The Politics of the New South Africa

Rating:
Summary: Good Overview of Modern South African Politics
Review: This is a good introduction to post-apartheid South African politics. Deegan reviews the implosion of apartheid in the 1980s and early 1990s, and then analyzes the national elections of 1994 and 1999. The book is crammed with tables on everything from voter attitudes to crime rates. The writing is pedestrian and repetitive but also clear and jargon-free -- something of an accomplishment for a book written by a political scientist. My only real complaint is the unbalanced choice of topics. For example, Deegan devotes pages and pages to gender issues and to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; however, she has nothing on HIV/AIDS, foreign policy, or the internal workings of the ANC. For a book on politics, there is also a weird lack of political biography, with the exception of sections on Nelson Mandela.