ABSTRACT
In Chpater 7, we show how South Africa can serve as a contrast for how contestation and participation at the subnational level looks in the absence of autocratic ruling parties. This chapter critically assesses whether the dynamics of meaningful contestation and participation differ in a democratic country with a dominant ruling party at the national level. Although we hypothesise that recent South African governments have used manipulation strategies to reduce the uncertainty of establishing representative subnational governments, we assume that they use more benign forms such as maintaining regional enclaves for the opposition. This may not necessarily be a deliberately crafted strategy as such, but it is still a way to explain why political decentralisation does not make representative SNGs a stepping stone for opposition parties to increase their power at the national level. If party systems are regionalised, introducing subnational elections may reinforce these features instead of erasing them. As long as the African National Congress (ANC) is able to win the vote of the African population, which is in the clear majority, the opposition have no chance to expand. Other parties will have to transcend the ethnic divide to challenge the ruling party’s hegemony. Furthermore, key opposition leaders are holding prominent positions at the subnational level instead of opposition seats in the National Assembly. The invitation to govern certain lower-level governments might take away some of the pressure against the regime and the grievances of not winning through at the national level.
