Rejecting Rights: Vigilantism and violence in post-apartheid South Africa

Smith, Nicholas Rush

doi:10.1093/afraf/adv023

Cited by 47 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…After a period of prolonged struggle, pro‐democracy forces were able to triumph, and the nation's first truly democratic elections were held in April 1994. Although most armed groups were disbanded, many citizens continued to rely on various forms of non‐state policing when confronted by issues of crime or social distress (Smith, ). The capacity of the post‐apartheid state to control this kind of vigilantism has been weak.…”

Section: The South African Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to note that South Africa is a violent society with high levels of reported contact crime (e.g., homicide, assault, and aggravated robbery). The authorities have struggled to reduce these kinds of crime, and, as has already been stated, many communities feel that they need to take the law into their own hands (Smith, ). Moreover, the police have not, in the past, worked effectively to reduce anti‐immigrant hate crime.…”

Section: Government Reactions To Anti‐immigrant Hate Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding xenophobic hate crime in South Africa

Gordon

2020

Journal of Public Affairs

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Hundreds of violent incidents of anti‐immigrant hate crimes have been recorded in South Africa over the past two decades. Understanding how the public views this issue helps us better understand how it can be resolved. The paper identifies determinants of public attitudes towards anti‐xenophobia strategies. Data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey for the period 2015–2018 were used for this study. Using these data, the link between anti‐immigrant sentiment and lay attributes of anti‐immigrant violence can be mapped. The results show that most citizens externalise the causes of this kind of hate crime and blame the victims (i.e., foreigners) for the conflict. What people believe about the etiology of an intergroup conflict was found to influence their desire for conflict resolution as well as the type of solutions preferred. Victim blaming was found to predict the adoption of prejudicial solutions to anti‐immigrant hate crime (such as the mass expulsion of foreign nationals). If an individual attributed the violence to the internal attributes (e.g., emotional factors or beliefs about foreign nationals) of the perpetrators, they were more likely to adopt progressive solutions (such as education and awareness campaigns).

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Section: The South African Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Government Reactions To Anti‐immigrant Hate Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding xenophobic hate crime in South Africa

Gordon

2020

Journal of Public Affairs

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“…Democratic theory has celebrated the centrality of rights to democracy's foundation: Indeed, mechanisms and provisions for their protection have become synonymous with democracy itself. Yet, as Smith (2015: 342) argues, the acceptance of rights is not inevitable and their effects not necessarily progressive. Rights are, in fact, being contested as a foundational value of democracy.…”

Section: The Idea Of Democratic Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘This democracy is killing us’: perceptions of rights and democracy in the South African Police Service

Brooks

2020

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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Police reform in South Africa has been a crucial component of democratic consolidation. Yet recent research presents a contrasting set of opinions, indicating low levels of public trust in the South African Police Service (SAPS), but continued belief in their right to enforce the law, and a strong sense of isolation amongst officers themselves. As police are constitutive of the officers who populate their ranks, attention should be given to how ‘democracy’ is perceived by those charged with its protection. Through a series of interviews, this article examines how SAPS officers understand and experience ‘democracy’. Situating officers in the broader society and communities in which they work, it shows that officers conceive of democracy predominantly through the lens of ‘rights’ and that their role in protecting rights is complicated by the transitional nature of South Africa's democracy. It also provides insight into a sense of disempowerment amongst officers, suggesting negative conceptions of the quality of democracy and of the balance of liberal constitutionalism with the democratic impetus of building safer communities.

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“…Clear indications of growth in the perceived legitimacy of interpretivist scholarship include the 2008 founding of the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Conference Group through the American Political Science Association (APSA); the establishment of the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods; and the increasing citation counts of interpretivist works (Lynch 1999;Oren 2003;Pachirat 2011;Schaffer 1998). Likewise, interpretivist research is increasingly published by the discipline's most esteemed presses and journals (Majic 2017;Smith 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Interpretivism Visible: Reflections after a Decade of the Methods Café

Funk

2019

APSC

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More than a decade after the observation that an “interpretive turn” was percolating through political science, there are clear indications of growth in the perceived legitimacy of interpretive scholarship. Both accompanying and contributing to interpretivism’s ascent has been the regular staging of Methods Cafés at various conferences in and beyond the discipline. First held at the 2005 meeting of the Western Political Science Association, the Methods Café subsequently landed at the 2006 conference of the American Political Science Association. The Methods Café has become an institutionalized feature of these and other conferences. This reflection looks at the past, present, and future of these events, as well as the key role they have played in making interpretivism visible in the discipline. In particular, I highlight their function as non-hierarchical intellectual spaces that promote teaching, learning, and interpretivist community building. Further, I offer friendly but not uncritical commentary on the successes and limitations of the Methods Café.

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Rejecting Rights: Vigilantism and violence in post-apartheid South Africa

Cited by 47 publications

References 0 publications

Understanding xenophobic hate crime in South Africa

Understanding xenophobic hate crime in South Africa

‘This democracy is killing us’: perceptions of rights and democracy in the South African Police Service

Making Interpretivism Visible: Reflections after a Decade of the Methods Café

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