Mr. Zuma's Choice

South Africa's new president could strengthen his country's liberal democracy -- or destroy it.

JACOB ZUMA, South Africa's next president, got an important preelection boost last week when the 90-year-old Nelson Mandela, who now rarely appears in public, joined him at a rally. Mr. Zuma's African National Congress went on to win a convincing victory in Wednesday's national election, which was indisputably free and fair. But the lingering image of the past and future presidents encapsulates the worrying direction of South African politics. Mr. Mandela was one of the 20th-century's moral giants and made possible a largely peaceful transition from the racist apartheid system to liberal democracy. Mr. Zuma -- with his five wives, populist rhetoric, autocratic tendencies and trailing cloud of corruption charges -- speaks and behaves much like one of Africa's traditional "big men."

South Africa, to be sure, remains a democratic model for most of the rest of a continent in which it remains the preeminent economic and political power. Though the ANC has won every election in the 15 years of majority rule, its margin this year dropped to about 66 percent -- the lowest ever -- because of a split that produced a new opposition party. The press remains free and seemingly unhesitant to criticize Mr. Zuma, despite his verbal attacks on it. The judiciary, too, remains independent -- notwithstanding a controversial decision by prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Mr. Zuma two weeks before the election.

South Africa nevertheless remains uneasily poised between liberal Western politics and the populist authoritarianism of many developing countries. Mr. Zuma could tip the balance in either direction. His predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, mostly stuck to free-market economic policies that have brought the country a solid decade of growth; Mr. Zuma has said that he won't radically change this course despite his populist rhetoric and close ties to unions and the Communist Party. But Mr. Mbeki also pursued a foreign policy at odds with most of the world's other democracies: Among other things, he insisted on propping up the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe even as the country collapsed and people starved.

Foreign policy offers Mr. Zuma the chance to guide his country -- and Africa -- toward a more liberal future. Before becoming ANC leader, he was critical of Mr. Mugabe. "We speak out to promote democracy," he said in a speech one year ago. "[A]s all democrats know, no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people." If Mr. Zuma lives by that principle, both at home and in the treatment of South Africa's neighbors, he could grow to deserve that photo op with Mr. Mandela.