ABSTRACT
A principal tenet of a political process model is that social movements grow in importance when established institutions become vulnerable to challenge. Anti-apartheid movement activity peaked from 1984 to 1986 and commanded unprecedented levels of public and media attention, generating a consensus among diverse organizations and constituencies that policy toward South Africa needed profound change. In the early 1980s, the Botha government had taken comfort in an economy continually revitalized by foreign investment and a US policy of “constructive engagement” that tolerated Pretoria’s military aggression against neighboring African states. The American business community in South Africa seized the time to register its own concerns. US companies had been at the forefront of workplace reforms but traditionally deferred to local firms on political matters. US policy toward South Africa during most of Reagan’s second term exposed weaknesses in the traditional Cold War approach toward apartheid and helped create new opportunities for anti-apartheid activism.
