An analysis of public participation in the South African legislative sector

[摘要] Globally participatory democracy is viewed as essential to ensure a high level oflegitimacy, contribute to empowerment and strengthen democracy. AlthoughSouth Africa is a representative democracy, it also adheres to the principles ofparticipatory democracy as Parliament and the nine Provincial Legislatures areconstitutionally mandated to elicit public participation in its decision-making andpolicy processes.This study's main aim is to determine whether the public participation strategiesemployed in the South African legislative sector at present are effective andenhance decision-making and policy processes.Following a discussion of the theoretical context and rationale for publicparticipation, a limited international perspective on public participation was given.The study proceeded to explore the application of public participation in the localSouth African context with specific focus on the legislative environment.In order to provide evidence in support of the research statement an investigationwas done on the current state of public participation in the South Africanlegislative environment. Responses from a semi-structured questionnaire onpublic participation in the South African legislative context were processed into acomparative table to obtain an overall picture of the legislative sector. From thefindings it is clear that there are many positive factors and innovative ideas inplace across the legislative sector, yet the weaknesses still far outweigh thestrengths.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University