M.A. (Political Studies) / The Afrikaner had a gradual development as a "value-oriented society" and "siege culture" on the Cape eastern frontier from the eighteenth century onwards. Eventually they developed into a nation with its own features, values and philosophy of life. In times of crisis these values were emphasised and became the centre around which "the nation" was united. The Afrikaner can be seen as a "value-oriented society" and the values were represented by the National Party (NP) as leading political party for a long time. The Afrikaner felt culturally threatened and by 1948 this lead to a "siege culture". The NP took part in the 1948 general election and came into power with "apartheid" as policy or ideology and was therefore a "closed belief system". The split in the NP (and therefore in Afrikaner nationalism) lead to the forming of the Conservative Party (CP) in 1982. The purpose of this dissertation is to show that the CP, similar to the NP, developed from a "value-oriented movement" into a "siege culture segment" and eventually into a "closed belief system". To achieve this goal the following aspects were investigated : Factors which caused the split in the NP, the founding of the CP and its role in South African politics. The emphasis, however, is on the CP's participation and performance in the general election of 1987. In the late seventies and early eighties the governing NP moved away from its ideology of "apartheid" and initiated a process of integration. Through this the NP necessarily deserted a significant part of the Afrikaner nation politically and economically. Given unfavourable economical and political conditions, this segment of the Afrikaner felt threatened by extreme black nationalism, the so-called liberalism of the NP and various external factors. The CP was founded with traditional Afrikaner values such as religion, language and purity of race as basis and developed from a "value-oriented movement" into a "siege culture segment" due to the factors mentioned. The CP presented an ideology of partition for its first participation in a general election (that of 1987). Partition as "closed belief system" became the slogan of the CP in the 1987 general election. Since its foundation, the CP tried to take over the Afrikaner symbols which were originally articulated and represented by the NP. The CP only partially succeeded in this, since the Afrikaner is politically divided between the NP and the CP. The NP and CP both try to secure the overall survival of the Afrikaner by integration and partition respectively. This political disunity among Afrikaners was evident from the results of the 1987 general election.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:12684 |
| Date | 27 October 2014 |
| Creators | Smit, Mathys Christo |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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