Book Chapters (Faculty of Law)
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Powell, Derek (SUN Press, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: Local government is a mirror of the larger political and economic forces, cleavages and problems that are shaping South African society. It is these deeper fault lines in society, rather than the Zuma government’s turnaround strategy or the 2011 local elections result, which will drive future policy and determine its effects. This is the first lesson of local government reform in all four terms of national government examined in this chapter. In each term, national policy reforms were moulded by shifting political and economic circumstances and larger national interests, not simply by the unfolding logic of the original blueprint for local government in the 1998 white paper. The outcome of eighteen years of policy reform, however, was not the new society imagined in the white paper, but an imperfect transition that is local government today: where peaceful electoral competition coexists with violent public protests, racial group areas endure in fact, even if not in law, pockets of good governance survive amidst systemic corruption and mismanagement, and national policy goals consistently exceed local government’s capacity to deliver them and the economy’s skills base. The second lesson flows from that reality – due to the fact that the problems of local government are so nested in the broader problems of our society, further local government policy reform and sweeping national turnaround strategies are likely to have imperfect impacts on ‘the problem of local government’ in South Africa. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/551 Files in this item: 1
PowellLocalGovernment2012.pdf (198.7Kb) -
De Ville, Jacques (Springer, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: In this essay the relation between justice and the gift in Derrida’s thinking is explored. The essay shows that an understanding of the ontological difference or the relation between Being and beings in Heidegger’s thinking as well as Freud’s speculations on the death drive are essential to comprehend the ‘concept’ or ‘notion’ of différance as well as the gift in Derrida’s thinking. The analysis points to the complexity of Derrida’s thinking in his contemplation of the relation between justice and law and the need for a broader investigation to understand what is at stake in this regard. An exploration of the gift shows that Derrida’s thinking on justice is not ‘relativistic’ as is often assumed and that the gift can in a certain way function as a ‘guide’ in questions of constitutional interpretation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/411 Files in this item: 1
DeVilleGivenTime2010.pdf (323.4Kb)