The Anxious and the Climbers: Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Democracy Among South Africa's Middle Class

GIGA Working Paper No. 304, June 2017

51 Pages Posted: 21 Jul 2017

See all articles by Simone Schotte

Simone Schotte

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)

Date Written: June 15, 2017

Abstract

Beyond the hopes placed in Africa’s emergent middle class as an engine of economic growth, some analysts see this group as a bastion of political stability and enduring de-mocratisation across the continent. This paper’s approach differs from that of most studies, which treat the middle class as a homogeneous group, through two key contributions. First, using cluster analysis, I propose a novel way of conceptualising social class that broadly draws on the Weberian idea of shared life chances. I apply this method to South Africa and identify five social classes characterised by their members’ living standards, overall life satisfaction, and self-perceived upward mobility. Second, the empirical analysis reveals significant discrepancies in attitudes towards democracy between the downwardly and upwardly mobile strata of the middle class, which I term the “anxious” and the “climbers,” respectively. On the one hand, the “climbers” show the highest generic support for democracy as a form of government, whereas the “anxious” middle class displays feelings of resignation. On the other hand, I find indicative evidence of a status-quo bias among the “climbers.” Rather than assuming a more demanding or critical stance in politics, they allow their political priorities to be at least partly shaped by an interest in securing and expanding attained living standards; being upwardly mobile is even associated with a higher tolerance for government attempts to constrain freedom of information, opinion, or expression.

Keywords: South Africa, middle class, democratic consolidation, political attitudes

Suggested Citation

Schotte, Simone, The Anxious and the Climbers: Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Democracy Among South Africa's Middle Class (June 15, 2017). GIGA Working Paper No. 304, June 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3004526 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3004526

Simone Schotte (Contact Author)

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) ( email )

Neuer Jungfernstieg 21
Hamburg, DE D-20354
Germany

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