Abstract
In May 1989 I had a chance encounter at Zambia’s international airport in Lusaka with a Frenchman who had spent nearly 30 years working as a UN representative. His career, which had spanned a turbulent period in the world’s history, took him to every corner of the globe and gave him first-hand experience of human triumphs and tribulations. His grasp of global issues was acute, if somewhat cynical. Commenting on the pre-democratic developments taking place in Poland at the time, he drew an analogy between an individual living under a communist regime and a dog which has a dish-full of food put in front of its nose every single day but is chained to its kennel. The dog is happy to be fed but detests the chain which deprives it of its freedom. It would rather roam free like a wolf — but without having to fight for survival; it wants its full dish and its freedom.
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Notes
For example: Robert A. Dahl, Participation and Opposition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1971);
Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977);
Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1991);
L. Diamond et al. (eds), Democracy in Developing Countries (4 vols) (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1988–89).
Quoted in: Guillermo O’Donnell et al. (eds), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives (Baltimore, MD, and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), p.51.
P. Nel, ‘Transition through Erosion: The Round Table in Poland and South Africa’, in Ursula J. van Beek (ed.), South Africa and Poland in Transition: A Comparative Perspective (Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 1995).
I. Liebenberg, ‘Transition, Democratisation and the Rules of the Gam’, in A. Minaar et al. (eds), The Hidden Hand: Covert Operations in South Africa (Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 1994).
Ralf Dahrendorf, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (London: Chatto & Windus, 1990), pp. 92–3.
Dankwart Rustow, ‘Transitions to Democxacy’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (April 1970), pp. 337–63.
H. Giliomee and L. Schlemmer, with S. Hauptfleish (eds), The Bold Experiment: South Africa’s New Democracy (Halfway House: Southern Book Publishers, 1994).
S. J. Terreblanche, ‘Commentary on the Welfare and Social Security Budget of 1995/96’, mimeograph, 1995.
Eduard Wnuk-Lipi-ski, Rozklad połowiczny: szkice z socjologii transformacji ustrojowej (Warsaw: ISP, 1993).
For an exhaustive discussion on the issue of national reconciliation, see N. Rhoodie and I. Liebenberg (eds), Democratic Nation-building in South Africa (Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 1994).
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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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van Beek, U.J. (1999). The Emergence of Democracy in South Africa and Poland. In: Sakwa, R. (eds) The Experience of Democratization in Eastern Europe. International Council for Central and East European Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14511-9_14
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