The rise of nativist populism in South Africa: an examination of populist supply and demand from the Economic Freedom Fighters and its support base
Date
2024-12
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Publisher
Stellenbosch University
Abstract
The rise of populism is widely documented and understood to be anti-establishment, authoritarian and nativist. The success of populism is understood in terms of supply and demand. The supply of populism comes from party strategies and the demand side stems from the opinions and attitudes of the electorate. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) fits into the increasing global pattern of populism found in electoral politics. They supply populism to South African electorates through their actions, speeches and manifestos, which empirically match populist indicators. However, despite the supply side of populism from the EFF being thoroughly explored, the demand side in terms of South African voters is yet to be empirically examined. The populist party is supplying populism and populist rhetoric to South Africans but whether there is a demand for it from the side of the electorate is yet to be known. The quick rise of the EFF suggests that the party gains its support by appealing to pre-existing populist attitudes within the electorate. The EFF voters have populist attitudes, but sometimes the success of populism is driven more by nativist sentiments than by populist ones. The success of populism in certain contexts is determined by its ability to mobilise nativist sentiments. Nativist attitudes then might be better at explaining the rise of and the driving force behind radical populist parties such as the EFF. Populism, at times, uses nativism as a crutch to become a full ideology. The ideology of nativism might be more predominant among the EFF’s support base and may account for the party’s growth. If so, the party could potentially push the country further into political radicalisation and xenophobic violence as South Africa is already prone to violent instances. A combination of pre-existing anti-immigration and xenophobic sentiments found in certain parts of South Africa – with a new demand for nativist populism (conceptualised as bringing together people who feel betrayed, neglected, and exploited by a self-interested elite and who are being threatened by a dangerous other) via political parties could potentially lead to even more violence. Accordingly, the thesis investigates nativist populism in South Africa by exploring to what extent populist or nativist attitudes drove electoral support for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa’s 2019 elections. This is done by looking at the extent to which the party supplies a form of nativist populism and to what extent supporters of the EFF hold nativist or populist attitudes. To address this research problem, this study employs a mixed-method approach. A qualitative case study is used to empirically examine whether the EFF matches the populist indicators of anti-establishment, authoritarianism, and nativism. Secondary quantitative cross-sectional survey data (from the Comparative National Project (CNEP) 2019 South African election) is used to examine the electorate’s demand for nativist populism.