Clientelism as civil society? Unpacking the relationship between clientelism and democracy at the local level in South Africa

This article, building on analyses from the global south, attempts to reframe democratic expectations by considering where previously maligned practices such as clientelism may hold moments of democracy. It does so by comparing the theory of civil society with that of clientelism, and its African counterpart neo-patrimonialism. It argues that clientelism as civil society may fulfil democratic tasks such as holding the (local) state accountable, strengthening civil and political liberties and providing channels of access for previously marginalised groups. Clientelism is not necessarily a reflection of imposed power relations but, at times, can demonstrate a conscious political strategy, to generate development, on the part of its protagonists.IS

The vampire squid: Value, crisis and the power of finance

Over the last five decades the power and global reach of financial institutions and finance capital to organize economic, social and political life has grown seemingly unchecked. This is manifested in the ability of international markets to limit the economic sovereignty of states; the power of activist shareholders to dictate policy to company management, often at the expense of long‐term strategy and employment creation; and the advantages offered by returns to investments in financial assets over those in manufacturing and services. All of these developments have contributed to the apparently inescapable triumph of neoliberalism and the deepening of global inequality. They have also led to the economic havoc of the 2008 financial crisis, which plunged the global economy into a period of austerity from which it has not yet emerged (Thompson, 2017). It is no wonder, then, that money markets and financial institutions have fallen from being the vaunted legislators of the world to become, for some, its new pariahs. A new consensus is emerging that many of our economic ills stem from the fact that banks and financiers, instead of merely facilitating the production of ‘real’ wealth in the form of services and goods, have slipped their bonds to become independent players in their own right. They are now seen at best as the tail wagging the dog and at worst as outright parasites: ‘a great vampire squid’, as one journalist described Goldman Sachs, ‘wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money’ (Taibbi, 2010)

Role of nucleus accumbens core but not shell in incubation of methamphetamine craving after voluntary abstinence

We recently introduced an animal model to study incubation of drug craving after prolonged voluntary abstinence, mimicking the human condition of relapse after successful contingency management treatment. Here we studied the role of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in this model. We trained rats to self-administer a palatable solution (sucrose+maltodextrin 1%, 6 h/day, 6 days) and methamphetamine (6 h/day, 12 days). We then evaluated relapse to methamphetamine seeking after 1 and 15 days of voluntary abstinence, achieved via a discrete choice procedure between the palatable solution and methamphetamine (14 days). We used RNAscope in-situ hybridization to quantify the co-labeling of the neuronal activity marker Fos, and dopamine Drd1- and Drd2-expressing medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in NAc core and shell during the incubation tests. Next, we determined the effect of pharmacological inactivation of NAc core and shell by either GABAA and GABAB agonists (muscimol+baclofen, 50+50 ng/side), Drd1-Drd2 antagonist (flupenthixol, 10 µg/side) or the selective Drd1 or Drd2 antagonists (SCH39166 1.0 µg/side or raclopride 1.0 µg/side) during the relapse tests. Incubated methamphetamine seeking after voluntary abstinence was associated with a selective increase of Fos expression in the NAc core, but not shell, and Fos was co-labeled with both Drd1- and Drd2-MSNs. NAc core, but not shell, injections of muscimol+baclofen, flupenthixol, SCH39166, and raclopride reduced methamphetamine seeking after 15 days of abstinence. Together, our results suggest that dopamine transmission through Drd1 and Drd2 in NAc core is critical to the incubation of methamphetamine craving after voluntary abstinence

Is South Africa burning in Paris?

The rampage by angry immigrant youths in Paris in November last year provoked the question: Is there a growing skepticism in the world about the very possibility of contemporary South Africa ? a unitary state composed of peoples that have nothing in common except that they live in the same territory?

South Africa needs non-racialism, not Zionism

There is a welcome conversation beginning to emerge about race and racism in South Africa. It comes, in part, after several undeniable events of white racism in the public domain which have revealed the shaky legs of South Africa's political settlement. It concerns the status of white racism in South African society.

Service delivery and social cohesion

Report prepared for the Conflict and Governance Facility (CAGE), a joint initiative of the European Union and the National Treasury, Augus

The state and transformation

It is now familiar that under Thabo Mbeki the democratic project experienced several major reversals. While holding on to the formal constitutional architecture, the time of Thabo Mbeki is said to have been associated with the hollowing-out of parliament, the demobilization of civil-society and even the erosion of the separation of powers.

Democracy and dictatorship

This article discusses recent developments in South African politics from the perspective of a paradox, even a contradiction, inherent in the democratic project itself. Democracy requires that the people, the source of democratic authority, are considered purely as an ideal. This is precisely what is at work in the notion of 'human rights', for example. The specific qualities and character of individuals, their culture, norms, values and history, are stripped away to venerate them simply in their essential humanness, that is as a pure abstraction. The moment, however, democracy is located in a specific state, the people are transformed from abstract and essential humanity into a concrete one, unified on the basis of some or other shared characteristic or norm (commitment to freedom, investment in a particular culture and notion of the good and so on). Yet, if 'people' is really a normative term, rather than a descriptive one, then 'democracy's people' refers only to those persons who fit this norm. What this authorises is the privileging of certain classes of people, in democracy's name, within the political system. I will argue that authoritarian tendencies in South Africa's political culture are effects of the contradiction above. I will consider this tendency to dictatorship, not simply in 'totalitarian' constitutions or political dispensations, but in the heart of the most classically democratic ones as well. In this regard, I will review the American Constitution to discuss some of its 'undemocratic' features. In the last part of this article, I will consider the effects on South Africa's democracy of trying to incarnate the people of South Africa as an 'African' people. What is at stake here is the concretisation of the people of democracy as a particular people. We will see that this has unleashed an identitarian politics about the content of this African identity. More importantly, it has authorised those who claim to be authentic Africans to assume privileged positions in politics and in the state.