{"id":95040,"date":"2017-06-21T14:47:37","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T12:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/the-threat-to-south-africas-democracy-runs-deeper-than-state-capture-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:47:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T12:47:37","slug":"the-threat-to-south-africas-democracy-runs-deeper-than-state-capture-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-threat-to-south-africas-democracy-runs-deeper-than-state-capture-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"The threat to South Africa’s democracy runs deeper than state capture | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The threat to South Africa’s democracy runs deeper than state capture<\/a>: <\/p>\n

A protest in South Africa against housing shortages.<\/span> EPA\/Kim Ludbrook<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recently released report written by a group of South African social scientists, \u201cBetrayal of the Promise\u201d, considers the widespread capture of state institutions by a network linked to President Jacob Zuma and declares it \u201ca silent coup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference to a \u201ccoup\u201d might seem odd given that the democratically elected head of state is described as its patron. But South Africa\u2019s current predicament is not primarily about the individuals in specific offices. Rather, at its root, it\u2019s about a crisis in the country\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

The report by the academics proposes a dividing line between those committed to social transformation \u2013 as set out in the country\u2019s constitution \u2013 and those who aren\u2019t. The Zuma-aligned camp is alone on the latter side of this line.<\/p>\n

But, even though they don\u2019t have much else in common, almost all the country\u2019s key political alignments \u2013 political parties as well as social movements \u2013 share what I call a naive view of the state. They think that state institutions must be captured by one or another sector for state action to achieve a desired goal. <\/p>\n

This is an analytical and political cul-de-sac. South Africa\u2019s democratic crisis is a result of the unfinished project of remaking institutions first shaped under colonial and then apartheid rule. The challenge now is how to rebuild them so that they have both popular legitimacy and the capacity to achieve the promise of the country\u2019s constitution: to create a more equitable society.<\/p>\n

I describe this dominant view of the state as \u201cnaive\u201d because it treats institutions as terrain for narrow manipulation by one group or another. In fact the crisis shows that South Africa doesn\u2019t yet have, and desperately needs, effective institutions with the capacity to respond to broader society.<\/p>\n

Various views<\/h2>\n

Zuma\u2019s political allies in the African National Congress (ANC) insist that to reduce the power of \u201cwhite monopoly capital\u201d, the state must empower black industrialists by transferring public assets. <\/p>\n

They envisage this being primarily through state controlled concessions, such as mines, as well as contracts with state owned enterprises such as the power utility Eskom and transport group Transnet. This is complemented by vague pronouncements around land redistribution.<\/p>\n

The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) take a vanguardist position, arguing that state power can provide for the working class by nationalising private assets and redistributing land.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party in parliament, advocates the privatisation of public assets. It insists that this will subsidise public projects, although it\u2019s not clear how. <\/p>\n

For their part, civil society organisations seem to realise that state institutions, free from narrow private capture, are essential for a more capable state. They are beginning to focus much more attention on the integrity and independence of state institutions. Some are focusing on issues of government transparency and privacy, others on resisting attempts to compromise key ministries, especially Treasury. <\/p>\n

But civil society has little influence or connection to formal politics. Trade unions are split. Middle class professionals in the activist sphere have lost their links with trade unions and urban social movements, which proved such a powerful alliance for democratisation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Protests in urban townships are frequent but localised. They are rarely linked to any city wide agenda or movement. <\/p>\n

A failing democracy<\/h2>\n

Institutional \u201ccapture\u201d is both a symptom and a cause of the country\u2019s broader democratic crisis.<\/p>\n

The constitution contains some of the most extensive socio-economic rights anywhere in the world. But inequalities have been extraordinarily durable. <\/p>\n

Now the constitution itself is increasingly under attack. This shouldn\u2019t be surprising given that many state institutions, especially at the local level, aren\u2019t effective and, therefore, cannot realise the rights set out in the constitution.<\/p>\n

Democratic South Africa\u2019s challenge remains how to find a way to remake institutions so that they\u2019re capable of ensuring the rights guaranteed by the constitution are realised. <\/p>\n

Comparative insights from Brazil<\/h2>\n

In this it has lessons to learn from Brazil, which has similar constitutional guarantees. Despite recent political challenges, Brazil has managed to decentralise important parts of administering redistributive programmes. This has led to more capable institutions, especially at the municipal level.<\/p>\n

Since 1988 when a new constitution came into force, Brazilian cities have used large federal government revenue transfers for redistributive ends such as health, education and housing. <\/p>\n

On top of this, Brazilian cities have a long history of participatory councils, from city wide budgeting to specific policy sectors such as housing and health. In large cities like Sao Paulo, many of the social movements for housing, which helped drive the campaign for democracy in the 1980s, have remained important political and social movements. They\u2019ve helped reconstruct Brazil\u2019s local state institutions, which were previously a global example of weak and clientelistic politics. <\/p>\n

Cities like Sao Paulo now have institutions that are able to make big gains for poor people in sectors such as transport, housing and sanitation.<\/p>\n

This suggests important lessons for how to address South Africa\u2019s democratic crisis. <\/p>\n

Recapturing institutional legitimacy<\/h2>\n

A positive sum, redistributive agenda is the central promise of the South Africa\u2019s Constitution. This is also a requirement for the success of any dialogue between all sectors of South African society as proposed by the authors of Betrayal of the Promise.<\/p>\n

A debate over policy is going to be extraordinarily difficult while the country\u2019s institutions continue to lose legitimacy. This means that a focus on the capture of state institutions will need to go hand-in-hand with a focus on how they can be refashioned to be more responsive to society. <\/p>\n

South Africa awaits the movements and parties with the ideas and organisational strategies to take such a vision forward. Until then, the country will struggle to move beyond today\u2019s anti-democratic precipice.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Benjamin H. Bradlow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The threat to South Africa’s democracy runs deeper than state capture: A protest in South Africa against housing shortages. EPA\/Kim Ludbrook A recently released report written by a group of South African social scientists, \u201cBetrayal of the Promise\u201d, considers the widespread capture of state institutions by a network linked to President Jacob Zuma and declares […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4635,13094,8890,14349,4666,15214,3576,3054,4261,3731],"class_list":{"0":"post-95040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africas","8":"tag-capture","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-deeper","11":"tag-democracy","12":"tag-runs","13":"tag-south","14":"tag-state","15":"tag-than","16":"tag-threat","17":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}