ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the changing character of conflict in South Africa. It analyzes the major ideological underpinnings of traditional apartheid and describes a shift in the prevailing white ideology. Ideological divisions then cut across divisions between rich and poor, white and black. The growing emphasis on the pursuit of profit in the capitalist system resulted in fundamental divisions within the Afrikaner community. The South African policy of apartheid has to a remarkable degree succeeded in ordering itself into an articulated ideology founded on a value system and an outlook on life which has stretched back over more than 300 years. One aspect of the erosion of discrimination was the changing perception of the concept of race. The basis of Afrikaner nationalist ideology was transformed from traditional apartheid to the promotion of a market economy. The establishment alliance includes the National Party and to an increasing extent the coloured and Indian parties participating in the new constitutional dispensation.
