How Democratic is the African National Congress?*

This article explores three dimensions of ANC democracy: the movement's entrenchment of liberal representative democracy, its pursuit of national democratic revolution, and its internal organisational democracy. It identifies tensions over the meaning and significance of democracy and the relations between internal democratic processes and external democratic goals. The movement has defended constitutionalism but failed to entrench democratic attitudes or to prepare for a multi-party system; it has promoted social transformation but failed to buttress the minimal gains of liberal democracy; and it has prevented debilitating conflict over policy and candidate selection but grown increasingly intolerant of internal debate and competition. The article finds no inexorable authoritarian logic at work. However, it identifies anti-democratic tendencies that require intentional political amelioration if they are not to become mutually reinforcing.