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This article explores the contemporary revival of interest in Aristotle's notion of phronesis, practical wisdom. It commences by analysing this ancient intellectual virtue, its relation to Aristotle's moral virtues and the role that philosophy occupies in his understanding of political science and the nature of politics. Following this, the factors, both practical and theoretical, that account for efforts to reincarnate the Phronimos (the man of practical wisdom) in our time is examined. The analysis subsequently identifies transhistoricist political theory which, unlike other forms of theorising, explicitly sets itself the goal to recover from the past an understanding of phronesis and instances of practical wisdom that can potentially be of use in contemporary times. In closing, some of the cognitive, political and practical obstacles that must be bypassed for political philosophy/theory to realise such a goal is explored and appraised.

This article explores the idea of political friendship and, in particular, Aristotle's notion of philia politike. The former is usually frowned upon in the public domain and the latter is often misunderstood in scholarly circles. The article is confined to an explication of philia politike and its viability for the liberal state, given the paradox that such a state cannot retain its liberal character neither with nor without an account of the good life and moral virtue. The article attempts to ascertain whether political philosophy can conceive of a civic vinculum or citizen bond without recourse to bonds such as family, ethnicity, race, nation, the Volk, religion, or a shared origin of humanity.

The enthymeme has been used and analysed for over two millennia. It is one of the most powerful rhetorical instruments used for the purpose of persuasion, be it through the spoken or written word. This article explores the origins and complexities of the instrument and demonstrates its use and significance in the public sphere by analysing style and rhetorical content in the writings of St Paul, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr and President George W Bush. The conclusions suggest that further research into this rhetorical instrument could uncover a layer of understanding of political discourse in the public sphere hitherto not undertaken by local scholars.

This article explores some of the features and implications of causality and how the use of this contested concept may be understood and appraised as it applies to the world of politics and, in more detail, the scientific study thereof. In the teaching and learning of politics serious attention is seldom paid to the nature, implications, uses and limitations of causality as a fundamental ontological category in our quest for understanding and explanation. The article explores the conventional as well as some alternative notions of causality, and concludes with an appraisal of the significance of understandng causality.

This article investigates whether there are necessarily links between relativist and rationalist thinking and the nature of the politics that ensues from these epistemologies. Claims that posit such linkages have permeated political theory as well as the philosophy of science for many decades. The arguments in earlier as well as more recent discourses to this end are appraised here, with no necessary causal link being found between the claims of these discourses and the conventional world of politics. Political theory and metatheory are not substitutes for the thought that informs political action, and hence the nature of politics. The analysis suggests that the two epistemologies can co-exist, irrespective of whether politics is democratic or autocratic in nature. To the extent that epistemologies inform political thought, their nature does not predetermine the nature of the politics that they inform; the latter is rather a function of substantive claims contained in the epistemologies themselves, of the complex and dynamic interaction between these claims, and of a multitude of other factors.

This article provides an overview of South Africa's electoral arrangements. It consists of three sections. The first sketches the historical background of the present system and some of the important events that led to the adoption of the interim constitution and the election of 27 April 1994. The second section highlights the salient features of the electoral system and briefly comments on the results that it yielded in the April 1994 election. The section also points out the weak and strong points of the system. The third section is prescriptive in nature. It argues how the present arrangements could be improved in terms of constitutional principles that govern the drafting of the `final' constitution, and the recently adopted guidelines of the African National Congress on this matter.

In this article the authors offer an argument for electoral reform in South Africa. A brief review of the electoral systems debate in South Africa is followed by a short overview of the present system. Three options that have crystallised in the electoral systems debate are evaluated, and a preferred option presented. The article concludes with a proposal that the present system of closed party list proportional representation is replaced by a mixed proportional representation and single member constituency electoral system. The authors also suggest that a number of farther changes be effected to the electoral system. The basis of the argument is that the proposed reforms of the electoral system will contribute to a stronger form of accountability of public representatives to the electorate than is possible under the present system. The authors judge that greater accountability will contribute towards the consolidation of democracy in South Africa. The main purpose of the proposal is to do what is right for democracy in South Africa: promote accountable government.