Since the book was first published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Namibia’s independence, this reprint could be considered as a contribution towards Namibia’s 20th anniversary in 2010. Although certain aspects of some of the contributions may seem outdated, they have remained highly topical.
| Acknowledgements | vii |
| List of Contributors | viii |
| List of Abbreviations | ix |
| Introduction Christiaan Keulder | 1 |
| The Three Key Concepts | 2 |
| State | 2 |
| Society | 4 |
| Democracy | 8 |
| The Scope of this Book | 10 |
| Economic and Social Transformation in the Process of Colonisation: Society and State Before and During German Rule Henning Melber | 16 |
| The “Home Front”: Features of “Internal” Development towards Socio-economic Change | 17 |
| Increasing Foreign Influence: Interactions in the Course of New Exchange Patterns Emerging and the Establishment of Colonial Relations | 22 |
| Final Defeat: The Establishment of Formal Colonial Rule | 28 |
| The New System: Colonial-capitalist Relations in a Settler Society | 37 |
| The Character and Impact of the Early Colonial State | 40 |
| State and Society under South African Rule André du Pisani | 49 |
| Introduction | 49 |
| The State | 49 |
| Civil Society | 50 |
| The Making of the Apartheid Sate: 1915-1960 | 52 |
| Mandate: A Cautionary Tale | 53 |
| The Urban Arena | 58 |
| Party Formation | 59 |
| Black Resistance | 60 |
| The Origins of the Legal Dispute | 61 |
| The Politics of Resistance: 1959-1972 | 62 |
| Odendaal: Unto Each Its Own “Ethnic” Space | 64 |
| Political Recommendations | 66 |
| The Politics of Controlled Change: 1971-1989 | 68 |
| Conclusions | 74 |
| The Constitution: Its Impact on Namibian Statehood and Politics Gerhard Erasmus | 77 |
| Introduction: Statehood through a Constitution | 77 |
| The Origins of the Constitution | 79 |
| What is a Constitution? | 83 |
| Basic Features of the Namibian Constitution | 86 |
| Life under the Constitution: What is the Record? | 93 |
| How to Evaluate the Record | 93 |
| The Constitution as the Founding Document for the Namibian State | 94 |
| The Constitution as a National Compact | 96 |
| The Constitution as a Yardstick for Good Governance | 98 |
| The Constitution as an International Ticket | 100 |
| Appendix | 105 |
| List of human rights abuse cases brought to court in Namibia | 105 |
| Decentralisation and State-Building at the Local Level Gerhard Tötemeyer | 108 |
| Introduction | 108 |
| Local Democracy and Empowerment | 108 |
| Decentralisation and the Parameters of National Policy | 112 |
| Forms of Decentralisation | 114 |
| Local Authorities in Namibia | 115 |
| Before Independence | 115 |
| Since Independence | 118 |
| Strengthening Local Authorities | 120 |
| Regional Government | 123 |
| Creating New Structures | 123 |
| Linking the Regions and the Centre | 125 |
| The Functions | 126 |
| Traditional Authorities | 132 |
| Decentralisation within the Namibian Context | 133 |
| Key Elements of the Policy | 134 |
| Powers and Functions to be Decentralised | 137 |
| Development Coordinating Committees, and Development Committees | 143 |
| Concluding Remarks | 145 |
| Traditional Leaders Christiaan Keulder | 150 |
| Introduction | 150 |
| Defining Traditional Leadership | 151 |
| The Issues | 154 |
| Models of Traditional Leadership | 155 |
| The Kingdoms of Northern Namibia | 155 |
| Chieftainships | 157 |
| Headmenships | 158 |
| Postcolonial Developments | 159 |
| The Jurisdiction of Traditional Leaders | 161 |
| Political Structures and Processes Affecting the Institution of Traditional Leadership | 161 |
| The State of the Institution | 163 |
| Structural Problems | 163 |
| Additional Problems | 164 |
| Addressing the Problems | 166 |
| Traditional Authorities and the State | 168 |
| A Concise History of Gender, “Tradition” and the State in Namibia Heike Becker | 171 |
| A Controversial Law | 171 |
| Theoretical Perspectives on Gender, Tradition and the State | 173 |
| The Construction of Gender | 173 |
| Gender and “Tradition” | 173 |
| Gender and the State in Africa | 175 |
| A Glance at Precolonial Gender in Namibia | 177 |
| Gender, “Tradition” and the State in Colonial Namibia | 178 |
| The Gender Politics of the Nationalist Struggle | 182 |
| Gender and the State in Postcolonial Namibia | 186 |
| National Gender Policy | 189 |
| Non-governmental Women’s Movements in Postcolonial Namibia | 190 |
| Priority Issues | 190 |
| Strategic Debates and Attempts to Forge “Women’s Unity” | 191 |
| Gender, “Tradition” and Authority in Rural Namibia | 193 |
| Some Concluding Remarks on Gender, “Tradition” and the PostcolonialState in Namibia | 195 |
| The State and Labour Relations: Walking the Tightrope between Corporatism and Neo-liberalism Martin Sycholt and Gilton Klerck | 200 |
| Introduction | 200 |
| State and Government | 201 |
| Theories of Labour Relations and of the State | 201 |
| Unitarism | 202 |
| Pluralism | 203 |
| Radical/Conflict Approach | 204 |
| Political Ideologies and Economic Growth | 205 |
| The Relationship between the State and Labour Relations | 207 |
| Market Individualism | 208 |
| Liberal Collectivism | 208 |
| Corporatism | 208 |
| Contextualising the Namibian State | 210 |
| Inherited Constraints | 210 |
| Exile Politics – Authoritarian and Pragmatic | 210 |
| The Regional and International Context | 211 |
| Nationalism and Development | 212 |
| Economic Policy and Labour Relations | 214 |
| The State and the Social Partnership Challenge. | 216 |
| Levels of State Involvement in Labour Relations | 222 |
| Government as Legislator | 223 |
| Government as Regulator | 223 |
| Judiciary – the Labour Court | 225 |
| The State as Employer | 228 |
| Conclusion | 232 |
| Namibia’s Emerging Political Culture Christiaan Keulder, Antonie Nord and Christoph Emminghaus | 237 |
| Introduction | 237 |
| Survey data | |
| Orientation towards Institutions | 240 |
| Participation and Competition in Elections | 241 |
| Political Participation Outside Elections | 245 |
| Freedom of Speech and the Right to Criticise Government | 245 |
| Democracy and a Culture of Conflict Resolution | 247 |
| Tolerance | 248 |
| Orientation toward the State, Society, Culture and Identity | 250 |
| Expectations and the Issue of Legitimacy | 252 |
| Conclusion | 260 |
| Voting Behaviour in Namibia Christiaan Keulder | 264 |
| Introduction | 264 |
| Explaining the Vote | 265 |
| The Ethnic Vote | 267 |
| The Party Identification (Loyalty) Vote | 268 |
| The Protest Vote | 270 |
| The Tactical Vote | 270 |
| The Pocket-book Vote | 271 |
| The Sociotropic Vote | 272 |
| Towards an Explanation of Voting Behaviour in Namibia | 273 |
| Voter Motivation | 273 |
| Party Choice | 278 |
| Voters and Party Sympathy | 282 |
| The Independent Associations | 287 |
| Voters and their Sources of Information | 289 |
| Conclusions and Future Directions | 293 |
| Namibian Foreign Policy: Transformation and Emerging Global Orders (1989-1999) André du Pisani | 297 |
| Foreign Policy | 298 |
| Sources | 301 |
| South Africa | 302 |
| Angola | 305 |
| Africa | 306 |
| Economic Diplomacy | 307 |
| Multilateralism | 308 |
| Fractures | 309 |
| Conclusions | 311 |
| Index | 313 |