The Main reason that the National Party won the 1948 election was because of the electoral system.
Intro:
- System = Westminster System - Malan won 38%, Smuts won 49% yet Malan = pm
- Overall, electoral system = most significant, Afrikaner nationalism + UP campaign = contributory
P1: Agree
- Electoral system = Westminster system, division of voting constituencies
- Popularity in rural areas (majority of Afrikaner population lived there)
o Migration of Boer into rural areas following 1833 British abolition of slavery
o NP appealer to Afrikaners – therefore, most NP voters in rural constituencies
- More rural constituencies – NP won 140,000 less votes than UP, but majority (79 seats vs 71)
o If constituencies weighted equally, UP would have 80 seats (vs NP 60)
- Electoral system provided technical route for NP exploitation of Afrikaner beliefs to have sufficient
effect in numbers & geographical spread of voters required for 1948 victory
However, without NP success in appealing to Afrikaners, system = irrelevant
- Hinged on NP ability to appeal to rural Afrikaner voters - Therefore, significant but not sole reason
P2: Disagee : Afrikaner Nationalism
- Proliferation of Afrikaner identity provided voting base for NP majority in rural constituencies
- Afrikaner demographic = significant
o 1.6mil people, roughly 60% of country’s voting pool
- Expansion of Afrikaner culture
o 1938 establishment of Voortrekker monument, Dutch Reformed Church, centenary of the
Great Trek, visibility through media (e.g. magazines like the Huisgenot)
o Unified Afrikaner population culturally and as a voting pool with distinct beliefs, NP appealed
- Advancement of Afrikaner interests
o Broederbond (Afrikaner organisation)
politicians following Afrikaner ideologies gained more political power
o WW2 - ‘poor white problem’, returning soldiers unemployment
- NP appealed to Afrikaner interests
o Traditional Christian values, segregation, Afrikaner pride, separation from British
o NP opposed ‘oorstrooming’ Afrikaner rural farmers threatened by black migration to
urban areas
o NP opposed racial integration Afrikaners believed God’s plan = division of whites + blacks
o 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer war tensions exploited NP supported anti-war movements, e.g.
‘Ossewabrandwag’ (peaked at 300,000 members)
Can argue isolated British voters & increased NP victory dependence on
Westminster system as failed to raise support in urban areas
P3: disagree, United Party policies
- Smuts = pragmatist, understood need for black workers
- NP exploited fears of ‘oorstrooming’ and ‘swart gevaar’, claimed Smuts sympathetic to blacks
- Afrikaners believed Smuts had sold out to capitalist imperialism by siding with Britain in 2 World wars
and supporting mining industry vs white workers
o However, Afrikaner beliefs = polarising, NP successful in exploitation due to Westminster
system (rural constituencies) – if not for this, would not have won majority
