The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (8 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A variety of
anarchism
, relatively prominent in early twentieth-century France, whose proponents believed that the state should be replaced by trade unions (French
syndicats
). Anarchosyndicalism had some influence in Spain during the Civil War and a little, but not so much as the government thought, in Britain between 1910 and 1914.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Lack of centralized authority. Within polities social relations are hierarchically ordered by the state or other social institutions. Between polities unilateral power or cooperation may provide a degree of order, but there is no generally accepted authority or world government to settle disputes and enforce law. This is why many writers on international relations routinely refer to the international system as an anarchy even though they know very well that it is not anarchic in the vulgar sense of being disorderly. See also
anarchism
.
CJ 

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

ANC
(African National Congress)

The African National Congress was the first African liberation movement, formed in 1912 in response to the creation of the South African Union which entrenched white minority rule. The ANC, with its middle-class, professional leadership and commitment to liberal principles, multiracialism, and non-violence, had little impact at home or abroad until it expanded its base and broadened its appeal in the 1940s. The Youth League was formed in 1943, with Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo , in support of a radical Programme of Action, later adopted by the ANC as the basis of the Defiance Campaign of the 1950s. This pronounced shift leftwards coincided with a National Party government in 1948 committed to
apartheid
. The next decade saw ANC support for mass action with the formation of a Congress Alliance, including the Indian Congress, the Coloured People's Congress, and the white Congress of Democrats, influenced by the recently banned Communist Party. In 1955 the ANC adopted the Freedom Charter which reaffirmed its commitment to an inclusive form of nationalism, proclaiming ‘that South Africa belongs to all who live in it’. This provoked the departure of a militant Africanist minority in 1959 to form the Pan-Africanist Congress (
PAC
). Both movements were banned in 1960 following the Sharpeville shootings, after which the ANC organized a clandestine military wing,
Umkhonto We Sizwe
(MK), committed to armed struggle. This phase ended in 1963–4, with the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of most of the leadership, while the ANC was forced into exile.
The ANC remained largely in abeyance for the next decade until after the Soweto student uprising of 1976, when a generation of young activists left South Africa to join ANC training camps abroad. With the regime in Pretoria under increasing pressure at home and abroad, the ANC became once again the principal focus of opposition. The movement benefited from the widespread unrest in 1984–6 that accompanied the introduction of a new constitution on racial lines, with no provision for representation of the African majority. The change of leadership in South Africa in 1989, under F. W. de Klerk , saw the release of Nelson Mandela the following year, the unbanning of the African political organizations, and the beginning of talks on the enfranchisement of the African majority in a new political dispensation. The ANC agreed to suspension of the armed struggle and entered into talks with the government and other parties. September 1992 saw the conclusion of a Record of Understanding, between the government and the ANC, which led to the ANC election victory of April 1994 and the installation of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa.
IC 

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

See
Durkheim
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Anthropology literally means the science or study of mankind, and the word was used in this broad sense in English for several centuries. In the eighteenth century, and even for most of the nineteenth century, it was conceived as a primarily physiological study, though there were always those who insisted that anthropology should study body, soul, and the relations between them. With the development of zoology, sociology, and economics, anthropology lost a great deal of its territory, although physical anthropology was partly absorbed in the new genetics after the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. What remained was primarily ‘cultural’ anthropology and an emphasis on the variety of human societies. In practice, this has meant an emphasis on ‘primitive’ societies which can be studied in a more comprehensive way than is usually possible with more ‘advanced’ societies. This has often cast the anthropologist in the role of defender as well as interpreter of the values of such societies.
LA