Contenu du sommaire : Les formes de la démocratie locale dans les villes sud-africaines et Varia

Are South African cities still post-apartheid cities ? Reflections from the case of Durban. This paper addresses continuity and change in South African cities, using the example of Durban. Continuity is the norm in understanding urban history with change as a series of accretions and as layering. A series of changes is highlighted, which fit into what the deracialised growth path allows and encourages. Thus far the ANC government has shown little capacity or desire to discipline capital along the lines suggested for post-apartheid reconstruction. Larger changes are thus limited by the predilections and established discourses of the business world and the absence of more dynamic and structured public intervention.

Democratization and local participation in Johannesburg : civil society and dysfunctional participatory institutions. Urban social movements in Johannesburg are sidelining participatory institutions, and local councilors in particular, in order to be heard. This is due mainly to the centralization of powers in the hands of the mayor, and the fact that local councilors are primarily accountable to the dominant party rather than to their constituency. In this context, civics often use the institutional fragmentation of local government to find alternative sites of negotiation with the State. However, this can prove disruptive as the multiplication of such sites seems to enhance competition between civics rather than to offer multiple and cumulated ways of lobbying government.

In the party and in the township : the African National Congress' local branches. This article deals with the African National Congress (ANC)' s local structures. It focuses on the ANC local branches : their role for the party, their local activity. It relies mainly on the mass party model and on empirical analysis and is a contribution to the organizational analysis of African political parties, a field largely neglected.

Party politics, elite accountability and public participation : ward committee politics in the Msunduzi municipality. This article explores the innovation of ward committees in the municipal governance of South Africa in relation to party politics, more specifically the alleged ‘dominant party syndrome' associated with the ruling African National Congress. Drawing on findings of a case-study it is argued that where ward committees are actually functional they remain under the influence of the local party, thus undermining their non-partisan role. Hence while ward committees they may increase the number of participants in local governance, they tend to be participants associated with the dominant local party and thus offer little new input or challenge to local political elites.

Local democracy and identities : some spatial questions. Case studies in two Ekurhuleni wards (South Africa). In Ekurhuleni, the creation of a system of political representation and participation structures at the ward level was intended to enhance democratic participation. However, the paper hypothesizes that this can only be achieved if the population of the ward has a sense of belonging to it. All wards are socially and culturally diverse : how is this diversity dealt within the political sphere ? The paper argues that in some ways diversity is recognised, and given political space for expression, but that some identities are not accepted, and amongst these, the socio-spatial identifications internal to the wards and other scales inherited from the past are treated with ambivalence.

Strategic urban planning and emerging forms of democracy in eThekwini, Durban. Through a case study of development policy making in the eThekwini metro (Durban), South Africa, this paper explores the emergence of post apartheid forms of local democracy. The paper examines the production of strategic planning documents in the years following the creation of the municipality in 2000 and maps out the variety and effect of major influences on these documents. These influences include city officials, public participation, elected representatives, traditional leaders, businesses and provincial and national party networks.

Electoral turnout in Johannesburg : socio-economic and political factors. Numerous studies have shown that turnout increases with the socio-economic status of the voters. In the Johannesburg case, this study shows that contrary to this usual finding, turnout is higher in the most deprived wards. This article also studies the influence of political factors and in particular of the degree of political competition on turnout. And then again the result is different from the usual one. In Johannesburg, turnout decreases with the degree of electoral closeness. Nevertheless, different specificities of the South African political situation may help to understand these unexpected results.

The « Progresa-Oportunidades Social Programme » in Mexico Old ways of doing for a new model. What does the creation of a new big social programme adds as innovative to fight against poverty in Mexico ? Such a programme allows overcoming poverty ? Does it help a wider integration of the Mexican society ? Human development being the major objective, the Progresa-Oportunidades Programme offers cash grants assistance to encourage children education and health services for families in extreme poverty situation. Aid is individual and short termed. Conditions to access this aid are set up in order to change behaviors to avoid the transfer of poverty between generations.

Determining factors of savings mobilization by microfinance institutions in Burkina Faso : an empirical evidence from the popular cash desks of Ouagadougou. This paper uses data of investigation into a sample of 205 savers (including 186 households and 19 female associative groupings) members of the Federation of the Popular Cases of Burkina (FCPB) of Ouagadougou the capital city of this country, to evaluate the determinants of poor households' saving intensification in the decentralized financial system in Burkina Faso. An econometric evaluation starting from a simple linear model preceded by descriptive analyses makes it possible to show that the institutional characteristics of saving and credit of the FCPB's structures and the savers' socio-economic characteristics are incentives for the poor households adhering to these structures with a greater motivation with the saving.