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Politikon: June 1997, PretoriaAuthor(s): Alexander JohnstonSource: Foreign Policy, No. 109 (Winter, 1997-1998), pp. 177-178Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLCStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1149481 .

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Global Newsstand

interethnic conflict. However, even he has had to adapt to the changing political environment on the continent. For example, no longer able to ignore his neighbors, Moi has attempted to reestablish ties with Rwanda by expelling mass murderers who once found easy asylum in Nairobi.

Gervais concludes by calling for a concerted, international effort to purge Africa's remaining pockets of authoritarianism. The United States has tried but failed to unify international opinion, in part because France continues to insist on maintaining an independent diplomatic role in Africa even though it impedes the cause of democracy. Until Paris and Washington can resolve their differences, dinosaurs like Moi will continue to walk the earth.

-Felix Weyerstahl

Politikon June 1997, Pretoria

In the third quarter of 1997, South Africa's political landscape has been dominated by arduous negotiations among government, organized labor, and business owners over proposed legislation that would regulate labor rights such as maternity leave and a standardized 40-hour work- week. But however fierce the polemics between hostile labor and man- agement interests, this domestic crisis is just the latest chapter in South Africa's slow emergence from years of economic and political isolation.

Two articles in this edition of the South African Political Studies Association's biannual journal explore this issue in a broader historical context. University of Durban-Westville professor Adam Habib traces the development of corporatist institutions in South African politics through the anti-apartheid struggles of the 1980s and the years of nego- tiation and transition that produced Cape Town's current government. He examines the National Economic Development and Labor Council (NEDLAC), founded in 1994, as a model of successful cooperation among business, organized labor, and government. Through this forum, South Africa's old and new elites were able to find common ground and collectively neutralize opposition to the neoliberal economic policies that facilitated South Africa's reentry into the global economy.

Charles Sturt University professor Eric Louw, however, sees corpo- ratism as a minor theme in a larger drama. For Louw, the current political convulsions stem from a conflict that will be difficult if not

WINTER 1997-98 177

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impossible to reconcile: As the African National Congress (ANC) tries to build a modem, centralized nation-state based on black majority rule and broad social protection programs, it must also keep in mind the need for South Africa to stay economically competitive in the world.

Louw underestimates the ANC's attempts to come to terms with glob- alization in areas such as deficit borrowing, exchange control, and tariff reduction-although deregulation and privatization have not occurred as quickly or extensively as critics would like. And Habib fails to address the NEDLAC'S current paralysis; it has been unable, thus far, to resolve the cri- sis over labor rights. Nevertheless, the two articles present timely and per- ceptive portraits of South Africa's attempts to reform its domestic policies.

-Alexander Johnston

Ronso November 1997, Tokyo

Japan's political leadership is in the process of hammering together a program of regulatory and administrative reforms touted as the most ambitious since the revisions introduced during the U.S. occupation (1945-52). Only by dismantling the so-called "iron triangle"-the nexus of bureaucrats, politicians, and corporations who trade policies for favors and use regulations to protect businesses and interest groups- can Japan hope to realize a less corrupt, more open economic system.

All the academics and economists who contributed to this issue's spe- cial series on regulatory reform agree on a key point: that the iron trian- gle can only be destroyed if the government cleans up the public works sector, widely regarded as the root of official corruption. Kikuo Iwata, an economics professor at Sophia University and a member of the prime minister's Administrative Reform Council, calls for reductions in public works spending and measures to eliminate the Japanese practice of dango or bid rigging. Bureaucrats overseeing large projects, he says, often leak information on bids to favored companies-those with retired civil ser- vants on their boards-to help them win contracts. The solution, he argues, is to make the bidding system transparent and reduce the num- ber of projects to force companies to become more competitive.

The reform council recently proposed a merger of the construction, transport, and national land ministries, which oversee many problem- atic public works projects, to form a new land development ministry.

178 FOREIGN POLICY

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