The study focuses and explores citizen participation in the policy and planning process in local government in Lesotho. The study argues that citizen participation in the policy and planning process is important. This is because it is through citizen participation that the government is rendered accountable and responsive to the needs of the local community. Secondly, citizen participation is important in that it helps in the deepening of democracy. In Lesotho, citizen participation has been encouraged by the different governments since the era of Moshoeshoe to the present regime. Lesotho held the first democratic local government elections in 2005. One of the objectives of introducing local government is to foster citizen participation in policy and planning processes. The interviews conducted reveal that citizen participation is taking place even though at a minute degree. Several challenges exist in local government that hinder active and effective citizen participation in local government in Lesotho. One of the major challenges impeding citizen participation is the statutory framework regulating citizens’ participation in local government. This study has found that there is no direct legal or policy framework regulating or enforcing citizen participation in local government. Coupled with this challenge is another crucial challenge relating to the structure and mechanisms that are used for citizen participation. The study reveals that the structures and mechanisms are not adequate to enhance and encourage citizen participation. Pursuant to this, the study proposes some reforms with a view to improving citizen participation in Lesotho. Firstly, the study proposes that the policy and legislative frameworks be improved so as to provide enough scope and space for citizen participation. These frameworks should provide for adequate structures, mechanisms as well as processes and areas that can improve citizen participation in local government. Secondly, crucial instruments for community participation in planning such as the IDP, budget process and the performance management in South African context can be designed with specific cognisance of the structures established. Thirdly, the government must encourage, educate and sensitize citizens to actively take part in local government, through capacity building programmes. It can take the advantage of the NGOs already working with the communities and citizens as a strategy to enhance citizen participation. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLIAH ABSTRACT: Several indispensable variables for effective community development include, among others: development skills, networking and partnership, and community participation in the development project life cycle. The study aimed to derive relevant lessons about these factors for Rwanda from the South African community development experience. A literature study was first undertaken on key concepts such as participation, rural community, development, and policy and practice. Literature on principles and policies guidelines for community development in both the South African and Rwandan contexts was also reviewed. Within the perspective of comparative analysis, the socio-political and historical backgrounds of both countries served as the basis of criteria for selecting four case studies. From South Africa, three case studies were selected from both the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. One postapartheid study was regarded as unsuccessful and one was successful. The third is a successful ongoing case that straddles the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. From Rwanda, a postgenocide ongoing case was selected on the grounds of its perceived success. A comparative analysis was undertaken of practical results and the South African experience provided actual relevance for Rwanda in specific ways. In complete contrast to the current view that community driven development depends on the political context, the study shows that it depends rather on a number of objective principles for active community participation. What is demonstrated is that community driven development cannot be adequately supported by the developer-centred, consultation, and blueprint approaches because they fail to inspire active community participation. Nor can community participation be seen merely as cheap labour or superficial involvement. Instead, it implies empowering the community with development skills that enable people to acquire more choices and gain control of their community life. To achieve such empowerment, the study stresses the need for a shift toward the bottom-up approach to the planning and implementing of rural-based development projects. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskeie onmisbare veranderlikes vir doeltreffende gemeenskapsontwikkeling sluit, onder andere, die volgende m: ontwikkelingsvaardighede, netwerk en vennootskap, en gemeenskapsdeelname aan die lewensiklus van die ontwikkelingsprojek. Die studie het gepoog om relevante lesse omtrent hierdie faktore vir Rwanda af te lei uit Suid-Afrika se ondervinding ten opsigte van gemeenskapsontwikkeling. 'n Literatuurstudie oor sleutelbegrippe soos deelname, landelike gemeenskap, ontwikkeling en beleid en praktyk, is eers onderneem. Literatuur oor beginsels en beleidsriglyne vir gemeenskapsontwikkeling in sowel die Suid- Afrikaanse as Rwandese omgewings is ook bestudeer. Binne die perspektief van vergelykende analise, het die sosio-politiese en historiese agtergrond van albei lande gedien as die basis van die kriteria waarvolgens vier gevallestudies gekies is. Drie Suid-Afrikaanse gevallestudies is uit die apartheids- en die post-apartheidsera gekies. Een post-apartheidstudie is as onsuksesvol beskou en een as suksesvol. Die derde geval is 'n suksesvolle, voortgaande een uit die apartheidsera en daarna. Uit Rwanda is 'n voortgaande geval uit die era na die volksmoord op grond van sy sigbare sukses gekies. 'n Vergelykende analise van die praktiese resultate is onderneem, en die Suid-Afrikaanse ondervinding het op spesifieke maniere wesenlike toepassings vir Rwanda verskaf. In algehele teenstelling met die huidige opvatting dat gemeenskapsgedrewe ontwikkeling afhang van die politieke omgewing, wys hierdie studie dat dit eerder van 'n aantalobjektiewe beginsels vir aktiewe gemeenskapsdeelname afhang. Wat gedemonstreer word, is dat gemeenskapsgedrewe ontwikkeling nie voldoende deur ontwikkelaargesentreerde, konsultasie- en bloudrukbenaderings ondersteun kan word nie, aangesien hulle nie daarin slaag om aktiewe gemeenskapsdeelname te inspireer nie. Net so kan gemeenskapsdeelname nie bloot gesien word as goedkoop arbeid of oppervlakkige betrokkenheid nie. Dit impliseer eerder die bemagtiging van die gemeenskap met ontwikkelingsvaardighede wat mense in staat stelom meer keuses te bekom en om beheer oor hulle gemeenskapslewe te verkry. Die studie beklemtoon dat, ten einde hierdie bemagtiging te bereik, daar 'n skuif moet plaasvind na die benadering waar die gemeenskap betrokke is by die beplanning en implementering van landelikgebaseerde ontwikkelingsprojekte.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

The purpose of this research is to develop an information system to input public values into the planning and evaluation process. A hierarchy of goals is developed and disaggregated until terms meaningful to the general public, and describing the state of the world, can be input to the disaggregation. The relationship between the planning process and the public values expressed by the terms describing the state of the world is discussed. A function is hypothesized to quantify one measure of perceived well-being. The application of the quantifying function to the general public and to sub-groups of the general public is discussed. The conventional scaling techniques of ranking and rating are discussed and compared with a general allocation technique and other psychologic scaling methods to estimate the parameters of the quantifying function. A power function is tested against the satisfaction ratings given a group of samples of water of varying clarity. The parameters thus estimated are significantly greater than zero. The general allocation technique was used to recover the parameters of the quantifying function and compared to the parameters estimated by the regression analysis. The general allocation technique showed promise as a means of recovering the public values. The general allocation technique was then applied to determine the goal and sub-goal preferences of subjects in Arizona and the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. The research indicates that community values can be input to the planning process by use of the disaggregated goal structure and the quantifying function. The general allocation technique, used in a mail survey, shows promise as a means of recovering community preferences. The disaggregation of community goals may provide a means of linking the technical criteria of the professional and the values and goals of the general public. The development of a hierarchy of goals may provide an additional tool for decision makers and professionals in their analysis of public values.

Over the past decade the movement of natural gas drilling operations toward more suburban and urban communities has created unique policy challenges for municipalities. Municipal response is manifest in a variety of institutional arrangements, some more enabling than others regarding citizen access to public hearings. This observation lead to the main research question, “How are variations in citizen participation affecting policy outcomes?” The argument is made that institutions affecting citizen participation, in turn affect policy outcomes. If the general public is given access to public hearings, their preferences for longer setbacks will be taken into account and the approved gas wells will have greater distances from neighboring residences – effectively providing for greater safety. Given the paucity of research on the topic of natural gas drilling, the research first begins with the presentation of a theoretical framework to allow for analysis of the highly complex topic of gas well permitting, emphasizing the rule-ordered relationships between the various levels of decision making and provides a typology of collective action arenas currently used by Texas municipalities. The research uses paired case studies of most similar design and employs a mixed methods process for the collection, analysis and interpretation of the municipal level gas well permitting process. The investigation includes a complete census of 185 approved gas wells from four North Texas cities between the years 2002-2012; 20 interviews comprised of city officials and drilling operators; and archival records such as gas well site plans, ordinances, on-line government documents and other public information. The findings reveal that zoning institutions are associated with a 15% longer gas well setback than siting institutions and institutions without waivers are associated with a 20% longer gas well setback than institutions with waiver rules. The practical implications suggest that citizen participation has a positive effect on public safety within gas well permitting decisions.

This study investigated the extent and scope of citizen voice in public decision-making in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) from two theoretical perspectives. It is structured around three components; an in-depth exposition of the literature on citizen participation, application of two theoretical frameworks applied to the scope of citizen voice in the GPL and an applied case study approach. This study found that the literature ascribes multiple meanings to citizen participation and that there are incongruities in the manner in which the literature conceptualises, describes the mechanisms, and outlines the intentions, and outcomes of citizen participation. Citizen voice in the GPL is deemed to be contextual to and influenced by the interplay of the socio-political environment, multiple interests, values and sub-systems. The case study approach allows for an expanded analysis of the implicit power dynamics in the GPL and the institutional political processes on the nature and extent of citizen voice. In this study citizen voice is regarded as an opportunity for direct, representational and/or institutional expression of citizen interests in public decisions consolidating democracy, citizenship and legitimate government.The GPL’s policy documents point to a stated intent of democratic public participation conceived and pursued as citizen control, empowerment and partnership. However the conclusion is that this participation vacillates between information sharing and consultations, but not decisionmaking control. The study asserts that the theory on citizen voice in public decision-making is under-developed and there is a disconnection between the literature and citizen experiences.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, School of Environmental Sciences, 2017. / Public participation in environmental impact assessments has been the subject of many studies around the world. The effectiveness of the public participation process in a South African context has however not been tackled by many authours. A study was conducted in order to assess the effectiveness of the public participation for environmental impact assessments in South Africa. In order to achieve this, 20 environmental impact reports were scrutinised, key informant interviews were conducted and analysis of legislation, regulation as well as applicable Guidelines was carried out. Results indicated that public participation in environmental impact assessment regulation fall short of addressing what the principles of the law states. Consequently, there is a need for the review of regulation to prescribe the involvement of marginalised groups through additional participation such as public meetings in the appropriate language as well as ensuring skills development to aid in effective participation. The inclusion of the monitoring of the implementation of the environmental management programmes as well as the inclusion of public participation in this process and therefore the life cycle of the project will aid in ensuring that the public has access to decision making. / XL2018

Wan Hing-po. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1981. / Bibliography: leaves i-ix.