Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa

The book examines the reform of the communication sector in South Africa.

Robert B. Horwitz (Author)

9780521030977, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

432 pages, 8 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.656 kg

"The book is useful not only in analyzing the role of communications under apartheid but also its role in building a new civil society." African Studies Review

The book examines the reform of the communication sector in South Africa as a detailed and extended case study in political transformation - the transition from apartheid to democracy. The reform of broadcasting, telecommunications, the state information agency and the print press from apartheid-aligned apparatuses to accountable democratic institutions took place via a complex political process in which civil society activism, embodying a post-social democratic ideal, largely won out over the powerful forces of formal market capitalism and older models of state control. In the cautious acceptance of the market, the civil society organizations sought to use the dynamism of the market while thwarting its inevitable inequities. Forged in the crucible of a difficult transition to democracy, communication reform in South Africa was navigated between the National Party's embrace of the market and the African National Congress leadership's default statist orientation.

List of tables
Preface and acknowledgments
List of acronyms and abbreviations
1. Introduction and overview
2. The ancien régime in the South African communications sector
3. 'Sharing power without losing control': reform apartheid and the new politics of resistance
4. 'Control will not pass to us': the reform process in broadcasting
5. 'All shall call': the telecommunications reform process
6. Free but 'responsible': the battle over the press and the reform of the South African communications service
7. Conclusion: black economic empowerment and transformation
Appendix
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Political economy [KCP], Regional studies [GTB]