Many have described South Africa as a protest-rich nation. Some have defended this high level of protest as an indication that this country has a functional democracy where peoples’ right to raise their dissatisfaction with government through protesting is protected. These protests take different forms, with some displaying signs of criminality where protesters vandalise private and public property, while others proceed peacefully. This project examines and interprets the dynamics and circumstances surrounding these events and processes through empirical research, and explores their relationship to development. This dissertation attempts to establish what motivates people to engage in these protests, to assess the impact and consequences of protests in South African local communities, and to assess whether the different forms of protest were effective in compelling government to address protesters' developmental demands. The research undertaken was of a qualitative nature, and the researcher sourced the information from community members and community leaders. As the process of collecting empirical data unfolded, it became clear that the Marianridge and Umlazi Z Section case studies presented in this dissertation indicated that developmental local government without public participation is ineffective.

Business management / M. Com. (Business management)

Business management / M. Com. (Business management)

Pour devenir plus flexible, le secteur public a ouvert la voie à de nouveaux principes inspirés de la gestion propre aux firmes, soit la marchandisation des services (Fairbrother et Poynter, 2001). Notre recherche souhaite mieux comprendre les facteurs qui peuvent influencer l’implication du syndicat lorsque la marchandisation est introduite dans la gestion de la prestation des services municipaux. Pour se faire, nous avons choisi de comparer des cas des municipalités dans deux pays, la Ville de Québec et Edinburgh en Écosse, afin de nous aider à comprendre davantage les interactions entre les influences nationales et locales. Nous proposons que les ressources de pouvoir du syndicat local et la stratégie patronale influencent l’implication du syndicat dans la gestion de la prestation des services municipaux, peu importe le contexte national. Les résultats de la recherche nous indiquent que les ressources de pouvoir et la stratégie patronale influencent directement l’implication syndicale. Alors que les ressources de pouvoir donnent un rapport de force au syndicat face à l’employeur, la stratégie patronale peut encourager ou freiner l'implication syndicale. Nos résultats ont aussi soulevé certaines différences entre les contextes nationaux de l’Écosse et du Québec affectant l’implication syndicale: les législations de « Best Value » au Royaume-Uni et celles encadrant les conventions collectives et relations de travail au Québec. Ainsi, des recherches futures sont nécessaires pour mettre à l’épreuve les modèles nationaux couramment utilisés en relations industrielles pour contribuer à la création d’une nouvelle théorie comparative. / In order to become more flexible, the public sector has opened the way to new principles inspired by the private sector: the marketisation of services (Fairbrother et Poynter, 2001). Our research aims to better understand the factors which affect the participation of trade unions when marketisation is introduced in the delivery of local government services. To do so, we have decided to compare local government case studies in two different countries, Québec City and Edinburgh in Scotland, to help us better understand the interactions between local and national influences. Our hypothesis is that local trade union power resources and the employer’s strategy will influence trade union participation in the management of local government service delivery, regardless of the national context. The main findings of our research suggest that power resources and employer stategy both directly affect local trade union involvement in the management of local government service delivery. While power resources help to bolster the trade union’s power, the employer strategy can either encourage or impare trade union participation. Our results also raised differences relating to the national contexts of the UK and Québec which affected local trade union participation : « Best Value » legislation in the UK and « Code du Travail » legislation which frame collective agreements and industrial relations in Québec. We consider that future research on the subject is necessary in order to verify the current models on national industrial relations and to develop new comparative theories.