While I do not dispute the pivotal role played by party leaders in setting and shifting a party position, I argue that the impetus for party shifts sometimes comes from the "bottom-up"--that is, from party members themselves. At times, the party position held by the leadership conflicts with some members' constituency interests. Faced with this conflict, backbench members use the legislative process to signal their intention to defect from the party on policy unless the leadership modifies the party's existing position. Party members' party-splitting votes under constituency pressures, however, do not always lead the party into a new brand. If one party, particularly a majority party, is divided but the other party is united over a policy issue, this issue drives a wedge within the majority party. If this wedge issue continues to split the majority party and unite the minority party, the majority party is likely to shift its policy position to solve its dilemma of party division. To test my theory of party position shifts, I explore three historical cases in which there was position change by one or both parties over immigration, national security, and trade. More specifically, these include: the switch of congressional Republicans from anti- to pro-exclusion on Chinese immigration in the post-Reconstruction period; the shift of congressional Democrats from a party of "guns" and "butter" to a party of only "butter" in the post-Vietnam War era; and Republican and Democratic flip-flopping on China and MFN in the post-Cold War period. My findings suggest that policy change in these cases is driven by the shifting preferences of members as they try to resolve tension between the party and the constituency. Sometimes party rank-and-file members are in the driver's seat in defining the parties' positions. This is as true for foreign policy as it is for domestic policy. My dissertation shows that in a representative democracy, the transition from voters' preferences to lawmakers' votes occurs through the politics of procedural voting strategies in Congress. / text

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The African National Congress (ANC) was the leading opponent of the South African Government's Apartheid policies. It was engaged in an Anti-Apartheid struggle and as part thereof called for South Africa's diplomatic isolation. In the course of its struggle, the ANC sought international support. Given the stature of the United Nations (UN) as the foremost international organisation, the ANC campaigned at the UN for South Africa's diplomatic isolation. This thesis focuses on the activities of African National Co~gress at the United Nations. It firstly outlines a brief history of the ANC and the UN and examines the relationship which developed between the two organisations. It then focuses on the activities of the ANC at the UN which were aimed at isolating South Africa diplomatically from the international community. Finally a brief assessment of the extent of South Africa's diplomatic isolation is provided.

The 1994 democratic elections heralded a significant change in South Africa‟s political and social landscapes. This historic moment, and the subsequent democratic developmental processes that unfolded aimed at laying the foundations for a democratic state, were the culmination of a long history of struggle by the Black majority, in alliance with other social forces, against colonialism and apartheid. One of the significant social forces that emerged as part of this struggle against racial oppression was the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). It is argued that the two most important developments in South African politics during the 1940‟s were the emergence of the African National Congress Youth League and the consolidation of its influence on the ANC leadership. The African National Congress Youth League was formed against the background of very distinct circumstances, the first being the worsening economic conditions for the growing African working class and the declining African peasantry. The second was the inability of the African National Congress to respond to the material challenges confronted by the African majority, because of its leadership and organisational weaknesses. The political programme of the ANCYL was rallied under the ideological auspices of African Nationalism, and its organisational programme under the articulated need to build a mass based and campaigning organisation. With a very strong leadership, the ANCYL was able to, within five years, assert its leadership and authority in the ANC with key elements of its manifesto forming significant parts of the ANC Programme. This culminated into the rise of the generational theme of the ANC Youth League of “Freedom in our Lifetime”. Essentially freedom was conceived as the abolishment of formal apartheid, and the delivery of a democratic South Africa. Formal democracy became a reality in South Africa in 1994 and at the helm of the ANC and the new government was the ANC Youth League generation of the 1940‟s. This generation had over fifty years struggled for freedom and 1994 represented the formal victory over apartheid and the attainment of a generational mission. The ushering in of formal democracy in 1994 heightened the expectations of the black majority in terms of its elevation from a point of view of its existing socio-economic realities. Close to twenty years after the end of formal apartheid the reality has been less than satisfactory in terms of addressing these socio-economic realities. What has been observed on the contrary is an increase in key measures such inequality and unemployment. Subsequent to that has been a less than satisfactory performance in the area of economic transformation which has been seen as a critical limiting factor in addressing the legacies of apartheid, particularly among the black majority. These limits to transformation have resulted in discontentment among the majority, claiming that democracy has not yielded to any significant changes in their material lives. The discontentment has been particularly proliferated among the youth, who bear the brunt of social challenges such as unemployment. The ANC Youth League, has had to confront the reality of being of a youth league of a governing party and balancing that with the social discontentment that has developed among South African, particularly the youth, as a result of perceived lack of social transformation. In balancing these two realities, the ANC Youth League has found itself at the centre of South African politics similarly to the 1940s generation of ANC Youth League leaders of the Youth League who had been mobilised under the theme of “Freedom in our Lifetime”. The contradictions within the ANC, of which the ANC Youth League has found itself at the centre of, and the need to become a socially relevant political force have culminated into the birth of a generational theme led by the ANC Youth League of “Economic Freedom in our Lifetime”.

Post-force congressional rally effects are presented as a new incentive behind presidential decisions to use diversionary behavior. Using all key roll call votes in the House and Senate where the president has taken a position for the years 1948 to 1993, presidents are found to receive sharp decreases in both presidential support and success in Congress shortly after employing aggressive policies abroad. Evidence does suggest that presidents are able to capitalize on higher levels of congressional support for their policy preferences on votes pertaining to foreign or defense matters after uses of force abroad. But, despite these findings, diversionary behavior is found to hinder rather than facilitate troubled presidents' abilities to influence congressional voting behavior.

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M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (History) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

“The post-apartheid Left is a group of people whose values and visions go way beyond apartheid, in fact, go right back to the 19th century Europe, in the final analysis, and perhaps even earlier, to people like Marx and Engels and so on, to a vision of an industrial and even post-industrial world, in which human beings would live in harmony without exploitation, without oppression, and not merely without racial exploitation, in other words also without class exploitation, without gender oppression and so on.” - Dr Neville Alexander, May 1997.

Abstract not available