10-12 september 2014 South Africa’s democracy at 20: Diagnosis and prognosis

CALL FOR PAPER ABSTRACTS

NATIONAL CONFERENCE, SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL STUDIES (SAAPS)

Venue: University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria, South Africa

10-12 SEPTEMBER 2014

Conference Theme: South Africa’s democracy at 20: Diagnosis and prognosis

A call is made to authors to submit abstracts for the SAAPS National Conference. Please follow the guidelines below:

· Title of the proposed paper, name of the author(s), email of one author as the contact

· Length: maximum 200 words

· Submission deadline: 15 June 2014

· Send to: panel convenor and cc to saaps2014@gmail.com. In the absence of a convenor, please send it to saaps2014@gmail.com.

The conference organisers had called earlier for panel proposals. A number of them were accepted and form part of this call for abstracts. It means that authors can submit abstracts either under one of these panels or under the conference sub-themes mentioned later or in an open category. The conference organisers will later create panels to accommodate all the accepted abstracts.

The approved panels are the following (an explanation of their purpose is provided later):

1. Reflecting on 20 years of democracy: does gender matter? - Convenors: Prof Amanda Gouws, ag1@sun.ac.za and Prof Shireen Hassim, Shireen.hassim@wits.ac.za
2. South Africa’s democratic norm entrepreneurship within the African Union: Hopeful or hopeless? – Convenor: Gerrie Swart, gswart@sun.ac.za
3. South Africa’s democracy at 20: Diagnosis and prognosis of Russia-South African relationship – Convenors: Dr Siphamandla Zondi, Zondi@igd.org.za and Dr Alexandra Arkhangelskaya, aarkhangelskaya@gmail.com
4. Challenges and opportunities in teaching and learning in tertiary institutions with a focus on Politics and International Relations – Convenors: Dr Victoria Graham, Victoria.graham@monash.edu and Dr Suzanne Graham, suzyg@uj.ac.za
5. Does Political Theory have a postcolonial future? – Convenor: Prof Suren Pillay, surenpillay1@gmail.com
6. South African elections – Convenor: Dr Kealeboga Maphunye, maphukj@unisa.ac.za

In deciding on an abstract topic authors could either identify one as part of the conference theme or as part of the Political Sciences in general. The conference theme is understood by the organisers as follows: In April 1994 the transition in South Africa concluded its first phase with the general elections and introduced the second phase of a Government of National Unity and a Constitutional Assembly. Most observers and scholars regard that election as the beginning of democratization in South Africa. In 2014 the fourth general elections conclude the first two decades of a post-apartheid dispensation, of a far-reaching transformation period, of a national democratic revolution in the words of the ANC, and of democratization. While the South African government its own Ten Year Review in 2004 and Fifteen Year Review in 2009, 2014 provides an opportunity for political scientists to conduct our own retrospection, diagnosis and prognosis.

Though the transition in the 1990s concentrated on the constitutional aspects with strong institutional, legal and political foci, 1994 can also be seen as a catalyst for deep-seated social changes and a new role for South Africa in the international community. Serious differences of opinion are expressed about the economy in the past twenty years: is it a neo-apartheid economy or two racialised economies as President Mbeki observed it; it is a neo-liberal globalized economy detached from the poverty priorities or is it the foundation of a developmental state?

The purpose of this Conference is to provide an opportunity for the broad political science community in South Africa and beyond to focus our attention on analyzing the political dynamics and trends in South Africa, comparing it with similar cases, providing explanations and identifying trends, test theoretical premises and look for opportunities of conceptualizing specific aspects of South African politics or engage in different forms of theory building.

The conference theme lends itself to a wide range of sub-themes and participants are encouraged to submit paper abstracts in any of the following sub-themes:

1. A retrospective or revisionist view of the transition in the 1990s.
2. South African constitutionalism, human rights and judicial politics.
3. South Africa’s foreign policies and international relations.
4. The state of democracy in South Africa: democratic consolidation, the quality of democracy.
5. Gender relations and politics.
6. South African political economy and development.
7. Party politics, party systems and elections.
8. Governance in South Africa.

The conference programme will consist of Conference Theme Panels and Open Theme Panels. The Open Theme Panels can focus on any of the sub-disciplines in the Political Sciences that are not yet accommodated in the conference theme. It is meant for participants who don’t specialize in South African topics but who still want to participate in the conference. Abstracts for the Conference Theme Panels can be in the mentioned sub-themes mentioned above or any other area relevant for the conference theme. Potential participants are therefore invited to submit abstract proposals in both categories to the organisers. SAAPS also established three caucuses to encourage more interaction and cooperation in specific sub-disciplines. The organisers want to encourage proposals for caucus panels also. The International Relations caucus is coordinated by Prof Jo-Ansie van Wyk (vwykjak@unisa.ac.za) and Dr Costa Georghiou (costag@uj.ac.za); the African Politics caucus is coordinated by Prof Clive Napier (napiecj@unisa.ac.za) and the Gender caucus is coordinated by Prof Amanda Gouws (ag1@sun.ac.za). Proposals in these caucuses should be discussed with these coordinators.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Any information regarding the conference arrangements will be available from Prof Clive Napier, napiecj@unisa.ac.za.
Any information regarding the conference programme, panels and presentations will be available from Prof Dirk Kotzé, saaps2014@gmail.com

SAAPS call for paper abstracts 2014