Analysis: Just how liberal is the DA?

Osiame Molefe
Daily Maverick, 8 November 2011

“If we lived in a stable and homogenous society, with a large middle-class and a history that had not been characterised by racial exclusion and dispossession, a classic liberal agenda might suffice. But this is not the case,” wrote the DA’s newly elected parliamentary caucus chairman Wilmot James in a Sunday Times op-ed piece on Sunday.

James emphasised that the liberal agenda in the country needed to take into account context specific to South Africa, and the liberal ideology’s more recent global narrative of social justice and development. His use of “might” also suggests that, even without the country’s specific characteristics, he thinks the classic liberal agenda is an ill fit for South Africa.

Without saying it in as many words, James described the DA as espousing in the main a social liberalism outlook. Just how many within his party agree with him is unknown and, by his own admission, there exist those who would disagree. But James’ view explains in part why the Independent Democrats, social democrats in origin, saw no contradiction in closing up shop and throwing in their lot with the DA.

Some ID members have further suggested that social liberalism, which they say runs deep within the DA’s on-the-ground work, will continue to emerge as the party’s overriding ideology. Read more ...

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