Since then, the options for both the white authorities and the black majority have narrowed.
New parties have faced stiff odds against the A.N.C., while its majorities have narrowed slightly since the first euphoric vote in 1994 that brought Mr. Mandela to power.
Today, that remains the majority view, but the gap has narrowed somewhat, with 60% seeing poverty as mostly permanent and 33% saying it is a temporary condition that people can move into and out of again.
It has grown by more than 100,000 people since 2000, according to census estimates, and the influx of many whites and Hispanics has narrowed the black majority to 56percentt from 61percentt.
At the same time, the channels leading into the schools have narrowed: the vast majority of students entering the grandes écoles today come from special two-year preparatory schools, which draw their students primarily from high schools in the country's wealthiest neighborhoods.
The Democrats, meanwhile, having won both past United States Senate races and having narrowed the Republican majorities in the State House, seem set to win the decennial struggle to draw the new state legislative districts as well.
Bond spreads had narrowed.
The 107th Congress, because it has narrow majorities and will be dealing with an outsider not scarred by the battles of the last six years, has an unusual opportunity to act in a way that benefits all sides.
Despite this sound record, and the weight of history, a narrow majority has decided today to substitute its own judgment over the exhaustive legislative findings of Congress.
The ruling coalition's narrow majority has made it unlikely that the government's candidate, Stavros Dimas, will get the presidency.
