Steven Friedman
About Me...
Steven Friedman is a public commentator and an academic, currently employed as a Research Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He has been writing on South African politics for the entire democratic period both as a scholar and public commentator. He has published books on South Africa’s transition to democracy, the role of the trade union movement, and current South African politics. He has also written columns and articles for several South African newspapers. His writing seeks to use academic research to shed light on current politics but to ensure that this is conveyed in a way easily understood by people who have no academic training.
Welcome To Against The Tide
Against the Tide is an emailed column commenting on current South African politics and, occasionally, on events elsewhere in the world. It aims to offer a different perspective from mainstream news and commentary by looking beneath the surface and, where necessary, challenging much of the thinking in South Africa’s public debate.
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Latest ArticleS
Government By The Judges?
WHAT is cheered today could come back to bite us tomorrow.
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A Colonial White Paper
THE Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, would no doubt be horrified to be called a champion of colonial thinking. So would many whose loud voices agree with him. But that is exactly what they are.
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Applying To Be Human?
WHY do we take it for granted that human beings should stand in a line and fill out forms to claim one of our most basic rights?
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The People Serve At The Government’s Pleasure
IF the people are not what the government want them to be, the people must change.
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Old Articles
Letting The West Decide What Is Best
EVEN those who hate the West in this country make it the centre of their universe. Which makes reasoned debate on the country’s dealings with the world much harder.
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Democracy May Have Just Helped Save The World
IT is fashionable in South Africa to trash democracy rather than to try to use it. Those who do this might care to look to Ecuador, where democracy may have just helped save the planet.
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Why Party Politics Is Changing – And Staying The Same
YOU know an election is on the horizon when parties begin making boastful claims about their support. But the most important voices in next year’s general election may be not the voices we hear but those we do not.
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A ‘Cure’ Worse Than The ‘Disease’
THIS country’s two biggest parties – and much of its elite – disagree on many issues. But they agree that too much democracy is dangerous.
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