Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Grassroots participation in the domain of public policy is assuming global significance particularly in the fields of welfare and development. Revived by the United Nations' resolution in the 1970s, many governments both in developed and underdeveloped countries have endorsed the grassroots participation ideals as contained in the United Nations' policy statements and resolutions. Accordingly, many governments have declared their support for grassroots participation and in number of cases, grassroots participation has featured conspicuously in their national development plans. A late arrival on the grassroots participation discourse, grassroots participation and civil society's involvement have also featured predominantly in the national development plans of the new South African government. The new democratically elected government pronounced in various policy documents and on public platforms, a commitment towards grassroots participation. Although many governments have employed the rhetoric of grassroots participation in their national·. development plans, there is however an accumulative literature which points to the fact that grassroots participation endeavors have· often been undertaken in a top-down fashion, with marginalized groups of communities often excluded. The central objective of this study has therefore been a critical evaluation of the manner in which the Western Cape Provincial Department of Social Services has implemented its grassroots approach in the context of policy . formulation and implementation and service delivery. An evaluation of the Department's grassroots approach has been attempted by assessing the grassroots structures, which the Department has established as vehicles for grassroots participation in its policy processes and service delivery. To this end, of Fourteen District Committees established by the Department throughout the Western Cape province,. four have been evaluated. Through reviewing literature Oh grassroots participation, the project's findings highlighted a discrepancy between the Department's prevailing rhetoric of grassroots participation and the reality of the grassroots participation as operationalized through these committees. The findings indicated that the grassroots participation through these committees is far from the ideal of authentic grassroots participation as discussed in Chapter Two, as it is replete with elements of unrepresentativeness of the marginalized groups, co-option, political manipulation, centralized and top-down decision-making styles. The study also attempted to provide recommendations tailored to bring the Department's grassroots participatory process closer to the ideals of authentic grassroots participation.

La manipulación fotográfica es un tema que poco se ha tratado. El siguiente trabajo analiza tres casos de manipulación fotográfica en la política peruana reciente. Las fotografías presentadas causaron polémica por demostrarse que fueron alteradas mediante diversos mecanismos que fueron escondidos y ocultados para dotarle de una realidad totalmente errada a lo que puede aproximarse la interpretación subjetiva del periodista. Posteriormente de la publicación, personas terceras publicaron las imágenes originales para desmentir las manipulaciones impuestas. Los casos presentados relevantes para la opinión pública fueron manipulados mediante dos mecanismos: la descontextualización de la imagen y la alteración digital. De esta manera, los actores políticos o medios de comunicación que publicaron estas imágenes buscaban cambiar el sentido de estas para construir una realidad distinta no acorde con lo que en realidad pasó, con el fin de alimentar sus intereses políticos o personales. / Photo manipulation is a topic that has not been discussed much. The following work analyzes three cases of photographic manipulation in recent Peruvian politics. The photographs presented caused controversy because it was shown that they were altered through various mechanisms that were hidden and hidden to provide a totally wrong reality to which the subjective interpretation of the journalist can approximate. After the publication, third parties published the original images to deny the manipulations imposed. The cases presented relevant to public opinion were manipulated through two mechanisms: decontextualization of the image and digital alteration. In this way, the political actors or media that published these images sought to change their meaning in order to build a different reality not in accordance with what actually happened, in order to feed their political or personal interests. / Trabajo de investigación