Abstract
The role of the people in the formation of foreign policy is in academic literature, as in political debate, a contentious subject. There are, on the one hand, scholars who see the public making little or no positive contribution, if not actually being a hindrance, to foreign policy making. On the other hand, there is the notion that in a democracy also a government’s foreign policy should be subject to popular control.1 The dialectic essentially deals with the political role of the people as “an unorganised whole”, that is, with public opinion as it is commonly understood. This is only one possible level of analysis. The other is to consider the public’s role as articulated by organised groups, which in effect serve as intermediaries between government and people.2
Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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Notes to the Text
See Frankel, J, op. cit., pp.70 & 71.
Ibid., p.70.
Holsti, KJ, International Politics: A Framework for Analysis, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1977, pp.393 & 394.
The concept was introduced by Gabriel A. Almond in The American People and Foreign Policy, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1950, 269pp.
See Wallace, W, The Foreign Policy Process in Britain, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1975, p.88.
Barber, J, British Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.92.
See Vital, D, op. cit., p.82.
Barber, J, British Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.70.
Holsti, KJ (1977), op. cit., pp.393 & 394.
Abravenal, MD and B Hughes, “Public attitudes and foreign policy behaviour in Western democracies”, in Chittick, WO (Ed), The Analysis of Foreign Policy Outputs, Charles E Merrill Publishing Company, Columbus, 1975, p.54.
Barber, J, British Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.92.
Frankel, J, op. cit., p.70.
Barber, J, British Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.95.
The lengthy declaration is reproduced in Shaw, JA, “The evolving framework”, op. cit., pp.15–17. The four parties inter alia resolved to restrict the public sector’s direct role in the economy “mainly to the provision of collective and strategic goods and services and to the co-ordination of regional development”; to provide “as much scope as possible to private business enterprises to decide what, how, where and for whom to produce”, and to give private business enterprises the assurance “that they will not be nationalised and that their ability to make profits and to repatriate dividends will not be arbitrarily restricted”.
See Geldenhuys, DJ and TD Venter, op. cit., pp.55 & 56.
Etheredge, DA, op. cit., pp.12 & 13; The ASSOCOM Executive Council Response to the Concept of a Southern African Constellation of States … As Outlined by the Prime Minister, the Hon. PW Botha, Issued by the Association of Chambers of Commerce of South Africa, Johannesburg, 21 May 1980, 3pp.; and The Constellation of States, Sanctions, and Southern Africa, Address to the Witbank Chamber of Commerce and Industries by Mr Raymond Parsons, Chief Executive of the Association of Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCOM), on Wednesday, March 18, 1981, Roneoed, ASSOCOM, 9pp.
Republic of South Africa, South Africa 1982, Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, Chris van Rensburg Publications, Johannesburg, 1982, p.514.
Ibid., p.495, and an official brochure, The FCI.
See Towards a Constellation, op. cit., pp.28 & 29, and Etheredge, DA, op. cit., pp.12 & 13.
See Giliomee, H, op. cit., pp.131–5.
Stultz, NM, Who Goes to Parliament? Institute for Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 1975, p.13.
Stultz, NM, op. cit., p.13.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., pp.34–6 & 51–3.
For example, Van Aswegen, HJ, Geskiedenis van Afrika: Van die Vroegste Oorspronge tot Onafhanklikheid, Academica, Pretoria, 1980, 557pp.
A very recent publication by a Pretoria University historian who has written several books on aspects of contemporary African history is Van Rensburg, APJ, Moderne Afrika, De Jager-HAUM, Pretoria, 1983, 317pp.
For example, Prinsloo, DS, United States Foreign Policy and the Republic of South Africa, Foreign Affairs Association, Pretoria, 1978, 141pp.;
Spring, GM, Confrontation: The Approaching Crisis between the United States and South Africa, Valiant Publishers, Sandton, 1977, 181pp., and Steward, AW, op. cit., 308pp.
Olivier, GC, op. cit., 236pp. The author is Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Politics, Pretoria University. In August 1983 his university seconded him for two years to the foreign ministry.
Spence, JE, Republic under Pressure, op. cit., 132pp.
See Willers, D & S Begg (Eds), South Africa and Sanctions: Genesis and Prospects, South African Institute of Race Relations/South African Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg, 1979, 95pp.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.52.
Quoted by Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.345.
Quoted ibid., p.410. Pelzer’s official history of the Broederbond has been cited in Chapter 1.
Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.98.
See ibid., pp.99–125, and
Wilkins I & H Strydom, op. cit., pp.5–7 & 190.
Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., 278pp., and
Wilkins I & H Strydom, op. cit., 597pp. According to a former spy of the Bureau for State Security,
the Broederbond was so anxious to stop the latter book being published that the authors were offered a bribe of over R30 000 (Winter, G, op. cit., p.87).
The Broederbond’s published official history (Pelzer, AN, op. cit., 193pp.), though useful, is not surprisingly far less revealing than the other two books on the organisation’s influence in the corridors of power.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., pp.56 & 82.
Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.145.
Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.30.
A breakdown of the Broederbond’s membership figures for 1977 showed that the teaching profession represented the largest group (including university and school teachers) − 20,36%; followed by farmers − 18,81%; clergymen − 7,12%, and the public service − 4,35%. In 1968 16 managers of newspaper groups and 22 editors were Broederbonders; by 1977 these figures may well have increased. (Quoted ibid., p.366.) Membership in 1968 stood at 8 154.
(Quoted by Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.105.)
Quoted by Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.110.
Quoted by Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.356.
Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., pp.101, 102, 105, 123 & 153, and
Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., pp.239–52.
Quoted by Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.28.
See also Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., pp.123, 146 & 156.
Quoted by Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.29.
Ibid., p.356.
Ibid., p.27.
Ibid., p.31.
Quoted ibid., p.441.
Quoted by Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.156.
Quoted ibid., p.155.
Ibid., p.156.
See Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., pp.157ff.
Ibid., p.1.
See Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit., p.440.
Quoted by Serfontein, JHP, op. cit., p.101.
Wilkins, I & H Strydom, op. cit. (title of the book).
For details about the origins of the South Africa Foundation, see Gerber, LB, op. cit., pp.1–22. Gerber in May 1960 joined the Foundation as Assistant Director and subsequently became Director.
Beck, WF de la Harpe, Presidential Address to the South Africa Foundation, 11 March 1981, reprinted in South Africa International, Vol. II, No. 4, April 1981, pp.177ff. One of the Foundation’s main activities was sponsoring visits to South Africa by eminent foreigners. The extent to which the programme has reached into the corridors of power is seen in the fact that every Foundationsponsored guest from Westminster between 1968 and 1970 became a member of the Heath Cabinet, except for one, who became Speaker of the House of Commons (Gerber, LB, op. cit., p.150).
It is only necessary to read the regular SA Foundation News, the quarterly South Africa International, and such occasional publications as Breytenbach, WJ (Ed), The Constellation of States: A Consideration, SA Foundation, Johannesburg, 1980, 81pp.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.78.
Gerber, LB, op. cit., pp.13, 152 & 164.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., p.57.
See Mulder, PWA, op. cit., p.417.
Munger, ES, Foreign Policy, op. cit., pp.76–8.
Gordon, L (Ed), Survey of Race Relations in South Africa1981, SAIRR, Johannesburg, 1982, p.25.
Williams, F, The Right to Know: The Rise of the World Press, Longman, London, 1969, p.148, quoted by Steyn Commission, Vol. 3. op. cit., p.970.
Sussens, A, “The English language press”, in South Africa Today, Financial Mail publication, 1966, p.77,
quoted by Herbst, DAS, op. cit., p.222.
Potter, E, The Press as Opposition: The Political Role of South African Newspapers, Chatto & Windus, London, 1975, p.31.
On the history of Die Burger, see Scannell, JP (Ed), Keeromstraat 30, Nasionale Boekhandel, Cape Town, 1965, 267pp. 129. Steyn Commission, Vol. 3. op. cit., p.974 & 975.
Ibid., pp.977–80.
Broughton, M, Press and Politics of South Africa, Purnell & Sons, Cape Town, 1961, p.7.
Potter, E, op. cit., p.170.
Loc. cit., and Broughton, M, op. cit., p.7.
See Republic of South Africa, Verslag van die Kommissie van Ondersoek na Beriggewing oor Sekerheidsaangeleenthede Rakende die Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag en die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiemag, RP 52/1980, Government Printer, Pretoria, 1980, pp.102, 154–6. This Commission, like the Commission of Inquiry into the Mass Media, was chaired by Mr Justice MT Steyn.
The Steyn Commission, Vol. 3, op. cit., p.943, took the rather questionable view that “the overall effect of the restrictive legislation has been widely exaggerated and even sloganised”, claiming that “certain members of the media and certain of their minions”, had overzealously created “a false image of ‘press oppression and censorship’”. For a different view, see Duff, T, “A legislated erosion of freedom”, Ecquid Novi, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1980, pp.128–35.
Mulder, CE, “Interessant of belangrik?”, Ecquid Novi, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1981, pp.69–90.
The series was subsequently published as a booklet: Parker, A, Secret U.S. War Against South Africa, SA Today, Johannesburg, 1977, 76pp.
See Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Press, op. cit., Annexure XX. Useful background information on the Commission’s origins, terms of reference, proceedings and eventual findings is contained in Potter, E, op. cit., pp.102–8.
Mulder, CE, “World focus on South Africa”, South Africa International, Vol. 12, No. 2, October 1981, pp.384–93.
For an earlier content analysis of Austrian press reporting by the same author, see “Some stereotyped images of South Africa”, Politik on, Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1974, pp.15–27.
Potter, E. op. cit., p.130.
See Vosloo, T, Schalk Pienaar: 10 Jaar Politieke Kommentaar, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1975, pp.22, 41 & 42. (Pienaar was at the time —1968–9 — editor of Die Beeld, Nasionale Pers’s Sunday paper.)
Cillié, PJ, Tydgenote, Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1980, pp.16–23.
“Dawie” (columnist), Die Burger, 22/9/1973, quoted in Steyn Commission, Vol. 3, op. cit., pp.1037 & 1038. See also Herbst, DAS, op. cit., pp.351 & 360.
See Potter, E, op. cit., p.170.
See Seiler, J, “The world perspectives of South African media”, Communications in Africa, Vol. 1, No. 5, March 1974, pp.26–8, for a content analysis of To the Point’s news coverage.
Ibid., p.1073. In April 1980 the prime minister told Parliament that the television service, falling under state control, “will in future be instructed not to feature reports of the onslaughts on South Africa by revolutionary elements as main news items” (Quoted ibid., p.1050). On the content of SABC radio news broadcasts, see Seiler, J, op. cit., pp.28–32.
Adam, H, South Africa: Sociological Perspectives, Oxford University Press, London, 1971, pp.90ff.
Hudson, W, GF Jacobs & S Biesheuvel, Anatomy of South Africa: A Scientific Study of Present Day Attitudes, Purnell, Cape Town, 1966, p.27.
Lever, H, “Public opinion and voting”, in De Crespigny, ARC & R Schrire, (Eds), The Government and Politics of South Africa, Juta, Cape Town, 1978, p.144.
Quoted by Lever, H, op. cit., pp.144 & 145.
Quoted by Schlemmer, L, “External pressures and local attitudes and interests”, in Clifford-Vaughan, F McA (Ed), International Pressures and Political Change in South Africa, Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1978, p.79.
Adam, H, op. cit., pp.90ff.
Schlemmer, L, op. cit., p.79.
In an opinion poll conducted for Rapport in 1974 respondents were asked, “What three issues should the government give its attention to after the coming general election?” “Terrorism” was mentioned by 25%, a further 14,9% mentioned “security” or “defence”. (Quoted by Lever, H, op. cit., p.144.)
Hanf, T, H Weiland & G Vierdag, South Africa: The Prospects of Peaceful Change — An Empirical Enquiry into the Possibility of Democratic Conflict Regulation, David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, 1981, pp.206ff.
Hudson, W, et al., op. cit., p.37.
Conducted by Market Research Africa and published in The Argus, 12/5/1976, cited in Hallett, R, op. cit., p.384.
Quoted by Schlemmer, L, op. cit., p.79.
Quoted by Frankel, J, op. cit., p.73.
Schlemmer, L, op. cit., p.79.
Edelstein, ML, What Do Coloureds Think?, Labour and Community Consultants, Johannesburg, 1974, p.60.
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© 1984 D. J. Geldenhuys and the South African Institute of International Affairs
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Geldenhuys, D. (1984). The Role of the Public. In: The Diplomacy of Isolation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17501-7_6
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