Prisoners of the Past - 9781776146840

Prisoners of the PastSouth African Democracy and the Legacy of Minority Rule\nAuthor(s): Steven Friedman\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Wits University Press, South Africa\nImprint: Wits University Press\nISBN-13: 9781776146840, 978-1776146840\nSynopsis\nBuilding on the work of economic historian Douglass North and Ugandan political scholar Mahmood Mamdani, Friedman argues that the difficulties besetting South African democracy are legacies of the past, not products of the post-1994 era\n South Africa's democracy is often seen as a story of bright beginnings gone astray, a pattern said to be common to Africa. The negotiated settlement of 1994, it is claimed, ended racial domination and created the foundation for a prosperous democracy but greedy politicians betrayed the promise of a new society.\nIn Prisoners of the Past Steven Friedman astutely argues that this misreads the nature of contemporary South Africa. Building on the work of the economic historian Douglass North and the po.