THE CENTRALIZATION AND FRAGMENTATION OF SOUTH-AFRICA DOMINANT PARTY SYSTEM

South Africa's first democratic election of 1994 provided the basis fo r the African National Congress (ANC) to replace the formerly ruling N ational Party (NP) as the country's dominant party. The new dominance was initially established by the ANC's majority position within the po st-election coalition Government of National Unity. Since the election , however, the ANC's dominance has begun to be extended by a centraliz ation of control exercised through the machinery of state, notably thr ough four processes: the rewriting of the transitional interim constit ution and the promulgation of a new constitution which, inter alia, ab olishes the necessity for coalition government after the next election ; the attempted containment of autonomy of the ANC's structures which have been established at the level of the new provinces; the exercise of party discipline within parliament and some curtailment of the gove rnment's accountability to parliament; and, fourthly, the imposition o f administrative and financial discipline upon the provinces. These pr ocesses have taken place within a context of a fragmentation and fissu re of Opposition parry forces, which in the immediate future will only further enhance the ANC's dominance, despite some indication that tha t party is itself faced by a declining level of popular support.