came-to-an-end">called out</a> Zille when she tweeted positive comments about colonialism. Black Democratic Alliance members’ stances on public incidents involving race caused further upset.</p>
<h2>Lost opportunity</h2>
<p>The slight decline in Democratic Alliance votes in the 2019 election has been attributed to far-rightwing white supporters <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-who-why-and-what-of-south-africas-minority-afrikaner-party-116913">shifting their votes to the Freedom Front Plus</a>. Instead of regarding this as an opportunity to confront the party’s racial legacy and advance more inclusive politics, it was used to rid the party of Maimane, at the <a href="https://dailyfriend.co.za/2019/10/01/storm-forecast-winde-with-brighter-prospects/">instigation of the Institute of Race Relations</a>.</p>
<p>This was another one of those watershed moments, akin to when the apartheid regime passed <a href="http://psimg.jstor.org/fsi/img/pdf/t0/10.5555/al.sff.document.leg19680605.042.000.000_final.pdf">a law banning inter-racial parties</a> in the 1960s. At the time, the Progressive Party – the Democratic Alliance’s original permutation – <a href="http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/Collections/liberal.aspx">ejected its black members</a> to become white. Its other option was to disband and reorganise. It chose white politics then, as it does now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christi van der Westhuizen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The white liberal establishment, both inside and outside the Democratic Alliance, holds on to its race-blindness by distorting the South African idea of “non-racialism”.Christi van der Westhuizen, Associate Professor, Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD), Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263582019-11-11T14:10:11Z2019-11-11T14:10:11ZParty’s woes signify historical dilemma of South Africa’s liberals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300847/original/file-20191108-194675-amzxe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Helen Zille's return to the top echelons of the Democratic Alliance has been slammed as an attempt to make the party white again.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-10-20-helen-zille-wins-vote-top-da-job/">return of Helen Zille</a>, the former leader of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), to active politics as chair of the party’s federal executive led to many allegations that the party is dominated by a shadowy kitchen cabinet of <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2195945/maimane-was-an-ethically-upright-man-forced-to-leave-da-because-of-white-people-eff/">white people</a>.</p>
<p>Zille’s election to head the DA’s highest decision-making body in between national congresses was soon followed by the <a href="https://city-press.news24.com/News/double-whammy-for-da-as-maimane-and-trollip-resign-20191023">resignations</a> of Herman Mashaba, the DA mayor of Johannesburg; Mmusi Maimane, the party’s national leader; and Athol Trollip, its national chairman. Mashaba had charged that Zille’s return set the party on a <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-10-21-joburg-mayor-herman-mashaba-resigns/">rightwing path</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, rather than focusing on personalities to understand the DA’s problems, it is better to return to the dilemmas of liberals in South Africa’s tragic history of the politicisation of race. This tendency persisted even after the country became a democracy in 1994. In essence, liberalism has always been reluctant to grant black people equality unless they achieve certain designated standards.</p>
<h2>Segregation frames the liberal dilemma</h2>
<p>Following the country’s formation in 1910 as a union of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/union-south-africa-1910">four territories </a> (historically, two British colonies and two Boer republics), it was accepted among white people, including those of more liberal persuasions, that people of different “races” should live separately to preserve white people’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">culture and languages</a>.</p>
<p>This was used to justify the grossly unequal division of land which resulted in the black majority being left with just 7% of the land. This was confirmed by the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/natives-land-act-1913">1913 Land Act</a>. </p>
<p>The assumption which went with this was that black people were destined to remain in rural areas, and that any movement (such as migration for work on white mines, factories or farms) would be temporary. </p>
<p>But, by the end of the 1920s, liberals were beginning to get uneasy. It was becoming increasingly clear that the fates of black people and white people were irrevocably entangled, economically and politically.</p>
<p>The fundamental dilemma for “liberal segregationists” was that they based their politics on the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/179767?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Cape qualified franchise</a>. Its basic supposition was that black people (and only men) were worthy of the vote – only if they achieved a certain level of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/segregation-fallacy-and-other-papers-disfranchisement-cape-native">“civilisation”</a>. In practice, this meant ownership of property and or educational qualifications. </p>
<p>But this presented the problem that the few black people who acquired education showed that black people were equal to whites. If black equality was accepted, the white minority would be <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/segregation-fallacy-and-other-papers-disfranchisement-cape-native">“swamped”</a>. </p>
<p>Assuming power in 1948, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party</a> formalised apartheid. It sought to negate this danger by arguing that potential equality between people of different races was irrelevant. It argued that black people and white people were culturally different, cultural mixing would cause cultural conflict. </p>
<p>This led to a number of targeted policies. To avert the dangers of racial mixing, the flow of black people to urban areas should be averted, the entry of black people into the white polity should be blocked off completely, and black politics should be diverted to black <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">“homelands”</a>. These were ten mainly rural areas where black people were required to live, along ethnic group lines. </p>
<p>It was only the tiny <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/liberal-party-south-africa-lpsa">Liberal Party</a> which had by now fully accepted the political implications of racial equality, and argued for a universal franchise. The majority liberal response, elaborated by the DA’s forerunners (from the Progressive Party onwards), was to retain the notion of black people having to attain a certain level of “civilisation” to qualify for the vote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/liberalism-in-south-africa-isnt-only-for-white-people-or-black-people-who-want-to-be-white-125236">Liberalism in South Africa isn't only for white people -- or black people who want to be white</a>
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<p>One reason was that any attempt to sell the idea of the universal franchise to the white electorate was doomed to failure. When universal franchise eventually arrived, in the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/south-africas-first-democratic-elections">election of 1994</a>, the then Democratic Party, albeit now advocating votes for all, secured a mere 2% of the vote. The National Party – fighting for “group rights” – swept up 20%.</p>
<p>Subsequently, in 1999, under Tony Leon, the DA, then known as the Democratic Party, adopted the ambiguously phrased <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/das-history-of-identity-crises-1611459">“fight back”</a> campaign slogan. It argued that the governing ANC was embarking on implementing apartheid in reverse through affirmative action policies. It captured the major portion of the National Party’s white vote. Thus the party of apartheid was condemned to a deserved, albeit lingering death.</p>
<h2>Maimane’s burden</h2>
<p>Under Zille, the DA embarked on an electoral expansion programme, recognising that if it was going to grow and become a serious competitor for power, it would have to capture a sizeable portion of the overwhelming majority black vote. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300850/original/file-20191108-194661-x12khb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mmusi Maimane grew the DA’s support among the majority black voters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span>
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<p>This realisation eventually led to the selection of Maimane as the DA’s national leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-black-leader-breathes-life-into-south-african-opposition-41275">in 2015</a>. He saw his task as rendering the DA’s liberalism more appealing to black voters by taking it in what he saw as a more inclusive direction. This would be through recognising <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/we-believe-race-is-a-proxy-for-disadvantage--mmusi">race as an indicator of disadvantage</a>. </p>
<p>It didn’t go down well with the DA’s established base, which saw it as an assault upon the party’s professedly nonracial values. It was therefore Maimane who, as leader, was to be blamed for the <a href="https://www.biznews.com/leadership/2019/05/09/elections2019-national-vote-da-ff">DA’s loss of votes</a>, for the first time since 1994, in the 2019 election.</p>
<p>The recent internal party inquest, headed by Leon, decided that it was imperative for Maimane to go, arguing that under his watch, in a bid to attract black voters, the DA <a href="https://www.news24.com/Analysis/analysis-leadership-and-race-da-review-panel-a-devastating-blow-for-mmusi-maimane-20191022">had strayed from its liberal principles</a>. </p>
<p>The DA should, therefore, return to its liberal foundations and confirm its attachment to policies which would effect redress of historical racial inequalities without using race as a proxy for disadvantage. Yet South Africa’s black voters are unlikely to dissociate disadvantage from the colour of their skin.</p>
<h2>Difficult choices</h2>
<p>It is unsurprising that this turn of events should lead to Maimane’s resignation. If the party wants to return to growth, then its analysis is almost certainly wrong. Stronger emphasis on a “non-racial liberalism” is unlikely to appeal to rightwing white voters. It is equally unlikely to appeal to black voters, who view forms of racial redress as the only sure route to greater racial equality. </p>
<p>Black aversion to the DA is likely to increase even more if the party replaces its former black leader with someone, however talented and principled, who is white. The DA is having to struggle with South Africa’s toxic history of black oppression. Yet it remains the case that that history has left it with the dilemma that liberals in South Africa have never been able to solve: how to deal with “the native question” if the natives in question doubt the capacity of liberalism to bring about substantive racial equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall has received funding from the National Research Foundation</span></em></p>The Democratic Alliance’s problems can be traced back to the politicisation of race, which has persisted even after the dawn of democracy in 1994.Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.