An examination of administrative capacity to implement development programmes in South Africa

This thesis examined the concept of administrative "capacity", which has been employed to critique the ability of public administrations to implement development programmes in South Africa. References to administrative capacity in South African academic discourse have generally treated the term as a concrete item, often translated as public sector organisations lacking the ability/capacity to respond to the increasing scale of development needs which accompanied the country's recent political transition. This emphasis has in turn raised questions about whether these bodies possess the requisite or sufficient capacity to carry out development activities, and where this is judged not to be the case, that efforts should be directed at acquiring this capacity, i.e. capacity building or strengthening. This thesis argued that this prevailing twofold interpretation of capacity was too narrow, because it did not adequately capture how the organisational and operational circumstances under which public sector bodies functioned, might influence their ability (in other words, capacity) to implement development programmes.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Naidoo, Vinothan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cameron, Robert

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8105

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8105