Patronage Politics Divides Us: A Study of Poverty, Patronage and Inequality in South Africa
2/5
()
About this ebook
MISTRA MISTRA
The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) was founded by a group of South Africans with experience in research, academia, policy-making and governance who saw the need to create a platform of engagement around strategic issues facing South Africa. It is an Institute that combines research and academic development, strategic reflection and intellectual discourse. It applies itself to issues such as economics, sociology, history, arts and culture and the logics of natural sciences.
Read more from Mistra Mistra
The Role of Intellectuals in the State-Society Nexus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise and Decline and Rise of China: Searching for an Organising Philosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings20 Years of South African Democracy: So Where to now? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNation Formation and Social Cohesion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTraditional Leaders in a Democracy: Resources, Respect and Resistance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEpidemics and the Health of African Nations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMapungubwe Reconsidered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Patronage Politics Divides Us
Related ebooks
Media Ethics and Regulation: Insights from Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivil Becomings: Performative Politics in the Amazon and the Mediterranean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Mining in South Africa: Sunset or Sunrise? Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Beyond Imagination: The Ethics and Applications of Nanotechnology and Bio-Economics in South Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond Tenderpreneurship: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProfessional Social Work in East Africa: Towards Social Development, Poverty Reduction and Gender Equality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProfessional Social Work in East Africa: Towards Social Development, Poverty Reduction and Gender Equality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLand and Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe: Beyond White-Settler Capitalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLarry Itliong Leads the Way for Farmworkers' Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlobalization and the Cultures of Business in Africa: From Patrimonialism to Profit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Significance of Everyday Access to Justice in Myanmar’s Transition to Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStanding on Street Corners: A history of the Natal Midlands region of the Black Sash Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeri-urban Land Transactions: Everyday Practices and Relations in Peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRhizome vs Regime: Southeast Asia’s Digitally Mediated Youth Movements Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnicity, Citizenship and State in Eastern Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConsuming Digital Disinformation: How Filipinos Engage with Racist and Historically Distorted Online Political Content Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Their Own Hands: How Savings Groups Are Revolutionizing Development Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Come as Members of the Superior Race: Distortions and Education Policy Discourse in Sub-Saharan Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSIHA Journal: Women in Islam (Issue Four) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStatism, Youth and Civic Imagination: A Critical Study of the National Youth Service Corps Programme in Nigeria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSouth African-Based African Migrants' Responses to COVID-19: Strategies, Opportunities, Challenges and Implications Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Cat and Mouse Affair: Exploring Sustainable Measures of Resolving the Vendor-Local Authority Conflict: A Case of Maronder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfrica Through Structuration Theory � ntu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJokey Horse-Jockey North-South Rapport: Diagnostic-cum-Prognostic-Academic Perspectives on Who Truly Depends on Whom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Political Economy of Poverty, Vulnerability and Disaster Risk Management: Building Bridges of Resilience, Entrepreneurshi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDecentralisation and Community Participation: Local Development and Municipal Politics in Cameroon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSIHA Journal: Women in Islam (Issue Two) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTesting Democracy: Which Way is South Africa Going? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Africa's Wellbeing in an Uncertain World: Searching for Solutions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
World Politics For You
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Myths About Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (Updated Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Palestine: A Socialist Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The 1619 Project: by Nikole Hannah-Jones - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLight in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Promised Land: the triumph and tragedy of Israel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Political Awakenings: Conversations with History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPutin's Playbook: Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Beirut to Jerusalem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Mollie Hemingway's Rigged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Antisemitism: Part One of The Origins of Totalitarianism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Six Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Patronage Politics Divides Us
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is a well-meaning – even earnest – book. The authors show a deep-felt concern for the ways in which poor South Africans are caught up in the toils of “political patronage”. Most of the book is well-written and easy to read. It comes with a helpful list of recommendations.But the book does not “work”. Starting with a theoretical framework guided by US writings on patronage politics, it fails to convince one that this is a useful model for interpreting South Africa. In SA, patronage fails people because it does not provide the alternative route to services, houses and jobs that marks the particular systems of patronage in the US. The point in SA is that the patronage characteristics of local government do not in fact provide for the needs of the community. People follow this or that faction of local politicians because of hopes and promises, not because anyone commands a functioning patronage machine like Tammany Hall. Local politicians provide public work programme jobs, Community Development Worker posts and maybe housing list places for a tiny proportion of those to whom they make promises. The problem for the people is not patronage politics, but the fact that supporting the patron does not lead to the promised results.The heart of the book is stories from five poor areas – Diepsloot in Joburg, Overstrand (Hermanus), Tsolo and Qumbu in the Eastern Cape and two municipalities in Free State. These touch on well-known problems: xenophobia, fishing rights, nepotism (including jobs for friends), the critical role of state grants, the manipulation of ‘lists’ and so on. Interviews and focus groups were used to gather data and little is new or surprising – although I did not know that SASSA issued free paraffin along with the social grants. The word “patronage” is sprinkled through the pages. But there is no rounding conclusion to convince one that patronage politics is what drives local politics. The authors say that “political patronage happens when state resources are used to reward individuals in return for their political support.” This is not actually demonstrated by the case studies. People respond to the promises and blandishments of politicians by supporting them with votes, but very few get the expected rewards from state resources. This is why communities are so angry. The problem is not “patronage politics” but that is does not work for people. It only works for politicians and even for them it often works only temporarily – particularly at the local level. New factions emerge supporting alternative promisers, who also cannot “deliver”. Turmoil is the result. Citing a US academic, Frank Sorauf, the authors make use of a definition of patronage as “an incentive system – ‘a political currency with which to purchase political activities and political responses’”. Sorauf’s “political currency” in South Africa is counterfeit!It may be wrong to suspect that the theoretical underpinnings for the book, such as they are, come from a Google Scholar search for articles with “patronage” in their title. But it is remarkable that the authors by-pass alternative African scholarly literature on patrimonialism and neo-patrimonialism and that they devote many pages to worthy US writings of Sorauf, Scott Bearfield and others. This is a diversion which does not solve any questions raised in the fieldwork reports.The authors point out repeatedly that conflict in local government revolves around struggles for positions in party structures. Perhaps explicit mention should have been made of an unusual feature of South African democracy – the recognition of local government in the Constitution and the direct and equitable funding of local government through the Division of Revenue Act. These provisions, enacted to decentralize power to the people and to enable democracy, have set up local government as a terrain of struggle over resources. In other countries in Africa, local authorities have power (and often financing) that is derived from national or state governments, and which can be granted or denied at the whim of national politicians. This is not the case in SA, where local authorities are recognized as a co-equal sphere of government. Local authorities have original powers based in the Constitution and resources guaranteed from the national fiscus. There really is something to fight about. Perhaps the most insightful section of the book is the short analysis note on Political office as a source of employment – power struggles. “The political rivalry amongst the local elites is spurred by spoils of office.” This is followed by a list of recommendations, including one to “Eliminate factionalism within parties …factional patronage politics has the tendency to attract crooks who by mimicking and exaggerating factional conspiracies, entrench themselves in parties and aggravate poor service delivery.”The other recommendations, such as fighting corruption, selecting candidates for local government based on democracy and merit, enforcing accountability and ensuring that people know their rights are all spot on.Political will is the missing element – and where will that come from?