Can it start small, but end big? expanding social assistance in South Africa

Generating heated politics in South Africa is a proposal to introduce a universal basic income grant, known as “BIG”. The “gaps” in the existing system of social assistance grants have caught the attention of activists and politicians across the political spectrum. Most concur on the need to expand the system, but the issue of how its “gaps” should be closed is a matter of great political divergence. To cast light on the significance of these debates, I show how the system's “gaps” are more complicated than measurements of poverty and inequality may suggest. Following the social and economic relations that develop around social grants, my analysis foregrounds a tension in the existing assistance system. Social grants provide a critical source of income for recipients and their kin, assisting them to confront the challenging realities of current labor market conditions. At the same time, social grants act as conduits for historical forces to articulate with local conditions and reshape relationships between citizens, the state, and the market. This tension points to the ambiguity of the BIG proposal and of its potential to engender a larger transformation. My research in South Africa was supported by grants from the Human Rights Program and the Richter Fund at the University of Chicago. I would like to thank the South Africans I interviewed at welfare offices and legal advice centers about the social assistance system and the experience of receiving grants. I also thank Makhotso Pholosi, Tebogo Segale, Pumi Yeni, the staff at the Legal Resources Centre in Pretoria, and my advisors, Jean Comaroff and Jennifer Cole. A version of this paper was presented at the 2002 conference of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network and I thank the members of the panel on the South African Basic Income Proposal for their input.     

Public employment and the double role of bureaucrats

Bureaucrats in the government sector have a double role since they are both suppliers and demanders of public employment; they are publicly employed (supply labor) and they have an important say in deciding the size of the municipal employment (demand labor). In this paper we present and estimate a theoretical model that focuses on this double role of bureaucrats. The predictions from the theoretical model are supported by our empirical results: The estimates, based on data from Swedish municipalities 1990–2002, show that wages have smaller effects on the demand for bureaucrats than on the demand for other types of public employees. Actually, wages have no significant effect on the number of bureaucrats the municipality employs.     

A Divided Family: Race,the Commonwealth and Brexit

Abstract

The Commonwealth has long been conceptualised as ‘a family of nations’ in a reflection of the size, diversity and shared values of the organisation. As the discussion in post-Brexit Britain engages with questions of race and immigration, it is important to consider the role the Commonwealth played in the referendum campaigns. The combination of the Leave campaign’s promises to reinforce ties with ‘kith and kin’ in Commonwealth countries with the xenophobia that defined the campaign prompts the question what exactly does the Commonwealth mean in modern Britain? The EU referendum revealed two Commonwealths—one reflecting the backgrounds of Britain’s ethnic minorities, and one centred on the three majority white nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This article will offer an investigation of these conflicting visions of the Commonwealth in the referendum, as well as the voting motivations of Commonwealth nationals and British citizens of Commonwealth descent.     

Looking for needles in a haystack: Key issues affecting children's rights in the General Data Protection Regulation

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) devotes particular attention to the protection of personal data of children. The rationale is that children are less aware of the risks and the potential consequences of the processing of their personal data on their rights. Yet, the text of the GDPR offers little clarity as to the actual implementation and impact of a number of provisions that may significantly affect children and their rights, leading to legal uncertainty for data controllers, parents and children. This uncertainty relates for instance to the age of consent for processing children's data in relation to information society services, the technical requirements regarding parental consent in that regard, the interpretation of the extent to which profiling of children is allowed and the level of transparency that is required vis-à-vis children. This article aims to identify a number of key issues and questions – both theoretical and practical – that raise concerns from a multi-dimensional children's rights perspective, and to clarify remaining ambiguities in the run-up to the actual application of the GDPR from 25 May 2018 onwards.     

Inzidentfeststellung der Vaterschaft im Unterhaltsregressverfahren

Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Durchsetzung eines (Unterhalts-)Regressanspruches des Scheinvaters gegen den wahren Vater war bislang die Feststellung der Vaterschaft in einer eigenen und gegenüber allen wirkenden gerichtlichen Statusentscheidung. Dies war insofern problematisch, als der Scheinvater hierfür kein eigenes Antragsrecht hatte. So wie in Deutschland war in ?sterreich eine Beurteilung der Vaterschaft als Vorfrage im streitigen Unterhaltsregressverfahren nicht m?glich. Nunmehr hat der BGH eine solche inzidente Feststellung unter gewissen Voraussetzungen erlaubt. Der Beitrag analysiert die Beweggründe des BGH in dieser richtungsweisenden Entscheidung und geht der Frage nach, ob und inwieweit die Inzidentfeststellung auch in ?sterreich m?glich oder sogar geboten ist.     

Why we need bricoleurs to foster robust governance solutions in turbulent times

The public sector frequently confronts a heightened societal turbulence triggered by an increasing number of unpredictable and disruptive economic, political, and environmental crises. How can the public sector respond to this challenge? This article argues, first, that to continue to provide relevant solutions, public governance must be robust in the sense of adapting and innovating policies, programs, and services in ways that facilitate the achievement of basic public ambitions, functions, and values in the face of challenges, stressors, and threats. Second, to build robust governance, public managers must engage in bricolage and become bricoleurs in order to flexibly combine elements from competing and co-existent public governance paradigms. Doing so necessitates the construction of institutions conducive to bricolage, that is, institutions that are characterized by a high degree of flexibility that allows for experimentation; institutions that foster inclusive deliberation, knowledge sharing and joint learning; and institutions that balance centralization with distributed agency.     

Deregulation,property rights,and legal system

During regulation the regulator carries out an intermediary role between shareholders and managers, consequently affecting property rights and the agency relation between the two. Deregulation implies that this intermediary role ceases to exist. This article analyses how government deregulation changes property rights, differentiating between firms of network and non-network structures. Changes in property rights affect the agency relation between shareholders and managers, increasing information asymmetry and agency costs. I argue that the way to reduce agency costs depend to a great extent on the country’s legal system classified as of common or civil law tradition.

Female criminals—It's not always the offender!

Numerous crimes (including murder), all having a common denominator, occurred in Germany and Austria between 1993 and 2009. All of these cases presented with identical female DNA traces being found at the crime scene. The crimes committed differed markedly, as did the suspects involved, which were of varied origin. Many of these cases could be solved. However, none of the suspects could identify an involved female. Fourteen of these cases (including one murder) occurred in Upper Austria.A special task force of the Austrian police, together with the Institute of Legal Medicine in Salzburg, began systematically searching for errors in the investigative process after the cases became more and more incoherent and nebulous. In the end, the DNA trace evidence was shown to be contaminated. A woman involved in the manufacture of the cotton swabs turned out to be the source of the female DNA profile.Following this, several products of other manufacturers were tested for contamination with DNA. It was noted that cotton swabs which had been sterilised with radiation were often contaminated. As a result, it is recommended that the manufacturing process, as well as the products themselves used in collection of DNA trace evidence, should be re-evaluated with the emphasis on preventing contamination.     

Enoch Powell and the Conservative Party: Reflections on an Ambiguous Legacy

This article examines Enoch Powell's ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in relation to the Conservative party. Powell's speech created an additional challenge to a Conservative party already weakened by the loss of the 1964 and 1966 elections and by the failure of the newly elected leader, Edward Heath, to impress his authority decisively on the party. Powell had some parliamentary support but his real following was concentrated in the Conservative grass roots. Powell lost the support of the liberal‐minded Shadow Cabinet; but after 1968 the Conservatives nevertheless moved to the right on the issue, especially after Mrs. Thatcher became leader in 1975. His speech has cast a long shadow as the party has sought to modernise in more recent times and to appeal to a more racially diverse electorate.     

Mehr Normativität wagen: Ein Plädoyer für eine reflexive Grundhaltung in der politikwissenschaftlichen Lehre

This article argues for a more conscious reference to normativity in political science education. A greater reference to normativity should find its expression in a self-reflexive attitude which includes a disclosure of own normative assumptions, an examination of given postulates and knowledge and a recognition of the complexity of social relations. By looking at students, teachers and learning relations, we show how such a reflexive attitude can be implemented and facilitated in order to educate students who think and act critically.