In May 2024, South Africa went to elections in a plebiscite that saw the African National Congress (ANC) losing the absolute majority it had garnered since 1994. In November 2024, the United States goes to the polls in what will determine whether former President Donald Trump returns to the White House or Vice President Kamala Harris succeeds outgoing President Joe Biden. There are distinct electoral politics differences between the two democracies. For instance, the US elections are based on a direct presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial voting system. South Africa on the other hand operates a proportional representation voting system where citizens vote for parties and each party chooses its cabinet, parliamentary, and municipal representatives from party lists. Whereas South Africa is evolving into a multiparty democracy with tens of political parties gunning for political power, the US has two dominant parties, the Democratic and Republican parties. Yet, there are a couple of similarities between the two democracies. For instance, race and race relations are hot-button issues. Migration and migrant populations are equally contentious electoral issues as are issues of economic inequalities, matters of social justice, unemployment, and variances in the economic wherewithal of various regions. Equally important is that the apex leadership in both countries determines the ebb and flow of the relations between them. In the recent past, geopolitical tensions have sparked contestations on the current and future nature of South Africa-US relations.
The panelists for this virtual discussion, drawn from Stanford University and the University of the Witwatersrand, will weigh in on these and more issues, fleshing out similarities and debating differences. By the time of the discussion, the president of the United States would have been declared. This will permit moving the analysis away from speculation and toward a measure of certainty on what to expect in the US-South Africa relations in the next four years.
The Speakers:
Larry Diamond is William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. His research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy, and US and international policies to advance democracy and counter authoritarian influence. He was the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and he remains a consultant to the National Endowment for Democracy. Among his books is Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency.
Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. At Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), she oversees the Program on American Democracy in Comparative Perspective. She is the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave – and Why They Don’t (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: the Rise of Programmatic Politics in the United States and Britain (Cambridge University Press 2018). She is a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and was a 2018 National Fellow at New America. She received a PhD from Harvard University, an MSc from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from Emory University.
Moeletsi Mbeki is a prominent political analyst, author, and entrepreneur. He chairs the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) at the University of the Witwatersrand, which promotes a peaceful, well-governed, and economically sustainable Africa. Mbeki returned to South Africa from exile in 1990 and held key roles in Cosatu and the ANC. He has authored several influential books, including Architects of Poverty and A Manifesto for Social Change. Mbeki’s career began in journalism, contributing to major African publications and earning a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard. He holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Warwick.
Thokozani Chilenga-Butao is a lecturer in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she also achieved her PhD. Her research interests are decentralisation and federalism, and their roles in state formation; governance; public administration; and, public policy. She conducts empirical and applied research in a range of topics, including education, recentralisation, social grants such as the social relief of distress grant and the just energy transition. This involves research in some of South Africa’s largest government departments, including the Department of Basic Education, National Treasury and the former Department of Mineral Resources and Energy. In addition to teaching and research, Thokozani is an active member of university committees and research collaborations. She often comments on South African politics and the effects on governance, public administration and public policy in local and international media.