POL3038S - Urban Politics And Administration

Course Outline:

The first section of the course locates South African local level politics and administration in the context of national and provincial state reform, and examines the significance of local implementation and service delivery for policy outputs and for the policy process as a whole. A theoretical framework for understanding local government reorganisation is developed and a comparative analysis undertaken of local government reorganisation with particular reference to metropolitan areas. There is in addition a focus on contemporary reforms which have affected South Africa's contemporary urban governance, such as the new megacities, politics-administration interface and developmental local government. The second section of the course introduces students to an overview of contemporary urban political and administrative challenges and opportunities. These challenges and opportunities occur in a context of global and local conditions. The course examines and compares good solutions to urban problems in third and first world cities. In its focus on delivery-level administration and politics, the course provides both intellectual and practical closure to the major sequence of courses on public administration, management and the policy process.