The post-election political environment: A critical assessment

Abstract

From a Political Science perspective nothing is more difficult to understand than the nature of political change and specifically disequilibrium change. Political change or "the alteration of an existing state . (or) condition . (or) an observed difference between a past and present condition" becomes more and more a reality of our everyday life (compare Palmer 1987:7). The well-known futurologist Alvin Toffler (1990:3), emphasized the fact that "(we) are living at a moment when the entire structure that held the world together is now disintegrating. A radically different structure of power is taking form and this is happening at every level of human society." In South Africa we are not insulated from political change and even fundamental (disequilibrium) political change on all levels of society. During the past decade South Africans experienced far-reaching political, economic and social changes with the promise of even more changes in the next five to ten years.