Describing Political Settlement Evolution in a Single Country

Abstract This chapter provides an extended illustration of the authors’ new approach by applying it to South Africa, a country that, since 1960, has experienced all four types of settlement. The emphasis is on showing how empirical developments in that country are reflected in the country codings, and also how the concepts provide a helpful language for explaining what is observed. On the one hand, there is a broad story of South Africa transitioning between settlement types, and on the other, by lifting the hood and examining the construction of these variables, a more precise and fine-grained analytical narrative than more conventional accounts provide is arrived at.