ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore what might be learned from the Zwelethemba processes about what Appadurai (2002) has termed “deepening democracy” (see also Fung & Wright, 2001). The Zwelethemba modelers sought to deepen South African democracy by creating processes for governing security that would provide poor constituencies with a greater voice in the governance of their own lives. This objective of strengthening what is typically thought of as grassroots or bottom-up forms of democracy was something that many South Africans expected would follow as a consequence of their liberation from the autocratic forms of governance that had been a defining feature of apartheid. It was within this context of hope and expectations that the Zwelethemba modelers set to work to develop processes that would enhance the self-direction of poor constituencies.
