Let us move beyond critique here. What this chapter will do is consider the conditions of a democratic public domain that does not, ultimately, conflate the citizen with an authentic national subject. Although the implications of this argument are not confined to South Africa, the chapter will again refer to South African examples. The intention is not so much to consider the theoretical conditions of the public domain as to examine the conditions of its theoretical practice. The chapter will suggest that the citizen is such when called upon to act socially in the public domain; in other words, the public space is a domain of normative action. As such, the conditions of the public domain are twofold: firstly, a set of institutions and practices that allow for social interests to be expressed politically; and secondly, a political space that captures and holds persons to social, i.e. ethical standards of behaviour. If these are, abstractly speaking, the conditions of the public domain, then the concrete, historical conditions of such a space cannot be stated in advance. They will depend on the peculiar history of the societies in which they are being produced – their particular political traditions, customs and fashions – and their availability to some ideas and practices and not to others. If we are to move beyond a critique of nationalism to posit the conditions of the public domain, then we cannot remain in the abstract. The conditions of the democratic space must be specified in the concrete and contingent.

Measuring the Reconstruction and Development Programme

Much has been written about the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) with regard to its origin, its implementation, the competing political interests that it attempted to reconcile and ultimately its jettison, at least in practice, if not in words. What has not been adequately explored is the gauge of development that it appealed to. Now, in this regard the RDP White Paper was quite explicit. Reconstruction and development were intended to create ‘a people-centred society which measures progress by the extent to which it has succeeded in securing for each citizen liberty, prosperity and happiness’ (Republic of South Africa, 1994, sec. 1.1.1).