ABSTRACT
The degree of social tension related to identity politics has been determined largely by political economy in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. In Zimbabwe, the ruling regime has used race and ethnicity as political tools in its attempts to establish and then maintain corporatist rule. This chapter argues that globalization pressures have intensified the contradictory processes of social integration and disintegration in both countries. Zimbabwean civil society is well developed in the sense that numerous non-state organizations representing a variety of social interests have been in existence for several decades. The 'politics of identity' have been the singularly most notable/notorious of modern South Africa's attributes. In both Zimbabwe and South Africa, pressures of globalization and regionalism diminish the level of control and maneuverability that these governments have to control the direction of events in racial and ethnic politics.
