1994 marks one of the most important years in the history of South Africa and, more generally, the African continent. The first general elections of South Africa did not only end apartheid as a political system and state doctrine, which lasted for almost half a century, but also a history of racial exclusion extending over three centuries. Structures of inequality, ideologies and mentalities, which had been formed by many decades of institutionalised racism have, however, not disappeared with a stroke of a pen. In addition, the end of the apartheid rule in South Africa did not only have a significant impact on South Africa alone, but also on the entire African continent, especially the southern African subcontinent. Considering both the long history and the regional dispersion of racial segregation in the southern African subcontinent, this JEP issue extends the existing analyses on the inheritance of apartheid and discusses the relevance of apartheid today for the southern African region, 20 years after its end as a political system in South Africa. Although this issue offers only limited space to discuss such a broad topic, the reader will undoubtedly find food for thought.

Das vorliegende Schwerpunktheft widmet sich der Analyse Europas mithilfe einer lateinamerikanischen Brille. Dependenztheorie, die Utopie des guten Lebens (buen vivir) und praktische Erfahrungen des Bündnisses von Bewegungen und Reformregierungen werden nutzbar gemacht, um gegenwärtige Probleme bei uns besser zu verstehen. Dieser auf gegenseitiges Lernen ausgerichtete Zugang ist deshalb so wichtig, weil sich die Anzeichen mehren, dass die Grenzziehungen zwischen dem Zentrum und der Peripherie der Weltwirtschaft ins Wanken geraten sind. Ungleiche Entwicklung nimmt neue Formen an. Während sich Teile Europas „brasilianisieren“ im Sinne der Herausbildung von ungleichen Entwicklungsdynamiken innerhalb eines Territoriums, beobachten wir gleichzeitig, wie sich Lateinamerika ein Stück weit „ent-brasilianisiert“, das heißt politische Strategien umsetzt, die die strukturelle Heterogenität im eigenen Territorium verringert.

Due to the multiple crisis of finance and the economy, of climate change and resource depletion, of gender relations, societal integration and political representation, in recent years the term ‘transformation’ has become more and more prominent. It has the potential to become a new oxymoron – like ‘sustainable development’ and currently ‘green economy’ – that opens up an interesting epistemic terrain which might lead to the formulation of diverge political strategies. However, the concept remains blurred. Many contributions refer to the term because it is in fashion but it might become increasingly unclear if there is a certain ‘core of meaning’. However, such a core meaning is not ‘just there’ but needs to be worked out. The contributions to this special issue of JEP attempt to explore some crucial aspects of this debate by referring to theoretical debates and recent experiences in Latin America, Europe and at the international level.

In the last 10 years, ‘peripheral’ welfare states in Asia, Latin America and South Africa entered into the focus of the international research agenda. Long neglected, many of these states developed modern welfare state policies and structures at the same time as most European countries. The contributions in this volume share a perspective on welfare regimes which challenges underlying Eurocentric assumptions and shows a keen interest in deconstructing actors, power constellations and ideas which shape welfare trajectories. Analytically, the concrete design of welfare states reflects political and social power relations which are embedded in the international political economy, formal and informal political institutions and state structures. The empirical focus is on the emerging ‘semi-peripheries’ where a considerable expansion of redistributive policies seems to be both empowering and patronising hitherto excluded groups.

Ever since the Internet became a widespread medium of mass communication in the 1990s, its influence on democratic development has been a central issue.

New and relatively unrestricted ways to access and disseminate information were and still are seen as a means of undermining control mechanisms in authoritarian societies. More than a decade later, and in the light of the so-called ‘Facebook revolution’ in the Arab world, the authors in this volume seek to approach the impact of the Internet from different perspectives, beyond over-optimistic expectations of change in democratic practices. The focus hereby lies on Southeast Asia, with its unique variants of (semi-)authoritarian regimes, and includes often neglected aspects such as the reactions of authoritarian regimes towards these new challenges, the inter-connectedness of the ‘online’ and the ‘offline’ worlds, as well as the disparate development and usage of IT infrastructure in the region.