Taming the green bull in the regulatory china shop how insufficient understanding of governance and power resulted in the Solar Water Heater Bylaw in the City of Cape Town not being implemented

This thesis grapples with the one particular case: the unsuccessful draft Solar Water Heater By-law in the City of Cape Town. The case is framed by the question why the by-law initiative did not take off. The choce behind this initiative was informed by the hope that the answer would help in understanding climate change governance in the municipal setting in particular. Essentially, the desire is to gain an appreciation of how such initiatives should be undertaken in settings such as these. Networked governance literatures of Rhodes et al, literatures on power in the Foucaldian and Weberian traditions, implementation theories and literatures on municipal climate change governance all aided in reaching findings to the question posed. Through the engagement with the literature in combination with the analysis of the empirical data, a hypothesis in answer to this question was generated. In the context of the City of Cape Town, the complexities of both power and governance were confirmed. There is a tapestry of networks and nodes interacting with each other in this context. Each network and node has its own peculiarities, which in combination create a delicate regulatory environment. Such policy environment requires strategic action. Ultimately, in line with the hypothesis, it has been found that if one wants to drive a policy initiative, one needs to understand both the complexities and power, and the context of the policy regime within which one works. This, however, though necessary, is not sufficient. In addition, one must formulate a strategy of implementation that fits this context, if one wishes to be successful in seeing the policy through to implementation.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Public Law

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Grimwood, Sakina

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Berg, Julie

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4698

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/4698