The Feasibility of the Democratic Developmental State in the South

The Feasibility of the Democratic Developmental State in the South

Author: Daniel A. Omoweh

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 2869785127

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The book examines the prospects of a democratic developmental state in Latin American, African and Asian countries, collectively referred to in this work as the global South. Practically, the state refers to the political leadership. Within this context, it interrogates the politics of the state and the unresolved critical issues it has engendered in the state-development discourse such as the need to re-conceptualize the developmental state, democratization, elections, inclusion, indigenous entrepreneurial and business class, political parties and cooperation among the countries of the South. It looks into the need to re-centre the sought state in the development process of the Southern countries after over two and a half decades of embracing neo-liberal policies and economic reforms that, rather than transform, sank the adjusted economies into deeper political, social and economic crises. It contends that the capacity of the state to overcome the market and democratic deficits resides with its democratic credentials. Finally, it suggests strategies that could lead to the rise of a democratic developmental state in the South.


The State, Non-State Organizations and Livelihood Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

The State, Non-State Organizations and Livelihood Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author: Roland Azibo Balgah

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2024-02-06

Total Pages: 435

ISBN-13: 1527562522

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The discussion on the role of the state and non-state actors in the improvement of livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where economic and social development is slowest, has been characterized by a disjoint between theory and empirical research. This volume sets out to revisit this question by examining the place of the two types of actors in the development process, and the increasing influence of public-private partnerships in livelihood outcomes. The book combines theoretical reflections and empirical studies on a wide variety of initiatives in several domains that seek to improve wellbeing and livelihoods, with a focus on the Sub-Saharan country of Cameroon. The book will provide insights on an area which has been both neglected with the rise of neo-liberalism, and also revived by the recent introduction of the global development goals.


Understanding Governance in South Asia

Understanding Governance in South Asia

Author: Adluri Subramanyam Raju

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-09-30

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1000194396

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The concept of good governance in South Asia poses a challenge at the implementation level, mainly due to ethnocentricity, regional disparities, division between poor and rich, and rural and urban division among the people. Concepts such as decentralization, citizen engagement, lean public service, privatization, autonomy, public-private partnership may work well in developed countries but may not produce the same results in the region where the majority of poor people expect their government to fulfill their basic needs. Governance in South Asia needs to be reformed to ensure that poverty can be reduced, if not completely eradicated. Poor governance and the various means by which governance has fallen short, has led to lack of development and continuance of poverty in South Asian societies. South Asian countries have more or less similar objectives, structures, value systems, cultures, and standards of governance despite different forms of government. The colonial legacy of British administrative system had its impact on centralization. Secrecy, elitism, rigidity, and social isolation is common to all South Asian countries. The post-colonial administrative system is built upon pre-colonial administrative traditions throughout the region. These countries can learn from each other’s experiences. They need to develop an indigenous model to find pragmatic solutions to the challenges of good governance. This book argues that countries in South Asian can achieve good results through good governance if they develop and adopt an indigenous model rather than simply borrowing models and ideas from the West. Please note: This title is co-published with Manohar Publishers, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect

Author: Nathan Andrews

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-06-10

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 3319161660

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This volume examines the impact of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on Africa’s development post-2015. It assesses the current state of the MDGs in Africa by outlining the successes, gaps and failures of the state goals, including lessons learned. A unique feature of the book is the exposition on post-MDG’s agenda for Africa’s development. Chapters on poverty, south-south partnership, aid, gender, empowerment, health as well as governance and development explore what feasible alternative lie ahead for Africa beyond the expiry date of the MDGs.


Governance in the New South Africa

Governance in the New South Africa

Author: Guy C. Z. Mhone

Publisher: Juta and Company Ltd

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9781919713878

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The major challenges confronting South Africa since the advent of non-racial multiparty democracy have been the need to promote democratic governance, economic growth, global competitiveness, and to improve the standard of living of its people, especially the previously disadvantaged majority Black population. These challenges have coincided with the ascendancy of globalisation with its attendant social, economic and political imperatives, all of which have consequences for governance and development at the national level, not least in emerging economies like South Africa. This important book assesses the implications of global imperatives for the nature, capacity, character and scope of democratic governance and the pursuit of equitable development in the new South Africa. A major conclusion is that the implementation of domestic economic reforms predicated on market fundamentalism, with its dominant logic and paradigm of globalisation and economic management, is incompatible and irreconcilable with the quest for democratic governance and equitable development. The contributors contend that such an approach reproduces a substantively undemocratic and inequitable society. "Governance in the New South Africa" concludes by offering some considerations related to how substantive democracy and equitable development may be promoted in South Africa on the basis of democratic governance and developmentalism.


Essays on the Evolution of the Post-Apartheid State

Essays on the Evolution of the Post-Apartheid State

Author: Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)

Publisher: Real African Publishers

Published: 2014-10-01

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1920655875

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This book critically examines the challenges, successes, and failures of the post-1994 South African state against the humane values enshrined in its constitution: nonracial democracy and respect for all generations of human rights—civil, political, social, economic, resources and the environment and gender and communication. The book sheds light on the difficulties faced by the State when trying to bring together a diverse society comprised of traditional South African, Western-based and "other" African (immigrant) cultures into a cohesive nation with a common South African identity. The views of the essays may not be entirely consistent and the issues they raise may be contentious. This merely affirms the truism that the State is a contested terrain. The aim of this book is to deepen the search for an understanding of the theory of the State as it applies to a transforming society such as ours and to trudge the dividing line between theory and practice so they can feed into each other in a progressive spiral towards the desired end-state.


Relationality and Resilience in a Not So Relational World?

Relationality and Resilience in a Not So Relational World?

Author: Artwell Nhemachena

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2017-03-08

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 9956764302

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This book critically examines the relevance of the increasingly popular theories on relationality by interfacing those theories with the African [Shona] modes of engagement known as chivanhu [often erroneously narrowly translated as tradition]. In other words, the book takes seriously concerns by African scholars that much of the theories that have been applied in Africa do not speak to relevance and faithfulness to the continent. Situated in a recent Zimbabwean context marked by multiple crises producing multiple forms of violence and want, the book examines the relevance of relational ontologies and epistemologies to the everyday life modes of engagements by villagers in a selected district. The book unflinchingly surfaces the strengths and weaknesses of popular theories while at the same time underlining the exigencies of theorising from Africa using African data as the millstones. By meticulously and painstakingly unpacking pertinent issues, the book provides unparalleled intellectual grit for the contemporary and increasingly popular discourses on (de-)coloniality and resilience in relation to the African peoples and their [often deliberately contested] environments, past, present and future. In other words, the book loudly sounds the bells for the battles to decolonise and transform Africa on Africas own terms. This is a book that would be extremely useful to scholars, activists, theorists, policy makers and implementers as well as researchers interested not only in Africas future trajectory but also in the simultaneities of temporalities and worlds that were sadly overshadowed by colonial epistemologies and ontologies for the past centuries.


African Dynamics in a Multipolar World

African Dynamics in a Multipolar World

Author: Ulf Engel

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-05-16

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 9004256504

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Fifty years after the foundation of the OAU and the consolidation of most African states and institutions, the international panorama and Africa’s position in it have changed considerably. The world's geopolitical and economic configuration has evolved, with new actors appearing in a new period of globalization. In tone with ECAS 2013, this volume proposes that the experiences appearing in Africa question dominant paradigms in terms of political practice and academic reflection and thus offer a clear challenge to the academic community. The volume offers clues to answer questions such as: What is the impact of the current processes of globalization for African countries and African citizens? How should African Studies be engaged to gauge African dynamics, both at a local and global level? What interdisciplinary means and tools should be brought in to produce an epistemologically relevant view (or narrative) of the issues under analysis?


The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa

The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa

Author: Claude Ake

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13:

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The book outlines, in a sweeping continental survey and with telling detail, how the democratic commitment has transformed Africa's legacy of dictatorship, military regimes and single-party rule. Yet, at the same time as 'we are all democrats now', Ake shows how cleverly conservative autocrats have stolen the democratic message and subverted its promise. The danger of trivializing democracy into successive multi-party elections, where one narrow elite succeeds another, is a real one in present-day Africa, and the book spells out the hazards that lie ahead for nascent democratic movements at the grassroots.


Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism

Author: Raymond Parsons

Publisher: Jacana Media

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781431426188

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"Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism? The role of business in South Africa offers an insightful and balanced account of how the business sector, and particularly organised business, has influenced South Africa's political and socio-economic trajectory over the years, and what it will take for the key actors, politicians and business and labour leaders, to find a new sense of (common) purpose in the post-Zuma era. Recent years have seen organised business in South Africa (represented by organisations such as Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) and the Black Business Council (BBC)) become fragmented and unnecessarily competitive, with national, provincial and/or local multi-sectoral bodies often having overlapping or conflicting interests and mandates. In the process, the once powerful 'voice of business' has become considerably weaker. What has gone wrong, and can order be re-established?"--Publisher's description.