This article examines the process of telecommunications reform in the `new' South Africa. In many, if not most countries, telecommunications reform has been pushed by political and economic elites, whose ability to bring about policy transformations derives largely from the insulation of `reform' from normal political decision-making channels and distributive claims. In marked contrast, telecommunications reform in South Africa was conducted within a democratizing context and was itself a democratic process of a unique, participatory kind. The tension between participatory and electoral democracy was, for the most part, productive of a viable and legitimate reform policy.
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