Abstract

Twenty years on from South Africa's first democratic election, the post-apartheid political order is more fractured, and more fractious, than ever before. Police violence seems the order of the day – whether in response to a protest in Ficksburg or a public meeting outside a mine in Marikana. For many, this has signalled the end of the South African dream. Politics, they declare, is the preserve of the corrupt, the self-interested, the incompetent and the violent. They are wrong. Julian Brown argues that a new kind of politics can be seen on the streets and in the courtrooms of the country. This politics is made by a new kind of citizen – one that is neither respectful nor passive, but instead insurgent. The collapse of the dream of a consensus politics is not a cause for despair. South Africa's political order is fractured, and in its cracks new forms of activity, new leaders and new movements are emerging.
Julian Brown is lecturer in political studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was educated at the University of Natal and Oxford University. He is a member of the Wits History Workshop, and lives in Johannesburg with his husband.

'Brown's focus on the growing mass mobilization of citizens through various civic associations, unions, and protest movements leads him to a cautious optimism about the future.’
Foreign Affairs

‘Offers a novel philosophical and analytical base on which to analyse post-apartheid politics.'
Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies

'Julian Brown's book offers us a rich and intriguing account of ourselves as a country of protest. His analysis is insightful, and ultimately hopeful - for it is only through principled challenges to the present, on the streets, in the halls of power, and in the courts, that our constitutional ideals of dignity and equality for all can be realised.'
Justice Edwin Cameron, Constitutional Court of South Africa

'Julian Brown writes that moments of political insurgency "can provide a lightning flash of illumination" into the inequalities of South Africa. His book is similarly revealing. He vividly analyses popular politics, insisting that the mobilisation of ordinary, insurgent citizens has and will impact on the shape of society and as yet unpredictable political outcomes.'
William Beinart, University of Oxford

'Whereas conventional readings of South African politics worry about a crisis of post-apartheid democracy, Brown offers a provocative argument that makes a welcome contribution to how we understand political agency among poor communities in South Africa today.'
Thiven Reddy, University of Cape Town

'South Africa's Insurgent Citizens provides an innovative understanding of rising popular protest in the country today. The book shows how, despite growing repression, activists and communities are finding new ways to exert their rights to protest and political expression.'
Gillian Hart, author of Rethinking the South African Crisis

'A fascinating account of protest based on an unshrinking belief in the importance of an organised, strong, powerful, and vibrant civil society, particularly of poor people. Its controversial thesis is that the early abandonment of protest and settling with the state can retard the strengthening of civil society.'
Justice Zak Yacoob, former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

'Rooted in current South African case studies of community organisation, social protest and public interest litigation, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the literature on democratic politics. Beyond this, it offers a compelling vision of the possibilities of claiming justice from below.'
Sandra Liebenberg, University of Stellenbosch

'A timely and important analytical contribution to the growing scholarship on contemporary protest politics in South Africa. Brown both challenges existing analytical frameworks and offers innovative ways of thinking about protests.'
Noor Nieftagodien, University of the Witwatersrand