Post-apartheid South Africa’s political transformation has been studied in a broad spectrum. Though often credited as a miracle, the course and quality of South African democracy have remained a contested issue. Evan Lieberman, total professor of political science and contemporary Africa and director of the Center for International Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offers a comprehensive and insightful examination of South Africa’s democratic journey. His research is built on a very basic question on South Africa’s democracy experience: “Can we say it was a success? Or did the quest for democratic integration in this divided society turn into fool’s gold?” Lieberman supplemented his decades of experience observing South Africa, and teaching, and research on African politics with an intensive fieldwork in Mogale City (West Rand District, Gauteng Province). He made numerous visits to Mogale City before and after the 2019 general elections, conducting dozens of interviews and engaging in participant observation at political rallies, council meetings, and polling stations, and even by accompanying a politician providing services to constituents.
Drawing on this extensive research and fieldwork, Lieberman navigates the complexities of the nation’s historical progress, specifically after 1994, acknowledging both significant achievements and enduring challenges. Lieberman provides a nuanced counter-narrative to pessimistic portrayals. While recognizing the set of social ills such as unemployment, poor health and education infrastructure, and widespread corruption, he argues for a more favorable, though not uncritical, assessment of South Africa’s democratic experiment, asserting that the gains of South Africans under democracy –however problematic or flawed– has led to “dignified development” (p. viii) for South Africans.
