Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy
| dc.contributor.author | Barkan, Joel | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-05-03T09:55:30Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-05-03T09:55:30Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2005 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-05-03T09:51:45Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper examines the role of the South African National Assembly in comparative perspective by discussing the experience of the Assembly since 1994 in comparison to the development of legislative institutions elsewhere in Africa. The paper thus begins with an overview of seven sets of variables that seem to drive the process of legislative development across the continent, and then turns to the South African case. The “conventional wisdom” (CW) on the National Assembly—usually by observers who have spent little time at Parliament—is that the body is little more than a rubber stamp of the ruling African National Congress. The paper explores the validity of this view concluding that it is not inaccurate—to a degree. The combination of ANC’s supra majority, its organisational culture and modus operandi, and South Africa’s system of proportional representation all reduce the independence of the legislature. The paper then examines five dimensions of the legislative process and argues that the CW reflects only part of the reality. The National Assembly is not a mere rubber stamp. More interesting from a theoretical perspective, the same variables that facilitate or undermine the emergence of the legislature as an institution of countervailing power elsewhere in Africa, apply to the South African case as well. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Barkan, J. (2005). <i>Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19368 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Barkan, Joel <i>Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy.</i> University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19368 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Barkan, J. D. (2005). Emerging Legislature Or Rubber Stamp?: The South African National Assembly After Ten Years of Democracy. Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Working Paper AU - Barkan, Joel AB - This paper examines the role of the South African National Assembly in comparative perspective by discussing the experience of the Assembly since 1994 in comparison to the development of legislative institutions elsewhere in Africa. The paper thus begins with an overview of seven sets of variables that seem to drive the process of legislative development across the continent, and then turns to the South African case. The “conventional wisdom” (CW) on the National Assembly—usually by observers who have spent little time at Parliament—is that the body is little more than a rubber stamp of the ruling African National Congress. The paper explores the validity of this view concluding that it is not inaccurate—to a degree. The combination of ANC’s supra majority, its organisational culture and modus operandi, and South Africa’s system of proportional representation all reduce the independence of the legislature. The paper then examines five dimensions of the legislative process and argues that the CW reflects only part of the reality. The National Assembly is not a mere rubber stamp. More interesting from a theoretical perspective, the same variables that facilitate or undermine the emergence of the legislature as an institution of countervailing power elsewhere in Africa, apply to the South African case as well. DA - 2005 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Centre for Social Science Research LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2005 T1 - Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy TI - Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19368 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19368 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Barkan J. Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy. 2005 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19368 | en_ZA |
| dc.language | eng | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.department | Centre for Social Science Research(CSSR) | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) | * |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en_ZA |
| dc.source | Centre for Social Science Research | |
| dc.source.uri | http://www.cssr.uct.ac.za/ | |
| dc.subject.other | National Assembly | |
| dc.subject.other | legislature | |
| dc.title | Emerging legislature or rubber stamp? The South African national assembly after ten years of democracy | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Working Paper | en_ZA |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image | |
| uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
| uct.type.resource | Research paper | en_ZA |