Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa

Local government structures are believed to be the essence of participatory democracy. It is through local government that citizens come into direct contact with their elected government, as power flows from national to local government. It is against this backdrop that the new local government stru...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Ralph Mathekga
Formato: Artículo científico
Publicado: Universidad de Los Andes 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=81206305
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=co/co-003&d=81206305oai
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id I16-R122-81206305oai
record_format dspace
institution Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales
institution_str I-16
repository_str R-122
collection Red de Bibliotecas Virtuales de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)
topic Relaciones Internacionales
democratisation
institutionalization
participation
and inclusion
spellingShingle Relaciones Internacionales
democratisation
institutionalization
participation
and inclusion
Ralph Mathekga
Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
topic_facet Relaciones Internacionales
democratisation
institutionalization
participation
and inclusion
description Local government structures are believed to be the essence of participatory democracy. It is through local government that citizens come into direct contact with their elected government, as power flows from national to local government. It is against this backdrop that the new local government structures were adopted in South Africa: as a measure to extend democracy to the larger citizenry. However, local government structures have not been able to live up to expectations, as they are generally characterized by sluggishness in terms of service delivery; failure to attract community participation; and, lately—towards the run-up of March 1 2006 local elections—mass protests and uprisings against these problems.The problem has been explained in terms of lack of capacity and technical know-how. This paper aims to go beyond such explanations, and argues that the local government “mayhem” has to do with structural limitations when it comes to drawing citizens’ participation.Thus, in addition to lack of capacity, there is a problem of exclusion which undermines local government.
format Artículo científico
Artículo científico
author Ralph Mathekga
author_facet Ralph Mathekga
author_sort Ralph Mathekga
title Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
title_short Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
title_full Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
title_fullStr Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Participatory Government and the Challenge of Inclusion: the Case of Local Government Structures in Post Apartheid South Africa
title_sort participatory government and the challenge of inclusion: the case of local government structures in post apartheid south africa
publisher Universidad de Los Andes
publishDate 2006
url http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=81206305
http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=co/co-003&d=81206305oai
work_keys_str_mv AT ralphmathekga participatorygovernmentandthechallengeofinclusionthecaseoflocalgovernmentstructuresinpostapartheidsouthafrica
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