Nelson Mandela

== Political ideology ==
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=A friend once asked me how I could reconcile my creed of African nationalism with a belief in dialectical materialism. For me, there was no contradiction. I was first and foremost an African nationalist fighting for our emancipation from minority rule and the right to control our own destiny. But at the same time, South Africa and the African continent were part of the larger world. Our problems, while distinctive and special, were not unique, and a philosophy that placed those problems in an international and historical context of the greater world and the course of history was valuable. I was prepared to use whatever means necessary to speed up the erasure of human prejudice and the end of chauvinistic and violent nationalism.|salign=right |source=—&thinsp;Nelson Mandela, 1994{{sfn|Mandela|1994|p=173}} }}

Mandela identified as both an [[African nationalist]], an ideological position he held since joining the ANC,{{sfnm|1a1=Benson|1y=1986|1pp=25, 232|2a1=Lodge|2y=2006|2p=220|3a1=Meredith|3y=2010|3p=241|4a1=Sampson|4y=2011|4pp=37, 584}} and as a socialist.{{sfnm|1a1=Benson|1y=1986|1pp=231–232|2a1=Smith|2y=2010|2p=231}} He was a practical politician, rather than an intellectual scholar or political theorist.{{sfnm|1a1=Boehmer|1y=2008|1p=13|2a1=Barnard|2y=2014|2p=14}} According to biographer Tom Lodge, "for Mandela, politics has always been primarily about enacting stories, about making narratives, primarily about morally exemplary conduct, and only secondarily about ideological vision, more about means rather than ends."{{sfn|Lodge|2006|p=ix}}

The historian [[Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni]] described Mandela as a "liberal African nationalist–decolonial humanist",{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=907}} while political analyst [[Raymond Suttner]] cautioned against labelling Mandela a liberal and stated that Mandela displayed a "hybrid socio-political make-up".{{sfn|Suttner|2007|p=122}} Mandela adopted some of his political ideas from other thinkers—among them Indian independence leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, African American civil rights activists, and African nationalists like [[Kwame Nkrumah|Nkrumah]]—and applied them to the South African situation. At the same time, he rejected other aspects of their thought, such as the anti-white sentiment of many African nationalists.{{sfn|Boehmer|2008|p=109}} In doing so he synthesised both counter-cultural and hegemonic views, for instance by drawing upon ideas from the then-dominant [[Afrikaner nationalism]] in promoting his anti-apartheid vision.{{sfn|Boehmer|2008|p=102}}

His political development was strongly influenced by his legal training and practice, in particular his hope to achieve change not through violence but through "legal revolution".{{sfn|Lodge|2006|p=viii}} Over the course of his life, he began by advocating a path of non-violence, later embracing violence, and then adopting a non-violent approach to negotiation and reconciliation.{{sfn|Boehmer|2008|p=107}} When endorsing violence, he did so because he saw no alternative, and was always pragmatic about it, perceiving it as a means to get his opponent to the negotiating table.{{sfn|Boehmer|2008|pp=105, 108}} He sought to target symbols of white supremacy and racist oppression rather than white people as individuals and was anxious not to inaugurate a race war in South Africa.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=914}} This willingness to use violence distinguishes Mandela from the ideology of [[Gandhism]], with which some commentators have sought to associate him.{{sfn|Suttner|2007|pp=119–120}}

=== Democracy ===

Although he presented himself in an autocratic manner in several speeches, Mandela was a devout believer in democracy and abided by majority decisions even when deeply disagreeing with them.{{sfn|Sampson|2011|p=433}} He had exhibited a commitment to the values of democracy and human rights since at least the 1960s.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|pp=906–907}} He held a conviction that "inclusivity, accountability and freedom of speech" were the fundamentals of democracy,{{sfn|Battersby|2011|p=605}} and was driven by a belief in [[natural and legal rights|natural]] and human rights.{{sfn|Kalumba|1995|p=162}} Suttner argued that there were "two modes of leadership" that Mandela adopted. On one side he adhered to ideas about collective leadership, although on the other believed that there were scenarios in which a leader had to be decisive and act without consultation to achieve a particular objective.{{sfn|Suttner|2007|pp=113–114}}

According to Lodge, Mandela's political thought reflected tensions between his support for [[liberal democracy]] and pre-colonial African forms of consensus decision making.{{sfn|Lodge|2006|p=xi}} He was an admirer of British-style [[parliamentary democracy]],{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=907}} stating that "I regard the British Parliament as the most democratic institution in the world, and the independence and impartiality of its judiciary never fail to arouse my admiration."{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=907}} In this he has been described as being committed to "the Euro-North American modernist project of emancipation", something which distinguishes him from other African nationalist and socialist leaders like Nyerere who were concerned about embracing styles of democratic governance that were Western, rather than African, in origin.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=907}} Mandela nevertheless also expressed admiration for what he deemed to be indigenous forms of democracy, describing Xhosa traditional society's mode of governance as "democracy in its purest form".{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2014|p=907}}

=== Socialism and Marxism ===

[[File:The Soviet Union 1988 CPA 5971 stamp (70th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist).jpg|thumb|upright|1988 Soviet commemorative stamp, captioned "Fighter for the freedom of South Africa Nelson Mandela" in Russian]]

Mandela advocated the ultimate establishment of a classless society,{{sfnm|1a1=Benson|1y=1986|1pp=231, 232|2a1=Ellis|2y=2016|2p=7}} with Sampson describing him as being "openly opposed to capitalism, private land-ownership and the power of big money".{{sfn|Sampson|2011|p=298}} Mandela was influenced by [[Marxism]], and during the revolution he advocated [[scientific socialism]].{{sfn|Sampson|2011|p=282}} He denied being a communist at the Treason Trial,{{sfnm|1a1=Mandela|1y=1994|1p=365|2a1=Sampson|2y=2011|2pp=135–138}} and maintained this stance both when later talking to journalists,{{sfn|Benson|1986|p=232}} and in his autobiography, where he outlined that the cooperation with the SACP was pragmatic, asking rhetorically, "who is to say that we were not using them?"{{sfn|Ellis|2016|p=18}} According to the sociologist Craig Soudien, "sympathetic as Mandela was to socialism, a communist he was not."{{sfn|Soudien|2015|p=361}} Conversely, the biographer David Jones Smith stated that Mandela "embraced communism and communists" in the late 1950s and early 1960s,{{sfn|Smith|2010|pp=217–218}} while the historian Stephen Ellis commented that Mandela had assimilated much of the [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] ideology by 1960.{{sfn|Ellis|2016|p=7}}

Ellis also found evidence that Mandela had been an active member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) during the late 1950s and early 1960s,{{sfn|Ellis|2011|pp=667–668}} something that was confirmed after his death by both the ANC and the SACP, the latter of which claimed that he was not only a member of the party, but also served on its Central Committee.<ref name="Mandela'sCommunism"/> His membership had been hidden by the ANC, aware that knowledge of Mandela's former SACP involvement might have been detrimental to his attempts to attract support from Western countries.{{sfn|Ellis|2016|p=17}} Mandela's view of these Western governments differed from those of Marxist–Leninists, for he did not believe that they were anti-democratic or reactionary and remained committed to democratic systems of governance.{{sfn|Smith|2010|p=231}} 

The 1955 Freedom Charter, which Mandela had helped create, called for the nationalisation of banks, gold mines and land, to ensure equal distribution of wealth.{{sfn|Kalumba|1995|pp=164–165}} Despite these beliefs, Mandela initiated a programme of privatisation during his presidency in line with trends in other countries of the time.{{sfn|Freund|2014|p=294}} It has been repeatedly suggested that Mandela would have preferred to develop a [[social democracy|social democratic]] economy in South Africa but that this was not feasible as a result of the international political and economic situation during the early 1990s.{{sfn|Freund|2014|p=294}} This decision was in part influenced by the fall of the [[socialist states]] in the Soviet Union and [[Eastern Bloc]] during the early 1990s.{{sfn|Sampson|2011|pp=433–435}}