Generosity as a central virtue in Nietzsche's ethics

Nietzsche's ethics is basically an ethics of virtue. In his own unique way, and in accordance with his extra-moral view of life, Nietzsche recovers and re-appropriates certain virtues – notably pagan, aristocratic virtues – as part of his project to reconceptualise (‘rehabilitate’) the virtues in terms of virtù (virtuosity and vitality), to which he also refers as his ‘moraline-free’ conception of the virtues. The virtue of generosity (in the sense of magnanimity) plays a central role in Nietzschean ethics. According to Nietzsche, the truly noble or virtuous person is one who lives beyond resentment and feelings of remorse and guilt. He lives his life from the fullness and plenitude of his own being and what he is able to bestow on others. Nietzsche seeks to rekindle and rehabilitate the aristocratic ‘pathos of distance’ as the true origin of ethical life. This pathos of distance basically emanates from self-respect: ‘The noble soul has reverence for itself’ (1974b: §287). For Nietzsche, this means that one should realize the greatest multiplicity of drives and form-giving forces in oneself, in the most tension-fraught but ‘controlled’ manner. This control, this imposing a form on oneself without neglecting the multiplicity in oneself, is a creative, artistic activity. Nietzsche also refers to this as a process of transforming the self into a work of art, of giving style to one's own existence. Thus we free ourselves from guilt, resentment and the rage against contingency. It is of the utmost importance for Nietzsche that one should attain satisfaction with oneself, for ‘only then is a human being at all tolerable to behold. Whoever is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge, and we others will be his victims, if only by having to endure his ugly sight.’ (1974a: §290). To attain satisfaction with oneself ultimately means to affirm life in its totality. This implies a life beyond resentment, i.e. a life that is characterised by generosity or magnanimity (megalopsychia, magnanimitas), which is for Nietzsche the ‘crown’ of all the virtues

Fiscal Performance and Sustainability of Local Government in South Africa — An Empirical Analysis

This paper analyses fiscal performance in terms of own-revenue collection and sustainability of local municipalities in South Africa. Criteria such as gross value added, revenue collected from own sources, debtors outstanding, the ageing of debt and dependency on grants are considered. The conclusion is that a large number of municipalities do not comply with the requirement that a “reasonable” amount of current expenditures be financed by means of own resources. Furthermore, local government finances are featured by substantial variance as far as collection of own income is concerned. While close to half of them finance more than 50 percent of their current expenditures from own resources, about one third are largely dependent on grants from upper spheres of government and generate less than 20 percent of current expenditures from own resources. As a whole, the fiscal sustainability of the local government sector, given the current scenario of flows, is a reason for concern. In order to comply with international criteria for solid fiscal performance, a number of municipalities will have to improve their performance with regard to own-revenue collection. The reason for this phenomenon seems to be the problem of “soft budgets” and an historic dependence on grants to finance not only capital expenditures but also most, if not all of, current expenditures. Due to historical and political factors, local governments in South Africa differ substantially in terms of potential revenue base, but it may be that in many cases potential revenue is not exploited and that the high level of dependency on grants is the result of inefficiency and lack of political will to be more self-reliant. In view of the wide-spread protest actions against poor quality of service delivery at the local government level, fiscal authorities should take a fresh look at the extent to which these governments are accountable for being more financially independent. This would help prevent the accumulation of debt as a result of growing backlogs in service payments.Local government, fiscal sustainability, South Africa

Collaborate to innovate

Innovation is something that many governments strive to support, in both the private and public sectors. By bridging the two sectors and creating novel partnerships, public sector expenditure can be reduced

Modelling the impact of automatic fiscal stabilisers on output stabilisation in South Africa

This paper investigates ways in which an efficiency model like 'DEA Window analysis' can be utilised, under strictly defined conditions, to assess the level of efficiency of automatic fiscal stabilisers (AFS). The size of AFS is obtained through gaps in both revenue and expenditures variables such as tax revenue (current tax on income and wealth), social grants/benefits, and compensation of employees. The results obtained support evidence of AFS action between 1991 and 2005 and explain distinct cointegrating vectors that exist between the obtained efficiency scores and some selected variables, such as a corruption perception index (CPI), a conversion factor (exports), and the level of openness in the economy.South Africa, Automatic Fiscal Stabilisers, Data Envelopment Analysis, Efficiency scores.

Modelling the Impact of Automatic Fiscal Stabilisers on Output Stabilisation in South Africa

This paper investigates ways in which an efficiency model like ‘DEA Window analysis’ can be utilised, under strictly defined conditions, to assess the level of efficiency of automatic fiscal stabilisers (AFS). The size of AFS is obtained through gaps in both revenue and expenditures variables such as tax revenue (current tax on income and wealth), social grants/benefits, and compensation of employees. The results obtained support evidence of AFS action between 1991 and 2005 and explain distinct cointegrating vectors that exist between the obtained efficiency scores and some selected variables, such as a corruption perception index (CPI), a conversion factor (exports), and the level of openness in the economy.South Africa; Automatic Fiscal Stabilisers; Data Envelopment Analysis; Efficiency scores

Fiscal regime changes and the sustainability of fiscal imbalance in South Africa; a smooth transition error-correction approach

In addition to the conventional linear cointegration test, this paper tests the asymmetry relationship between fiscal revenue and expenditure, by making a distinction between the adjustment of positive (budget surplus) and negative (budget deficit) deviations from equilibrium. The analysis uses quarterly data for South Africa. The paper reveals that government authorities in South Africa are more likely to react fast when the budget is in deficit than when in surplus, and that the stabilisation measures used by government are fairly neutral at low deficit levels; that is, at deficit levels of 4% of GDP and below. We conclude that an attempt to achieve fiscal sustainability via a reduction in expenditure on sectors conducive to economic growth might be prone to create social and political shocks, which could render such fiscal policy unsustainable. In South Africa the main fiscal challenge, therefore, is to find ways through which the recent gains in fiscal solvency can be consolidated.smooth transition error correction model; nonlinearity; government intertemporal budget constraint; and fiscal sustainability.

Reading skills can predict the programming performance of novices: an eye-tracking study

Due to the character of programming languages, reading ability may have more impact on learning to program than on learning in other subjects. This paper describes an exploratory study of the relationship between reading skills, as perceived through eye tracking, and the ability to program. An empirical investigation into this relationship determined that students with inadequate reading skills are at risk of failing at introductory programming. As an explanation for the effect of reading ability on learning to program, we argue that a programming language is a special high-level written language and that using it requires high levels of comprehension, inferencing, selective attention, organising and reflecting. As a result, a student’s reading ability will have a considerable effect on learning to program. Lack of reading skills may therefore be a factor that affect students’ ability to learn to program. Eye tracking can expose reading skills and, therefore, be used to identify at-risk introductory programming students. The practical contribution of this research is the demonstration of how eye tracking can reveal reading problems among programming students. We relate these reading problems to their programming performance, providing a theoretical account of the connection. The results suggest that efforts to improve reading skills could have a positive impact on learning to program

Exploring the practical theological study of congregations

The first congregation was formed in Jerusalem, giving rise to faith communities throughout the New Testament. In the ensuing two millennia, congregations are found worldwide. The aim of this article is to describe congregations and the study of congregations from a practical theological perspective. An introduction to the study field of congregations is followed by a description of the development of the study field of congregational studies from the perspective of four countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and South Africa. The aim is not to give a comprehensive historical overview of the discipline, but to trace some trends that have an influence on the discipline within the South African context. The second part of the article describes the exploration of congregations from a practical theological ecclesiology (the identity, mission and ministry of the congregation) and an analytical perspective (external interaction between congregation and community, and the internal life of the congregation). A practical theological ecclesiology and an analytical framework should interact critically with each other

'The school with the Bible': From meaningless to meaningful Citizenship Education in South Africa

Citizenship Education has re-emerged as an important issue in Curriculum 2005. Closer scrutiny of this educational innovation reveals the existence of a number of problems. The aim of this article is, on the one hand, to sensitise policy-makers, curriculum developers and educational administrators who are involved in the drafting of a blueprint for Citizenship Education in public schools, to the need to take note of Reformational Christians’ views on government, citizenship and society, and the quest for the socalled “school with the Bible”; and on the other, to assist Reformational Christian educators responsible for the teaching of Citizenship Education in public schools to teach it from a biblical perspective. To this end, this article intends the following: to explore some tenets of a Reformational Christian theology of state (like John Calvin’s); to revisit the Reformational Christian doctrine of sphere sovereignty; and illustrate the practical implementation of Calvin’s theology of state and the Reformational Christian doctrine of sphere sovereignty in Citizenship Education teaching in public schools