The Will of the Parties Versus the Will of the People?

Abstract

The article investigates the politics of defections and alliances in South Africa in the period 2000 to 2004. The analysis links the debates on defections within proportional representation with the associated changes in party representational strengths, and the political imperatives of consolidating parties and stabilizing party systems. The analysis tracks the issue of disproportionality over time, covering defections and elections in the period, through the 2004 national and provincial elections. Defections were used in conjunction with party alliances to forge power shifts. The defections created the direction and momentum for party political realignment that carried over into post-defection elections. The cumulative practical result of the defection–alliance–election chain of events in South Africa was a party system that was further stabilized in the dominant-party mode, combining with both modest opposition consolidation and fragmentation among the microparties.