Papers by Lisa Ingrid Thompson
Politikon
The inclusion of citizen participation as a means to the equitable delivery of public services ha... more The inclusion of citizen participation as a means to the equitable delivery of public services has distinguished South Africa's democratic development trajectory over the last 20 years. While equitable resource allocation remains high on the agenda of more recently democratised states, most of which have highly diverse and unequally resourced populations. Influencing the design of more inclusive participation is the notion of a universal citizenship that applies the concept of the equality of individuals to the needs, identities and sense of agency of citizens both between and within states. The liberal democratic theoretical conceptualisation of the individual centres on the notion of universal citizen, who is the recipient and embodiment of democracy through the rights bestowed through the democratic model. This conceptualisation has been criticised for its inability to deal with the imprecision of individual and collective political identities, especially as these evolve in newly democratic contexts. The construction of a single identity citizen living in communities imbued with homogenous characteristics is carried forward into the policy construction of participatory governance. This article explores and challenges the notion of the single identity citizen that belongs to one homogenous community that can be identified and drawn into formally constructed government spaces. The paper explores the construction of political and socioeconomic identities and how notions of community are constructed by citizens, on the one hand, and government policies, on the other.
Revista de Administração Pública
Globally, policy environments have become increasingly more complex with the growth in the number... more Globally, policy environments have become increasingly more complex with the growth in the number of wicked problems, such as that posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In their response to these problems, public administrations have, from necessity, become heavily reliant on their intergovernmental relations systems, as the challenges posed generally require multilevel responses. This paper analyzes the role of intergovernmental relations in shaping the responses of the BRICS countries when confronted with COVID-19. We develop an analytical framework to understand the dynamics of intergovernmental relations in these countries. Based on this we assess the capacity of the state and political systems to manage intergovernmental relations and ensure effective responses to the COVID-19 crisis. This framework is based on an analysis of three dimensions of the policy domain: the political and state system, formal and informal institutions, and the political alignment between them. Whilst state ...
Public Administration and Development
Aid, in the form of financial aid and investment, has become increasingly prevalent in both bilat... more Aid, in the form of financial aid and investment, has become increasingly prevalent in both bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the BRICS. In Africa, the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation provides the official framings for forms of development assistance to the continent, with financial forms of aid available through the New Development Bank and the China–Africa Development Bank (CADFund). This article explores how Chinese international development assistance has influenced South Africa's economic growth and development strategies and is reshaping South Africa as “gateway” to Africa and continental leader. Special economic zones (SEZs) have become a prioritised form of BRICS development collaboration particularly in terms of Chinese trade and investment expansionism into Africa through South Africa. Chinese international development assistance and foreign direct investment in South Africa in particular are very notable and have been strengthened during the Chinese official state visit prior to the Johannesburg BRICS Summit in 2018. The article critically analyses the development policy discourse on BRICS spearheading an alternative model of South–South international cooperation by examining the Coega SEZ in South Africa, hailed as the most SEZ in Africa. The article critically examines the development alternative potential of the Coega SEZ.
Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal
In this paper we examine the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) bloc's stated com... more In this paper we examine the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) bloc's stated commitment to collective, inclusive development through the creation of the civil society participatory mec...
Chinese Political Science Review
The BRICS partnership has been portrayed in mainstream social media as an interstate initiative t... more The BRICS partnership has been portrayed in mainstream social media as an interstate initiative that could challenge the geo-political hegemony of the Western bloc. Thus, far relatively little has been said about the prospect of extending the partnership to the level of ordinary citizens and how this might be achieved. A declared goal of BRICS, articulated in 2016, is that of ''building responsive, inclusive collective solutions to core themes with a particular focus on institution-building, implementing past commitments and exploring innovative solutions to common issues''. This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the idea of ''BRICS from below'' might entail in policy terms by looking at how BRICS pronouncements have led to collective solutions, especially to economic development as it affects the local level, using South Africa as the case study site. The paper concludes that it appears the realities of the forms of engagement still resonate with more traditional forms of state led alliance building that are aimed less at transformation than at coordinating 'national self-interest'.
Africanus, 2008
The main area of investigation in the article is the link between poverty alleviation and the Mil... more The main area of investigation in the article is the link between poverty alleviation and the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The fieldwork-based research focuses on the ways in which the achievement of targets on water service delivery help to improve the quality of life of poor communities in the township setting of Khayelitsha, Western Cape. The authors argue that, based on qualitative and quantitative survey research conducted in Khayelitsha between 2005 and 2007, it is clear that the achievement of MDG goals in South Africa in the area of water service delivery have not led to de facto satisfactory service delivery in the eyes of many communities. In many instances communities have negative perceptions of government water service provision policies and their participatory role in service delivery generally. The authors conclude that the MDG goals may obscure aspects of chronic poverty relating to services by hiding the realities of ill-conceived and implemented water and sanitation policies on the ground behind a front of deceptively packaged water and sanitation provision statistics.
Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies, 2000
The articles in this issue of Africanus form part of an ongoing collaborative research programme,... more The articles in this issue of Africanus form part of an ongoing collaborative research programme, entitled New Forms of Citizenship (NFC), that focuses on citizen engagement at local government level, based at the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (ACCEDE). Each of the articles focuses on citizen-based strategies of engagement within local government structures and self-generated or self-created forms of governance, such as street committees, as well as more structured forms of community organisation; including locally grounded but nationally based social movements - such as the South African National Civics Association (SANCO).
This article examines how women organise themselves in community structures to claim socioeconomi... more This article examines how women organise themselves in community structures to claim socioeconomic rights through participation. The discussion is based on case study research undertaken in Khayelitsha, Site C, where women involved in incomegenerating projects (IGPs) have also been involved in a dual strategy of trying to improve their living conditions through active engagement. The article looks at the intermediary institutions, the South African national Civics Association (SANCO) and the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) which mediate the participatory spaces for engagement created by local government, and how these organisations serve ordinary men and women from the townships in terms of helping them to attain a better quality of life.
Protest politics in South Africa has a long history and has been deployed differentially in diffe... more Protest politics in South Africa has a long history and has been deployed differentially in different historical moments. Whereas protests formed an important vehicle during the fight against apartheid, their rebirth and propulsion to the centre of the struggles in the post-apartheid dispensation have come as a surprise to many. A majority of these protests, so-called 'service delivery protests', are reported as emanating from communities' dissatisfaction with municipal service delivery as well as problems relating to lack of communication between council and councillors on the one hand and citizens on the other. In this article, we interrogate data from five study sites located in Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg. While we found support for the importance of service delivery, our data contradicts many widely held assertions as regards what causes these protests. We were able to show, for example, that these so-called 'service delivery protests' may actually emanate from reasons that extend beyond service delivery. Since our data indicates that levels of participation in Cape Town are higher than in Pietermaritzburg on the one hand, illustrating perhaps the different provincial contexts, there is also variation between the relatively high participation rates of the 'black African' sites of Langa and Khayelitsha, on the one hand, and the lower rates of the 'coloured' site of Bonteheuwel, on the other, which we ascribe to the disengagement of the community in Cape Town, from both local and national politics.
South African Journal of International Affairs, 1994
... Anthony Leysens and Lisa Thompson are bolh members of the Department of Political Science in ... more ... Anthony Leysens and Lisa Thompson are bolh members of the Department of Political Science in the University of Stellenbosch. ... economic blueprint include: stimulating trade through phased tariff reductions (to move into line with the requirements of GATT), export processing ...
Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 1992
Isolated States: A Comparative Analysis by Deon Geldenhuys. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 1990.764... more Isolated States: A Comparative Analysis by Deon Geldenhuys. Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 1990.764 pp. including notes and index.South Africa's Foreign Policy: The Search for Status and Security 1945 ‐ 1988 by James Barber and John Barratt. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg, 1990. ix plus 398 pp. including appendix, notes and index.
Revue Internationale des Sciences Administratives, 2013
Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour I.I.S.A.. © I.I.S.A.. Tous droits réservés pour tous pa... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour I.I.S.A.. © I.I.S.A.. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
International Review of Administrative Sciences, 2013
Much of the focus in the literature on participatory development has been on the demand side and ... more Much of the focus in the literature on participatory development has been on the demand side and on the extent to which citizens succeed in pressuring the state to deliver basic services. Less attention has been focused on the supply side of participatory development, namely on how state institutions give effect to development policies. Post-Apartheid South Africa is replete with policies and legislation supporting participatory processes and yet in practice this has seldom lived up to the ideals espoused. This article examines the delivery of public housing in poor communities in three municipalities in South Africa and argues that there is a mismatch between how the formulators of policy understand participation and how it is interpreted by beneficiary communities and local officials. It concludes that considerably more attention needs to be focused on why officials fail to translate national policies into action if participatory democracy is to attain any legitimacy in the popula...
South African Journal of International …, 1994
... Anthony Leysens and Lisa Thompson are bolh members of the Department of Political Science in ... more ... Anthony Leysens and Lisa Thompson are bolh members of the Department of Political Science in the University of Stellenbosch. ... economic blueprint include: stimulating trade through phased tariff reductions (to move into line with the requirements of GATT), export processing ...
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Papers by Lisa Ingrid Thompson