Centre for International & Comparative Politics (CICP)

The Centre for International and Comparative Politics was established in 1990 and provides an organisational basis for larger research units and programmes undertaken by members and associates of the Department. The vision of the Centre is to generate, advance and promote expertise in and the understanding of political processes and behaviour within political society and the dynamics of socio-economic and political trends in global, regional and local settings or from a comparative perspective by coordinating and supporting independent and collaborative research initiatives and activities.

Conflict, Peacebuilding & Risk Unit (CPRU) 

(Director: Dr Guy Lamb)

The CPRU undertakes research on issues related to conflict, crime, political risk, peace and security in Africa. The main thematic research areas are:

  • Armed conflict and violence in Africa
  • Violent extremism and terrorism in Africa
  • Political risk and epistemic threats
  • Climate change and conflict
  • The arms trade in relation to Africa
  • Peacekeeping and peace enforcement
  • Peacebuilding and violence prevention
  • Policing and urban safety

The South African Elite Study

(Principal investigators: Dr. Steenekamp and Prof. Hennie Kotzé)

The South African Elite Surveys entail a longitudinal study on the attitudes and values of the country’s opinion-leaders. Since 1990 eight opinion-leader surveys (1990,1992,1993,1995,1998, 2000, 2007 and 2013) have enabled the project leaders to build up an extensive database on South African elite perspectives and conduct an in-depth analysis of the social political, and economic transformation that has taken place in South Africa.

The eight of these surveys, the 2013 Opinion Leader Survey, placed particular emphasis on the quality of democracy in South Africa and the values which underpin the democratic consolidation process. This round and the previous (2007) elite survey had an added component in that it was conducted simultaneously in six other countries, namely Chile, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and South Korea. Thus, South African elite perspectives were placed in an international context in relation to both developing and developed nations. The 2007 and 2013 Opinion Leader Surveys also drew to a larger extent on the World Values Survey (WVS) questionnaire, which allowed for an elite-mass comparison.

In addition to the extensive database on South African elite perspectives, a survey focusing on the AU and NEPAD was conducted in seven African countries in the second half of 2002 in order to obtain accurate data on what elite perspectives regarding these two initiatives entail. Countries selected for the survey included South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The ninth wave of the South African Political Elite Survey was undertaken in 2024/5 in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

The World Values Survey, South Africa 

www.worldvaluessurvey.org

(Principal Investigators: Dr. Cindy Steenekamp and Prof. Amy Alexander (Gothenburg University, Sweden)

The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research programme and global network of social scientists and researchers devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economics, religious, and cultural values of people in the world. This research programme forms part of a long-term investigation of the value orientations of societies of diverse cultural traditions by means of a representative comparative social survey that is conducted globally every 5 years. To date, seven succesive waves have been completed across 120 societies on all six continents, representing 94,5% of the world’s population.

The WVS is currently the largest non-commercial cross-national empirical time-series investigation of human beliefs and values and the leading source of comparative quantitative information on social tolerance to foreigners, religious and ethnic minorities, attitudes towards women and family roles, the role of religion and religiosity, the impact of globalisation, attitudes toward the environment, democratic governance , work, family, politics, national identity, culture, diversity, insecurity and subjectivity, and subjective well-being.

Beyond its descriptive value, the WVS has made possible the testing and development of broad theories of the connections between economic development, human development and political development. This has not only contributed to important theoretical progress in our understanding of the worldwide processes of modernisation, and post-modernisation, but also links them to the processes of democratisation, and more recently democratic regression. Such findings are not only important for academic scholars, but also for practitioners who work in national development agencies and democratic assistance programs in understanding the relative value of projects aimed at material, cognitive, or political development.

Extensive geographical and thematic scope, free availability of survey data, and project findings for the broad public has turned the WVS into one of the most authoritative and widely used cross-national surveys in the social sciences. The WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed, currently including interviews with almost 400,000 respondents. Moreover, the WVS is the only academic study covering the full range of global variations, from very poor to very rich countries, in all of the world’s major cultural zones.

Centre for Research on Democracy

(Founding Director: Prof Ursula van Beek; Research Coordinator: Kira Alberts)

The Centre for Research on Democracy (CREDO) at Stellenbosch University is an interdisciplinary academic centre with a global reach dedicated to the study and promotion of democracy and its values. Established in 2021, CREDO nevertheless builds on a 25-year long history of studying democracy in South Africa in a global perspective and is strengthened by a team of academic experts on Africa, South East Asia, MENA, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe. Disciplines represented within the centre include political science, international relations, anthropology, economics, sociology, and history.

CREDO’s institutional network includes over a dozen institutions of higher learning and research as well as two global data gathering projects: The World Values Survey (WVS) and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). This international academic community has readily responded to our call to help ensure the continuity of our longitudinal research on challenges to democracy in both South Africa and globally. Since establishment, CREDO’s team of research associates has grown by leaps and bounds to include academics from across the globe.

Besides conducting research, CREDO is steadily building up a series of initiatives designed to promote the increased engagement with democracy by students and non-academics. Thus far, these initiatives have included the African Data Hub for the Study of Democracy and the African Democracy Essay Award. Through regular webinars, CREDO is also positioning itself to become a national hub for debates on contemporary issues affecting South Africa’s democracy and its active promotion in the country. Most recently, CREDO has begun publication of a regular email newsletter for business leaders, policymakers, and the curious public. Democracy Delivered is published monthly and provides insight and analysis on the latest democratic trends and developments. 

South African Research Chair in Gender Politics

(Chair: Prof. Amanda Gouws)

The aim of the Chair in Gender Politics is to bring together researchers (postgraduate students) to work with the Chair to build a core of multi-disciplinary research projects, and to build the canon of feminist political science literature in South Africa.

The Research Programme of the Chair in Gender Politics has three components:

  1. Women’s representation in government as well as the National Gender Machinery
  2. Women’s activism and mobilisation – with a specific focus on women’s movements and activism
  3. Policy research related to gender justice – with a specific focus on family policy (social welfare), women’s health and reproductive health, gender based violence, and poverty

 

These different foci are important to give students options in relation to their own interests in the study of gender politics.

The Chairs’ own research projects are related to the Women’s Movement in South Africa as well as a new project on precarious life conditions of women created by globalisation and neo-liberal capitalism. The theoretical framework for her work is informed by Nancy Fraser’s theory on recognition and redistribution.

The research goals of the Chair are to:

  • Contribute towards a more holistic understanding of the relationship between formal equality, substantive equality and gender justice;
  • Generate and refine data through feminist methodological approaches that would lead to a richer understanding of gender justice;
  • To develop a body of multi-disciplinary gender research that would lead to a more holistic understanding of gender equality and citizenship in South Africa;
  • Train a new generation of students in feminist theory, epistemology and methods so as to avoid the pitfalls of technocratic gender research;
  • To build social science research capacity in the field of gender studies;
  • Explore existing and identify new opportunities for collaborative research with institutions in countries other than South Africa (for example the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS))
  • Contribute towards integrating gender research in South Africa into the international body of gender scholarship