The African National Congress and the Regeneration of Political Power

Susan Booysen analyzes how the African National Congress (ANC) has acted to shape, maintain, and regenerate power in relation to its internal structures and processes, opposition parties, people, government, and the state. The chapters are all anchored in ongoing research and monitoring over this period, sometimes from the sidelines, but at other times with one foot in the political sphere. The ambiguity of future paths of political power are greater now than in the preceding periods of undisputed, uncontested hegemony of the monolith, the colossus that the ANC has been for many years. By dissecting contemporary power dimensions and comparing them with what has gone before, Booysen explores the construction of the political power "complex" of the ANC. She offers insights into how South African politics, which is in many ways synonymous with the politics of the ANC, is likely to unfold in years, possibly decades, to come.