An Analysis of Power-Sharing in the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983

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Authors
Anderson, Susan L.
Issue Date
1984
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Thesis
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en_US
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Abstract
On November 2, 1983, voters went to the polls in South Africa and passed the proposed Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983. Sixty-five percent of the electorate approved the 1983 Act and the outcome of the election has been heralded as an evolutionary step towards reform by South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha and his Nationalist party. The passage of the Act is presented as a step forward by the Nationalist Party because the Act represents the South African government's first steps towards expanding ethnic participation in the political process since the Nationalist Party's rise to power in 1948. The Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983 involves a number of structural changes in the South African government with the move from a unicameral to a tricameral parliament seen as the major factor of change in increasing ethnic participation in the political process. The new parliament will include a house for Asians, a house for persons of mixed race (also known as "coloreds" by the South African government), as well as the preexisting legislative house for white South Africans. Prime Minister Botha, members of the Nationalist Party, and voters who supported the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983 see the tricameral parliament as a plan for power-sharing amongst the multiple ethnicities in South Africa.
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42 p.
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