South Africa: Settler Colonialism and the Failures of Liberal Democracy

Thiven Reddy shows how conventional approaches to understanding democratization have failed to capture the complexities of South Africa’s post-Apartheid transition. Rather, as a product of imperial expansion, the South African state, capitalism and citizen identities have been uniquely shaped by a particular mode of domination, namely settler colonialism. An important work that sheds light on the nature of modernity, democracy and the complex politics of contemporary South Africa.

Thiven Reddy is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.