Implementing Affirmative Action: Global Trends

This scoping article gives a global picture of dynamics, trends, policies and mechanisms for engaging with women's representation in political office. It discusses the kind of affirmative action introduced, and where it features vis?à?vis electoral cycles. It describes and compares candidate and reserved seats quotas and shows how electoral systems influence the possibilities of challenging power hierarchies in politics. The second part of the article reflects on the extent to which implementing quotas have been effective in engendering political representation and the conditions that allow or inhibit this

Punishment in South Africa: an argument for rehabilitation of offenders

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the 'Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 1998TIlls research report examines the traditional theories of punishment, that is, retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation, and assesses their practical and empirical relevance in South Africa at the present time. It is argued that the theories of retribution and deterrence are largely inadequate to deal with offenders effectively, and consequently little relief in the crime rate could be anticipated if we were to institute a system of punishment based purely on punitive considerations. By contrast, it is argued that the theory of rehabilitation offers a more holistic approach to deal with offenders, and is really the only system which takes crime control seriously. In sum, it is argued that a system of punishment rooted in retributive 01' deterrent principles will neither be more just, more effective nor more humane than a system which has rehabilitation of offenders as its goal