Collection H

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

Die Afrikaner en die demokrasie II : die dekades voor 1948
(Historical Association of South Africa, 2002) Scholtz, Leopold; Scholtz, Ingrid
The Afrikaner and democracy II : the decades before 1948
In this second and last part of a series the authors show that one of the most intense Afrikaner debates of the thirties and forties revolved around the nature of liberal democracy, capitalism and imperialism. The need of so many poor Afrikaners, and the fact that capitalism was seen as the other side of the coin of British imperialism, brought about a situation where many Afrikaner thinkers and politicians sought refuge under the umbrella of national socialism. The main protagonist of this trend was the Ossewa-Brandwag (Ox-wagon Sentinel or OB), but in the power struggle with the National Party (NP), the last mentioned also became infected with national socialist about democracy. However, after the OB neutralised itself by not participating in the 1943 election, these ideas largely fizzled out. Nevertheless, in the process the NP started usurping the sovereignty which previously was reserved for the volk and parliament. In the end, this helped bring about a situation where the abuse of power of the NP reign became possible.