Framing the democratic narrative: local and national voting patterns in South Africa

While it is sometimes characterised as a dominant party, South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) has failed to demonstrate consistent dominance in provincial and municipal elections. It is argued that this incongruence is related to the ways in which the national political imaginary is successfully (and unsuccessfully) framed by ANC elites who have managed to make the story of the ANC largely inseparable from the national character of the post-apartheid state. At the local and municipal levels, The ability of the ANC to frame this inseparability is hobbled by more policy-oriented frames as well as the institutional character of South Africa's constituent–legislator relationships.