Fragile Stability: State and Society in Democratic South Africa

Social order perspective on raising student achievement

“…For example, at the same time that pass rates were improving, the violent crime amongst individuals had begun to decline, the murder rate dropped from 67.2 per 100, 000 in 1994/ 1995 to 47.4 in 2002/2003, vehicle theft from 274 to 204 per 100,000 and the backlog in un-assessed tax returns from 49% in 1998 to 5.4% in 2003 (Beale et al 2005). In the period, over two million low-income houses were built and the pool of recipients of social grants doubled.…”

“…Without the social stability and legitimacy, the new state would have been effectively paralyzed. Moreover, during the initial years (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999), the weak post-transition state had limited capacity and expertise to govern effectively (Beale et al 2005;Lodge 2002). 5 By the year 2000, there had been a steady shift in many policy domains and within organs of state towards a far more directive and prescriptive role for the state, what De Clercq (2001) refers to as 're-centralization'.…”

Assessing Development Paradigms of Democracy: A Perspective of Minimal Democracy in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope 1853 – 1994

“…In that, Loser's in a certain competitive election can only wait for another tenure before they contest. Been the premise of the argument by Bidner, Francois, and Trebbi, (2015), that minimalist democracy is a transitory phase on the path towards fuller democracy; else a stable government practice in itself. In that, most developing countries (even in recent time) are often dependent on this notion of democracy.…”

Exploring Selected Cultures in Mitigating an Array of Social Vices in South Africa. A Literature Review

“…Although many African countries are falling prey to these vices as they fast abandon or sacrifice their cultures to follow western based cultures or ways of life, South Africa leads the pack in embracing eorocentrism and western ways of living more than other countries of Africa by some of these vices. Further, these vices may be a result of enormous and phenomenal changes ushered in by transition of South Africa to democracy (Beall, Jo and Gelb, Stephen and Hassim, Shireen 2005). Some of these changes have given birth to moral crisis that if not addressed stand the chance of negatively affecting the lives of the people in large scale (Kaarsholm 2006).…”