Includes bibliographical references and index.

Historical context
A rainbow nation
The South African economy
Social structure and social policy
Government
Political life
Culture, ideas, and issues
South Africa and the world
South Africa in the twenty-first century

"Contemporary South Africa is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking introduction to the social, political, cultural and economic life of contemporary South Africa and its changing role in the world -- all set in the context of its history and character as a 'rainbow nation'. Under President Nelson Mandela, South Africans put behind them the political oppression and comprehensive racial segregation of apartheid. Predictions that civil war and racial conflict would ensue have proven unfounded. South Africa has instead undergone a remarkable social and political renewal, while the economy and system of government have weathered a decade of international turmoil. The country is for the first time playing a constructive role in the troubled African continent. Twenty first century South Africa, however, faces a host of social and economic challenges: unemployment, crime and violence, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that threatens social cohesion. An electorally unassailable African National Congress, ambivalent about political pluralism and an open society, leaves even the future of South Africa's hard-won democracy uncertain. Book jacket."--Jacket