Further from the people – bipartisan ‘nationalisation’ thwarting the electoral system

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorPiper, Laurence
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-26T06:37:59Z
dc.date.available2013-02-26T06:37:59Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractThis chapter argues that local government elections offer a unique opportunity in South Africa’s political system for voters to practice forms of democracy that are more local, plural and accountable in character than at provincial or national level. A key reason for this is the mixed electoral system where half of all councillors are directly elected from the wards in which they live. The 2011 election supplied significant evidence of voters attempting to make use of this opportunity, particularly around the candidate selection process of the major parties, and through the accountability talk that dominated public debate. However, analysis of both ‘supply’ (party behaviour) and ‘demand’ (voter choice) suggests that this democratic potential was outweighed by bipartisan politics between the ANC and DA which affirmed the national over the local, a choice between two parties over many, and reinforced identity-based political loyalties over the direct accountability of politicians. In short, the 2011 elections were rendered a proxy for a national competition, frustrating much of the unique democratic potential that local government elections offer, effectively taking local politics further from the people. The proposal to hold national, provincial and local elections simultaneously in the future will further impede the democratic potential of the local electoral system.en_US
dc.description.accreditationDepartment of HE and Training approved listen_US
dc.identifier.citationPiper, L. (2012). Further from the people – bipartisan ‘nationalisation’ thwarting the electoral system. In S. Booysen (ed). Local elections in South Africa: parties, people, politics. Bloemfontein: Sun Press, pp 31-44en_US
dc.identifier.isbn978-0-9870096-5-4
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/549
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterfalse
dc.publisherSUN Pressen_US
dc.rightsCopyright SUN Press. Permission was granted for reproduction of this file in the Repository.
dc.status.ispeerreviewedtrue
dc.subjectElectionsen_US
dc.subjectLocal government electionsen_US
dc.subjectPolitical systemen_US
dc.subjectLocal electoral systemen_US
dc.titleFurther from the people – bipartisan ‘nationalisation’ thwarting the electoral systemen_US
dc.typeBook chapteren_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
PiperElectoralSystem2012.pdf
Size:
147.36 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.55 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Books and Book Chapters (Political Studies)
Prof. Laurence Piper