Structural crisis and liberalism : a history of the Progressive Federal Party, 1981-1989
Whereas an extensive literature has developed on the broad conditions of crisis in South Africa in the seventies and eighties, and on the dynamic of state and popular responses to it, little focus has fallen on the reactions of the other key elements among the dominating classes. It is the aim of this dissertation to attempt to address an aspect of this lacuna by focussing on the Progressive Federal Party's responses from 1981 until 1989. The thesis develops an understanding of the period as one entailing conditions of organic crisis. It attempts to show the PFP's behaviour in the context of structural and conjunctural crises. The thesis periodises the Party's policy and strategic responses and makes an effort to show its contradictory nature. An effort is made to understand this contradictory character in terms of the party's class location with respect to the white dominating classes and leading elements within it; in relation to the black dominated classes; as well as in terms of the liberal tradition within which the Party operated.
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