Post-apartheid South African elections have borne an unmistakable racial imprint: Africans vote for one set of parties, whites support a different set of parties, and with few exceptions, there is no crossover voting between groups. These voting tendencies have solidified the dominance of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over South African politics and turned South African elections into 'racial censuses'. This book explores the political sources of these outcomes. It argues that although the beginnings of these patterns lie in South Africa's past, in the effects apartheid had on voters' beliefs about race and destiny and the reputations parties forged during this period, the endurance of the census reflects the ruling party's ability to use the powers of office to prevent the opposition from evolving away from its apartheid-era party label.

Karen Ferree is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of California, San Diego. She has traveled extensively in Africa, particularly South Africa. Her research focuses on elections in Africa's new and consolidating democracies, and she has published research articles in a variety of journals, including American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis.