Browsing by Subject "Local government elections"
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Piper, Laurence (SUN Press, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: This chapter argues that local government elections offer a unique opportunity in South Africa’s political system for voters to practice forms of democracy that are more local, plural and accountable in character than at provincial or national level. A key reason for this is the mixed electoral system where half of all councillors are directly elected from the wards in which they live. The 2011 election supplied significant evidence of voters attempting to make use of this opportunity, particularly around the candidate selection process of the major parties, and through the accountability talk that dominated public debate. However, analysis of both ‘supply’ (party behaviour) and ‘demand’ (voter choice) suggests that this democratic potential was outweighed by bipartisan politics between the ANC and DA which affirmed the national over the local, a choice between two parties over many, and reinforced identity-based political loyalties over the direct accountability of politicians. In short, the 2011 elections were rendered a proxy for a national competition, frustrating much of the unique democratic potential that local government elections offer, effectively taking local politics further from the people. The proposal to hold national, provincial and local elections simultaneously in the future will further impede the democratic potential of the local electoral system. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/549 Files in this item: 1
PiperElectoralSystem2012.pdf (150.9Kb) -
de Visser, Jaap; Steytler, Nico; Machingauta, Naison (Community Law Centre, University Western Cape, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: On 3-4 November 2009 the Community Law Centre hosted a seminar entitled “Policy Dialogue on the Future of Local Government in Zimbabwe”. A diverse spectrum of local government practitioners was assembled to discuss issues related to local government in Zimbabwe. The seminar was structured around six critical themes relating to local government, namely socio-economic transformation, local government institutions and elections, local government financing, traditional authorities, local government functions and supervision of local government. Six authors from Zimbabwe prepared and delivered position papers on the above subject matters against the background of comparative comments from South African academics. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/208 Files in this item: 1
DeVisserLocalGovtZimbabwe2010.pdf (2.142Mb)
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