Thesis submitted to the Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 / Successful East Asian developmental states achieved remarkable growth in a short space of
time. They intervened in their economies and also built constructive relations with business
and the capitalists class. South Africa has similarly committed itself to building a
developmental state and its local governments have a developmental mandate. However,
local governments in South Africa suffer from a plethora of problems. In the constellation of
local governments, cities occupy a different position and possess the potential to play a
developmental role. The City of Johannesburg is one such city. Its developmental approach
including its effort to build relations with business since the dawn of the democratic era, are
examined in this thesis. The results present a mixed picture. While positive city-business
relations existed, these were not deeply embedded. This was epitomised by the lack of
pervasive city-wide feelings of developmental solidarity and narrow agendas that animated
city-business relations. However, in line with developmental state theory, especially the
twenty-first century kind that not only focuses on growth but also redistribution, the city
managed to make certain positive strides. On the anti-developmental side though, the quality
of its business-related growth-enhancing services such as investment-attraction lagged
behind. Unlike East Asian developmental states, the city also appeared to lack the ability to
significantly determine the direction of development, especially investment by the private
sector. Overall, the case of Johannesburg reveals the difficulty of emulating East Asian
developmental states, especially the challenge of forging lasting city-business relations
against the backdrop of informal segregation and huge inherited disparities. / XL2019
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/27094 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Ditlhage, Goodwill Gabriel |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (ix, 334 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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