After apartheid: reinventing South Africa?

Democracy came to South Africa in April 1994, when the African NationalCongress won a landslide victory in the first free national election in the country's history.

That definitive and peaceful transition from apartheid is often cited as a model for others tofollow.

The new order has since survived several transitions of ANC leadership, and it averted apotentially destabilizing constitutional crisis in 2008.

Yet enormous challenges remain. Poverty andinequality are among the highest in the world.

Staggering unemployment has fueled xenophobia,resulting in deadly aggression directed at refugees and migrant workers from Zimbabwe andMozambique.

Violent crime rates, particularly murder and rape, remain grotesquely high.

The HIV/AIDSpandemic was shockingly mishandled at the highest levels of government, and infection rates continueto be overwhelming.

Despite the country's uplifting success of hosting Africa's firstWorld Cup in 2010, inefficiency and corruption remain rife, infrastructure and basic services areoften semifunctional, and political opposition and a free media are under pressure.

In this volume, major scholars chronicle South Africa's achievements andchallenges since the transition.

The contributions, all previously unpublished, represent the stateof the art in the study of South African politics, economics, law, and socialpolicy.