Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Democratization in Kurdistan

Khedir, Hewa Haji

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-42144-1

Cited by 5 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…This part conducts a brief literature survey of the politico-social capital theorisation in order to explain the interdependent relationships and functioning of public trust, as social capital, democratisation, democratic transition and democratic consolidation with specific reference to political-economies of prevalent inequalities, severe poverty of the majority and frustrated development such as that in South Africa. Discussions of social capital theory and the functioning of democracies and democratic governance, within specific political cultures and systems and political-economy of development, as well the production and reproduction of public trust in institutions of state and society range across a wide spectrum from Coleman (1990) and Putnam (1993Putnam ( , 2002, through Badescu & Uslaner (2003) and Sønderskov & Dinesen (2016), to Kumagai & Iorio (2019), Thomson & Brandenburg (2019), Festenstein (2020) and Khedir (2020), among others. South Africa's democratisation is unique and fraud with complexities that have eluded straight-jacket theorisation.…”

Section: Public Trust As Social Capital For Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper explores theorisation of public trust in order to establish analytical tools for understanding the relationship between the incremental erosion of the citizenry's confidence in institutions of the state, constitutional democracy and politics, on the one hand, and political party electoral decline and creation of societal political vacuum, on the other. The foundational assumption adopted in the paper is that public trust, which involves both subjective and objective drivers, is an indispensable resource for legitimacy, order, legality and stability of institutions of the state, constitutionality and politics that sustain democracy (Putnam, 1993(Putnam, , 2002Sønderskov & Dinesen, 2016;Kumagai & Iorio, 2019;Thomson & Brandenburg, 2019;Festenstein, 2020;Khedir, 2020). Politico-social capital theorisation of public trust provides that political systems turn on the value of trust by the citizenry and that democratisation evolves in "public spaces" that are fiercely contested (McLean, Schultz & Steger, 2002;Sønderskov & Dinesen, 2016;Kumagai & Iorio, 2019;Thomson & Brandenburg, 2019;Festenstein, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, theorisation of public trust indicates that political systems require legitimacy in order to ensure that their attendant structures, processes and systems may function through popular citizen support, rather than the use of coercion or violence. Collectively, the cultural, social and institutional dimensions of trust, together with durable personal psychological traits and experiential socialisation processes, give rise to unitary public trust that consists of horizontal interpersonal intra-society and vertical institutional society-state relations (Putnam, 1993;Sønderskov & Dinesen, 2016;Kumagai & Iorio, 2019;Thomson & Brandenburg, 2019;Festenstein, 2020;Khedir, 2020). Public trust is a construct of planning which is simultaneously hardened as a personal psychological trait that is almost impossible to change or influence, as well as being changeable through experiential socialisation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, social capital theory, read in the contexts of specific political-economy of development, political cultures and political systems provides insights if a society's democracy is institutionally consolidated, entrenched, transitional, tentative, weak or strong. Unavoidably, the evils of inequality, poverty and unemployment affect public trust and civic engagement in politics (Whitehead, 2003;Khedir, 2020), and South Africa is not an exception to the norm. Contrary to popularly accepted view, South Africa's democracy is neither "established" nor "consolidated," 30 years since its dawn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a democratic experiment to hold in a heterogeneous society such as South Africa, therefore, conditions of social cohesion have to prevail (Struwig, Roberts, Gordon, Davids, Sithole, Weir-Smith & Mokhele, 2013), which are predicated on complex and tenuous interactions, experiences and expressions of horizontal interpersonal intra-society and vertical institutional society-state relations. A reading of politico-social capital theorisation confirms that social cohesion and vibrant citizen engagement have a mutually reinforcing relationship with public trust in institutions of the state, constitutional democracy and politics (Putnam, 1993(Putnam, , 2002Struwig et al, 2013;Sønderskov & Dinesen, 2016;Kumagai & Iorio, 2019;Thomson & Brandenburg, 2019;Festenstein, 2020;Khedir, 2020). The erosion of public trust in state institutions, governance and democracy has to, therefore, be construed as a function of the conduct of the ruling political party, which is the ANC in South Africa's 28 years of democratisation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public trust deficit in democratic state and political institutions: Ominous Signposts for South Africa

Tsheola,

Sebola

2023

IJRBS

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This paper uses politico-social capital theorisation of the relationship between public trust and democracy in order to demonstrate the interdependence of the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) declining electoral fortunes and the increasing public trust deficits in South Africa’s state, constitutional democracy and political institutions. As desktop-based research, the paper conducts literature survey to distils the relationship between public trust, as social capital, in institutions of society, and electoral performance and formation of societal leadership vacuum, within complexities of the political-economy and political culture and system such as those entrenched in South Africa under the ANC’s 28-year rule. The paper analyses statistical evidence from Afrobarometer’s 2022 survey about South Africans’ public trust in state and political institutions from 2006 to 2021, as well as national, provincial and local government election results from the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) from 1994 to 2019, to corroborate its theoretical framing. It makes three findings, thus: there is a direct relationship between the ANC’s declining electoral fortunes and the erosion of public trust in institutions of society; the ANC’s 28-years of state governance has created an ominous societal leadership vacuum, setting South Africa’s democracy on the precipice of civil strife; and, the ANC’s declining electoral fortunes will persist into the foreseeable future because public trust is hard to regain and sustain once eroded.

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