Explaining ethnic violence in black Africa: Independence to 1979

The underlying causes of ethnic mobilisation have been addressed by theories of cultural pluralism, ethnic competition, differential economic incorporation and modernisation. Up to now, no quantitative cross‐national study has tested all these perspectives simultaneously. The results of this study provide support for some aspects of the different theories, with the exception of the theory of differential economic incorporation. The results of the synthetic model stress the importance of examining multiple perspectives in order to avoid only partially correct representations of the historical reasons behind ethnic conflict in black Africa.     

Service delivery frameworks as instruments of citizen empowerment: A tale of two experiences,India and South Africa

This paper presents a comparative assessment of South Africa and India's service delivery improvement strategies, challenges, successes and lessons learnt in advancing their service delivery reform programmes. The cardinal argument in the paper is that the public administrative systems adopted and inherited in the post-democratic epochs in India and South Africa were incapable of meeting the service delivery needs of their respective citizens. They epitomised the traditional and hierarchical public administrative systems that were the object of reforms in the 1990s. The reform initiatives also coincided with global reforms on public administration systems taking place under the aegis of the new public management framework. A key feature of new public management is its application of private-sector ideas to the public sector, such as individual accountability. The paper further undertakes a comparative review of service delivery improvement frameworks of South Africa (Batho Pele) and India (Sevottam) in relation to their objectives and implementation modalities.