The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMattes, Robert
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-08T10:21:38Z
dc.date.available2016-11-08T10:21:38Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractIf, as promised by the book’s title, you are looking for a good overview of the current state of local government in South Africa, this is not the place to find it. What this book does do is provide a historical narrative of governance – or what the authors call the ‘local state’ in South Africa’s rural areas over the last three centuries. The authors take us from Dutch and British colonial-era, top down ‘prefectoralism’, to the Union government practice of using white district officers to govern rural areas in concert with co-opted or intimidated African chiefs, through to apartheid-era ‘Bantu administration’ with white officials ‘seconded’ to homeland authorities. But the real contribution of the book is the authors’ argument that the current paradigm of South African local government (democratic elections notwithstanding) retains the most important themes of previous epochs. Locked into a partnership of ‘cooperative governance’ with central government, the ultimate purpose of local government is to achieve national priorities as defined by central government, rather than to provide a site of autonomous, democratic self-government at the local level. Local government works today as it has for decades, and even centuries, as a deconcentrated form of national government service delivery and state presence at the local level, rather than a form of decentralised authority.
dc.identifier.apacitation 2015. <i>The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa.</i> http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22451en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitation. 2015. <i>The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa.</i> http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22451en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMattes, R. (2015). Review: The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa. Journal of Modern African Studies, 54(1), 188-189.en_ZA
dc.identifier.isbn978-1-62637-087-6en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Other AU - Mattes, Robert AB - If, as promised by the book’s title, you are looking for a good overview of the current state of local government in South Africa, this is not the place to find it. What this book does do is provide a historical narrative of governance – or what the authors call the ‘local state’ in South Africa’s rural areas over the last three centuries. The authors take us from Dutch and British colonial-era, top down ‘prefectoralism’, to the Union government practice of using white district officers to govern rural areas in concert with co-opted or intimidated African chiefs, through to apartheid-era ‘Bantu administration’ with white officials ‘seconded’ to homeland authorities. But the real contribution of the book is the authors’ argument that the current paradigm of South African local government (democratic elections notwithstanding) retains the most important themes of previous epochs. Locked into a partnership of ‘cooperative governance’ with central government, the ultimate purpose of local government is to achieve national priorities as defined by central government, rather than to provide a site of autonomous, democratic self-government at the local level. Local government works today as it has for decades, and even centuries, as a deconcentrated form of national government service delivery and state presence at the local level, rather than a form of decentralised authority. DA - 2015 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Journal of Modern African Studies LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 SM - 978-1-62637-087-6 T1 - The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa TI - The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22451 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/22451
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X15000968
dc.identifier.vancouvercitation. 2015. <i>The Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africa.</i> http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22451en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Political Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.sourceJournal of Modern African Studies
dc.source.urihttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies
dc.titleThe Limits of Democratic Governance in South Africaen_ZA
dc.typeOtheren_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceBook reviewen_ZA
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