This dissertation concerns the history of land politics in South Africa and, equally, land as a vehicle for understanding the transition from apartheid to the post-apartheid order. In 2004, after a decade in power, the ANC government’s failure to carry out widespread land reform began to test the country’s democratic possibilities. In the lead up to that year’s national election, social movements urged landless people to boycott the polls and occupy land instead as part of a “No Land! No Vote!” campaign. With this clash as its entry point for analysis, this dissertation examines historical factors that have shaped South Africa’s neoliberal democracy and prospects for redistribution. It offers insights into some of the most significant questions facing the country: What is the historical relationship between land dispossession, citizenship, and politics in South Africa? And why, well into the Mbeki years, was the country unable, or unwilling, to reckon with it? Broad in scope, this dissertation examines a number of institutions that shaped the politics of land, economic development, and citizenship in South Africa over the last century. It is particularly focused on period of the 1940s-2004, encompassing the apartheid era and the first ten years of democracy. I begin by recasting the history of apartheid pass laws in the mid-twentieth century, widening the scope beyond their role in containing labor mobility and controlling access to cities. I show how vagrancy laws were one piece of a continuum that stretched through jails and prisons to rural plantations, supplying labor to farms and subsidizing agricultural development. Later chapters examine how, beginning in the 1970s, the World Bank and other international institutions helped shape the contours of land and housing policies and the relationship between states and citizens. My research also shows how, during the apartheid transition and through the Mandela and Mbeki administrations, private prisons and harsh criminal justice reforms became integral parts of neoliberal economic development. This dissertation weaves together the history that has shaped South Africa’s ‘dispossessed democracy’ and concludes with a discussion of the implications for social movements and political change.

China’s dramatic religious revival over the last three decades has defied two dominant theories in the study of religion and politics: the secularization theory and the market theory of religion. Put simply, the former predicts declining religious significance along with economic modernization; and the latter holds that religious vitality is a function of state regulation. Not only is religious observance on the rise despite continued economic growth, but also the upsurge of religion has coincided with the atheist state’s unceasing effort to curb religious expansion. This dissertation focuses on the material dimension of religious revival. It investigates the mixed material and ideational incentives of both state and religious actors in the processes of temple restoration, their interactions, and the resulting variety of temple autonomy. One of the key findings is that mass temple restoration has been greatly driven by state agents acting on their own interests. The atheist state and its local agents encourage temple reconstruction and tolerate priestly autonomy when doing so is expedient to social stability and economic growth imperative to their political survival. This dissertation argues that temple restoration has become a repertoire in local economic development. Local state agents seek to restore temples and redirect their functions to mass tourist consumption. Due to the immobility of temple assets, aspiring religious leaders seek to demonstrate political conformity and the temple’s economic contribution in their struggle for religious autonomy. As a result, Buddhism and Taoism have been battling with constant pressure of local state-led religious commodification. The close tie between temples and the interests of various state agents has resulted in uncertain religious development and a state-religion relationship that is simultaneously cooperative and contentious. The research hence contributes to our understanding of the antinomies of authoritarian state legitimation wherein state-religion enmities are endogenous to the system of economic development and religious governance. More broadly, the research situates the upsurge of religion in the larger cultural and institutional contexts and explores less-studied top-down religious institutionalization and its sociopolitical consequences. It therefore enriches the study of religion and politics by bringing the modernizing state and its local representatives to the forefront as the agent of secularization as well as religious restoration.

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M.Com. (Labour Relations) / This study focuses on the affirmative action debate in South Africa as it manifests firstly in current and possible practices, and secondly expectations of legislation in the future. The reasoning behind the study is that it is imperative to do a study on this, one of the most controversial subjects currently under debate in South Africa, while so many companies are in the process of implementing systems of affirmative action. An overview of affirmative action legislation in other countries of the world were presented. These systems form the core of any debate on the subject of affirmative action in South Africa. The South African debate, as well as present systems and support for affirmative action legislation were investigated. An analysis of the present problems facing the black education system in South Africa and the initiatives to overcome these problems were given. A probable model of affirmative action legislation that the ANC and some other black political parties would most probably support was then given, based on the foregoing study. The conclusions drawn from the results obtained after the study, was that the black political parties and groupings that support the ideals of the ANC support a 60 percent quota-system. Most companies in South Africa have either already implemented an affirmative action or equal opportunities policy, or are in the process of adopting such a policy. In many cases the reasons for adopting such policies seem to be the expectation of future legislation that would force them to adopt radical affirmative action policies. The expectations of the black community, in terms of affirmative action legislation, also seem to be extremely high. This puts much pressure on both companies and black political parties to support and implement affirmative action.

Small states are challenged with lower levels of influence than larger states and require special strategies to overcome these challenges. Multilateral organisations (“MLOs”) are often dominated by larger members who have traditionally been leaders of these organisations. Soft power strategies, through attraction and co-option, are viable alternatives for small states to gain influence within MLOs. The aim of this research was to formulate a typology of soft power strategies and a framework which small states can use to gain influence within MLOs. A qualitative and exploratory study was conducted, which involved semi-structured interviews with six respondents. A multiple case study approach that analysed four countries within four MLOs was used. The findings were that the greater the number of soft power sources possessed by a party, the greater the strength of such party’s soft power. It was inconclusive that open markets and open communication is better suited to using soft power. The common interest principle was found to be a necessary condition for the effective use of soft power. The overall finding was that soft power strategies are dependent on the strength of the soft power source and the type of context within which it is exercised. A framework was formulated for the use of soft power. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Republic of Sudan represented by the National Congress Party (NCP) and the SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) which represented the people of the Southern part of Sudan in January 2005 ushered in a rare era of peace and hope for the rebuilding and construction of the war ravaged South Sudan. Coupled with the attainment of Independence for South Sudan through an internationally supervised referendum in January 2011, the objectives of years of struggle by the people of the formerly semi-autonomous region were completed. From 2005 until after the independence of South Sudan however, a period that initially was marked by huge euphoria and broad based anticipation of development boom, the support from both local and international actors for the struggle and the plight of the people of South Sudan is waning and at worst has now turned into despair and hopelessness. After attaining independence in 2011, the highest party organ, the Political Bureau decided to remove candidates who were popularly voted by their constituents and replaced them with their cronies, leading to mass exodus of cadres from the party. On top of that, the wide believe that the elections were rigged for SPLM candidates at the expense of the Independent candidates led to another wave of exodus and open rebellion by many veteran cadres of the movement. Today, these rebellions coupled with some complex problematic societal issues are major concern and a source of political instability and violence in some parts of the country. Secondly, the hasty process of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) campaign, which in some cases were forcefully done left some communities exposed and venerable to attacks by rival communities. This continue to exacerbate and ignite tribal hatred, tension and stereotypes between communities especially in the traditionally volatile parts of the country that are known for cattle rustling and tribal rivalry as a form of cultural practice. Unresolved post secession issues within the SPLM had resulted to political instability and violence thus having negative economic consequences for South Sudan and all the gains the country had made in the past few years vanished after December 15 2013 political upheaval. This thesis will examine the effects of these mentioned complex political instability and economic dilemma South Sudan is being confronted with in the face of the fact that it is still in the process of nation building having attained its Independence only in July 2011.

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Using data for 93 countries from 1972 through 2001 in cross-national analysis, this study compares the relative economic strength of a country's middle-class with its civil liberties performance and its history of domestic and external conflict. For purposes of this analysis, the relative strength of a country's middle-class is determined by multiplying the square root of a country's gross domestic product per capita by the percentage of income distributed to the middle 60 % of the population (middle class income share). Comparisons between this measure of per capita income distributed (PCID) and several other indicators show the strength of the relationship between PCID and civil liberties performance and domestic and external conflict. In the same manner, comparisons are made for the middle class income share (MCIS) alone. The countries are also divided by level of PCID into 3 world classes of 31 countries each for additional comparisons. In tests using bivariate correlations, the relationships between PCID and MCIS are statistically significant with better civil liberties performance and fewer internal conflicts. With multivariate regression the relationship between PCID and civil liberties performance is statistically significant but not for PCID and internal conflict. As expected, in both correlations and regression between PCID and external conflict, variables related to power dominate. However, when the countries are divided into world classes by level of PCID, the eleven countries with the highest level of PCID have had no internal or external conflict since 1972. Moreover, there is no within group conflict for countries in either the upper or middle classes of countries based on their level of PCID. The between group conflict does include democracies.

Why do some communities have access to essential services, such as water or health care, and neighboring communities do not? How do citizens influence the distribution of public services? This dissertation presents a theory of "trading favors" in which I argue that communities can coordinate and trade their collective votes for preferential access to public services. This long-term relationship with politicians is a form of local distributive politics, and I highlight that neighborhood associations provide a platform for voters to organize and increase their bargaining power towards politicians. I argue that 1) high community activity and 2) strong, unified leadership can enable group members to coordinate their votes before an election and get the attention of politicians after the election to improve their access to public services. I focus on variation in water access: water scarcity is a growing global concern, and access to water is often manipulated as a political tool. During 18 months of fieldwork, I collected extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence from the state of Ceará in Northeast Brazil. I include a historical discussion of the origins of community organizing and introduce a typology of community organizing. I illustrate the theoretical mechanisms through case studies of neighboring communities that draw on 104 qualitative interviews with rural residents, local leaders, state bureaucrats, and academic experts. I test my main hypotheses through statistical analysis of an original household survey with 1,990 respondents from 120 rural communities merged with precinct-level electoral data. I also analyze long-term voting patterns at over 15,000 electoral precincts across Ceará in five municipal elections. I find that water access is most reliable and secure in communities with high community activity, strong social ties, and constant leadership. I find evidence for my main mechanism: organized communities are more likely to concentrate their votes, and bloc voting improves water access. Communities are very consistent in their bloc voting behavior over time: the same places continue to concentrate their votes, and the same places continue to disperse their votes. I also find evidence that many communities switch allegiance across elections, which indicates that communities are credible in their threats to switch their electoral support if they do not get the services they need. My findings shed light on the important but poorly understood influence of collective action on local politics and development. The distributive politics literature tends to focus on decision-making by parties and politicians. My results demonstrate the agency of voters in organizing collectively to select and influence candidates that make distributive appeals, especially through neighborhood associations. I develop our understanding of local leaders, who often serve as development/vote brokers and intermediate access to the state, and I provide evidence that poor citizens bargain with their votes and can use bloc voting as a grassroots strategy for improving public service access.