Dissertation Submitted in Fulfilment of the Degree: Master of Management by Dissertation Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management: Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand 2017 / The City of Johannesburg has produced five iterations of its City Development Strategy over the last 17 years with the latest CDS Joburg 2040, launched in 2011. This dissertation argues that the City of Joburg’s leading role in negotiating for developmental local government paved the way for long term planning at the local government sphere. CDSs prior to Joburg 2040 were developed as technical documents prioritising the needs of the municipal institution over citizens. Formulating Joburg 2040 epitomised a combination of economic and political conflicts taking place in the city. Joburg 2040 attempted to break the path dependence of urban growth and development by re-envisioning the imperative of urban transformation. Thus, Joburg 2040 attempted to emphasise a political imperative of an incoming leadership that was willing to listen and engage with citizens by coproducing a long term vision for the City. As participation has being ineffective in facilitating active involvement of the citizenry, participatory processes have served the needs of the municipality rather than citizens. Joburg 2040 was a politically championed process of developing a CDS that attempted to change that status quo. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. 2016 / This thesis focuses on the everyday operation of the African National Congress (ANC) as a dominant party in post-apartheid South Africa. It examines the scope of intraparty politics, particularly the trajectory of factionalism in ANC local structures after 1994. Despite the dominance of the ANC in South Africa’s political field, its more recent political trajectory most particularly since it became a party of government in 1994 is much less well understood (Butler and Southall 2015: 1). The party has traditionally been studied using a top-down perspective and with a focus on elite level exchanges in which dynamics at the national level are viewed to reverberate downwards whilst drawing on information from party leaders. The contribution made by this thesis is that it offers a detailed qualitative focus on the operation of ANC intraparty politics at a local level drawing on evidence from Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. The overriding aim of this study which is informed by theoretical expositions on the dominant party approach and on patronage and clientelism, is to understand how factionalism in the ANC has evolved in the post-apartheid era. The thesis observes that the ANC’s political dominance after 1994 saw the gradual conflation of the party and state partly through two processes related the party’s transformative agenda. Firstly, the state itself had to be transformed to reflect the demographic composition of the country and for the most part the ANC deployed its cadres into the state who could tow the party line. Secondly, the party relied on the state as a vehicle for redistribution and the transformation of the broader political economy to achieve equity and growth. Hence black economic empowerment, state preferential procurement and other policies to uplift previously disadvantaged social groups became stepping stones for the emergent African middle and upper class. Whilst these processes transformed the state, they also fundamentally transformed the party itself as it became a site of accumulation. Intraparty contestation intensified over the limited opportunities for upward mobility provided by access to the state. The thesis argues that factionalism increasingly became characterised by patronage as competing groups within the party sought to ring-fence their political power and the opportunities for upward mobility provided by the state. This was also compounded by deepening neoliberalism whose consequences of unemployment, poverty and inequality especially at the local level led to increased dependence on the local state and the development of factionalism based on patronage politics. The thesis then explores how patronage operates in everyday practice at the local level. It shows how patron-client relationships are not merely the exchange of state resources for political support but rather they embody a field of power relations (Auyero 2001). Evidence from Buffalo City offers an important insight into how patronage exchanges are preceded by complex relationships of power that are established over time and through various enactments. The thesis demonstrates how patrons, brokers and clients exercise various forms of power every day that inform inclusion or exclusion into networks for distributing scarce state resources. It challenges views that regard factionalism and patronage as elite driven practices. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Management at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management in Public and Development Management, 2016 / This report sought to determine the nature of participatory democracy practices in Madibeng municipality. In order to achieve the intension of this study, two research questions were formulated (1) what is the nature of participatory democracy in Madibeng municipality? (2) To what extent does the implementation of participatory democracy mechanisms influence municipal policy decisions? A hypothesis was formulated in respect of the second question that: The implementation of participatory democracy mechanisms in Madibeng is limited to compliance with existing laws and regulations. Data was drawn from two strata’s (population samples), [ward councillors and community members] from Madibeng municipality. A probability simple random sampling was used to collect data from a total list of 36 ward councillors, whilst a non-probability convenient sampling was used to collect data from 27 community members. In respect of ward councillors, the study targeted 26 respondents and only achieved 52% response rate, whilst a total of 11 respondent was targeted and 27 responses were attained, indicating 145% response rate in respect of data collected from community members. The general finding in relation to the first question is that participatory democracy practice in Madibeng municipality is characterised by the implementation of five mechanisms; IDP, Ward committee structures, Mayoral imbizos, Policy public hearings and Petitioning system. A revelation was made that communities prefer to participate in IDP and ward committee structures meetings than the other three mechanisms reflected in the report. However, it remained unclear as to how effective and efficient is the exercising of the two preferred mechanisms. The general arguments found in various literature sources, that the practice of participatory democracy in South Africa’s local municipalities seem ineffective and often do not often yield positive results, was also confirmed by this study. This conclusion was based on the revelations made from the contradicting responses given by ward councilors and community members. In general, ward councilors considered the implementation of available participatory democracy practices in Madibeng as effective and strongly believed such practices informs the municipal Executive Council’s policy decisions to a large extent. On the other hand, community members seemed unsure or inadequately informed about the influence, their participation in policy decisions has on the overall service delivery by the municipality. / XL2018

Neste trabalho é avaliado o impacto da interoperabilidade intergovernamental na melhoria da eficiência nos processos de governo eletrônico, em especial entre estados e municípios. Governo Eletrônico é visto como o uso intensivo de tecnologia da informação para atender às necessidades do Estado com foco nos cidadãos, visando otimizar os processos governamentais. A Interoperabilidade é a capacidade de troca transparente de dados entre sistemas. A união dos dois conceitos, aplicada nas relações intergovernamentais, tem como objetivo propiciar, principalmente ao poder executivo nas três instâncias - união, estados e municípios -, a troca de dados de forma transparente e desburocratizada, buscando a melhoria do atendimento ao cidadão e da eficiência, eficácia e efetividade entre os entes federados. Para compreender a influência da interoperabilidade na eficiência destes processos foi analisado o processo de matrículas escolares entre os sistemas do estado e do município de São Paulo. No Estado de São Paulo são realizadas, anualmente, cerca de dez milhões de matrículas no ensino básico, sendo um terço (três milhões e meio aproximadamente) no município de São Paulo. Partindo-se da descrição histórica do processo de implantação, são apresentadas as motivações que levaram à criação de interoperabilidade entre os sistemas de matrícula dos dois entes federados, barreiras encontradas para a implantação, como foram enfrentadas e o impacto na eficiência tanto nos processos internos quanto no atendimento à população. Além do processo ter sido simplificado com a interoperabilidade, conclui-se que o impacto na eficiência dos processos internos de controle e gestão dos sistemas foi grande, principalmente nas secretarias de escolas, onde foram percebidas melhorias significativas, apesar de persistirem outros problemas no processo como um todo. A inexistência da interoperabilidade entre os sistemas dos outros estados da federação faz com que o tempo de matrícula de um aluno transferido de fora do Estado de São Paulo seja muito superior ao tempo de confirmação de aluno transferido no Estado de São Paulo. / In this paper, the impact of intergovernmental interoperability in improving e-government processes efficiency between states and municipalities is evaluated. E-Government is considered the intensive use of information technology to meet the state\'s needs with a focus on citizens in order to optimize governmental processes. Interoperability is the ability of transparent data exchange between systems. The joint of the two concepts, applied to intergovernmental relations, aims to provide, mainly to the executive in three instances -union, states and municipalities-, to exchange data seamlessly, without bureaucracy, seeking to improve public service and the state\'s efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness. In order to understand interoperability\'s influence in the efficiency of these processes we have analyzed school enrollment\'s process among São Paulo city and state\'s systems. In São Paulo state annually about ten million enrollments in primary education are performed, being a third part (three and a half million approximately) in São Paulo city. Based on the historical description of the deployment process, in this paper are presented the motivations that led to the creation of interoperability between registration\'s systems of the two federal entities, the barriers encountered to the deployment and how they were faced, and the impact on efficiency in both internal processes and in the service to population. We also conclude that the impact on efficiency of internal control processes and management systems was of great deal, as well as in the schools secretariats, where significant improvements in efficiency were perceived, although other problems persist in the process as a whole. Due to the lack of interoperability between systems of other federation states, the time of transferring a student registration from outside of São Paulo is higher than the time transferring from São Paulo municipalities. Besides this, interoperability simplified processes between both systems.

This thesis presents an interpretivist analysis of institutional development in the English regional assemblies. It presents a history of institutional development in the regions, arriving at a conceptualization of this tier as a site of ‘institutional ambiguity.’ Exploring the theoretical bases of institutions and conducting a thorough critique of the schools of institutionalism, this thesis takes forward the theory of ‘constructivist institutionalism.’ A theoretical framework focussed on the processes of institutional design and change is built from constructivist institutionalism, as is a complementary and coherent methodological package to explore the empirical sites of the West Midlands and North West regional assemblies. The concepts of ‘frames’ and ‘stories’ are set out as interpretivist tools through which the primary interview data is analysed, to capture the development of the democratic institution of representation as it relates to the local government and stakeholder actors involved in these two regional assemblies. This thesis finds actors engaged in interplay between structure and agency while contributing to the processes of institutional design and change. Actors draw together their ideas with the pre-existing institutional context, relating them together in discursive constructions (frames, stories) that underpin their strategic-relational action, which in turn underpins the institutions of the assemblies. Regional representation transpires to mimic local governmental norms due to the dominant influence of the pre-existing context.

Asking the question ‘why do ideas catch on in public policy’ reveals the inadequacy of ideational accounts to compete with the predominance of mainstream models of policy analysis. This thesis reasserts ideational accounts through the application of the political discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The approach posits ideas as demands operating in governing discourses and understands how general equivalent demands then become empty signifiers. This thesis develops current understanding on how general equivalents and empty signifiers function through an application to urban governance. It develops a qualitative account of governing in Birmingham using interviews between 2003-2005, and documents and media archives from the past twenty years. The thesis examines how mainstream ideational, rational, institutional and interpretative accounts understand the emergence of policy ideas and their role in coalitions, policy change and agency of actors. Discourse theory is revealed as a comprehensive approach for understanding these questions of ideas. The thesis develops a framework for the empirical application of discourse theory in Birmingham, exploring the relationship between two taken-for-granted governing discourses: renaissance and size. It shows how actors were motivated to reiterate and protect discourses from dislocation with development of the empty signifier of ‘flourishing neighbourhoods’. The thesis traces the credibility and emergence of flourishing neighbourhoods and contributes to a research agenda around hegemonic policy analysis.

This study seeks to understand the relationship between decentralisation and human resource management in Botswana and South Africa. The study is situated within the context of the New Public Management (NPM) that has influenced the Human Resource Management reforms that the two countries aspire to adopt. This study’s main finding is that although strategic human resource management (SHRM) and decentralisation are frequently assumed to go together and are both advocated by the BrettonWoods institutions, in the cases researched SHRM reforms have been accompanied by a tendency towards centralisation. This implies a trade-off between SHRM and decentralisation in Botswana and South Africa. The study used a mixed methods approach consisting of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, applied to a sample of local authorities in Botswana and the neighbouring North West province of South Africa. In both countries the implementation of HRM reforms in local government has been slow due to other considerations – political factors in the case of South Africa and professional bureaucratic issues in Botswana, reflecting the different path dependencies of the two countries. This study argues that from the cases studied even though developing countries may implement similar reforms based on similar policy advice or prescription, a combination of factors such as social and organisational culture that are not transferable between countries account for the difference in outcomes.

In this thesis I argue for consideration of an anticipatory level of sensemaking that influences how individuals think about and respond to organisational change. In asking how knowledgeable agents understand an altered environment, I adopt a holistic view of organisational and cognitive sensemaking literatures, to produce a sensemaking template identifying four key relational influences: Equilibration, Intentionality, Temporal Context, and Knowledge Structures. The sensemaking template is used to inform the design of an interpretive study. A single local authority in the West Midlands region of England is the setting for the field research which was working to meet increasing demands for local services against a backdrop of austerity budgets and decreasing resources in 2012-2013. I employ cognitive mapping as part of a multi-method approach to identify previously tacit frames of reference used by research participants in making sense of self-selected episodes of change in the organisation. In arguing that organisational change emerges through the enactment of cognitive agency, I use empirical data to expound on a previously invisible sensemaking process that is complex and nuanced, and which offers methodological, theoretical and analytical contributions to knowledge.

We address some of the challenges in achieving internet voting for real world elections. One challenge is that home-based computers are likely to be infected by malware, threatening both the integrity and privacy of the vote. Another concern is the possibility that a voter may be coerced to vote in a particular way, for example by a family member or organised crime ring. Moreover, any voting system intended to be used on a large scale should not require complex operations by voters whose purpose is hard to understand. We introduce a series of novel proposals for internet voting, presented across three parts. First we examine how the problem of malware-infected computers in internet voting could be solved. We propose to use a dedicated hardware token (which is not required to be trustworthy) that helps remove the need to trust the voting computer and the server. Second we examine how the outcome verification methods provided by internet voting can be made more intuitive. We show how using trial votes help voters achieve more intuitive verifiability. Third we examine how the tension between verifiability and incoercibility can be reconciled while maintaining the usability of the voting systems. We propose a new property which we call “coercion-evidence” that helps improve usability, reduce trust assumptions, while maintaining the security of the system.

This research investigated the relationship between organizational culture and public sector performance management. The research was based on a study of the promotion of good governance in the Thai public sector through the implementation of the performance agreement (PA) scheme, using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The scheme had faced numerous challenges, perceived to be influenced by organizational culture. It had been assumed that a transformational shift in the organizational culture of the civil service, in the direction of market-based or new public management (NPM) values, was required in order to secure improved performance. The research aimed to explore how organizational culture influences civil service performance and identify other organizational factors that may also influence civil service performance in the provincial administration of Thailand. The research used a mixed methods approach of questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews, based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF). Questionnaire surveys were carried out with 480 civil servants within 16 provinces. Semi-structured interviews – in-depth and focus group – were conducted within four provinces. A distinction was made between the low and high KPI scoring provinces. The findings of the research suggest that there was no dominant type of culture in the low and high KPI scoring provinces. Instead, a strong culture was found to be important in gaining high KPI scores, supported by participative leadership and appropriate management. Leadership style appeared to influence whether the public services performed to a high level, which seemed to be achieved through a balance between task focussed and people focussed. Therefore, a transformational cultural shift may not be required, but instead more effective leadership and management.