Author: Len Verwey Publisher: African Books Collective ISBN: 1920409343 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
Effective and transparent government budgeting is vital to any democracy. In South Africa, massive poverty, inequality and unemployment remain, despite the successful political transformation, citizens and Parliament have a particularly important role to play in shaping budget policy and overseeing its implementation. South Africa reached a crossroads in fiscal governance when it passed the Money Bills Amendment Act in 2009, a law which granted Parliament strong powers to amend the budget prepared by the executive. This publication explores the content of the new law as well as the challenges and opportunities arising from it. It also discusses the role of Parliament in ensuring pro-poor budgeting. Good fiscal governance is too important for the wellbeing of South Africans to not be a part of our public conversations.
Author: Jeremy Seekings Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1137452692 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 315
Book Description
Seekings and Nattrass explain why poverty persisted in South Africa after the transition to democracy in 1994. The book examines how public policies both mitigated and reproduced poverty, and explains how and why these policies were adopted. The analysis offers lessons for the study of poverty elsewhere in the world.
Author: Joachim Wehner Publisher: ISBN: 9789291421879 Category : Budget Languages : en Pages : 101
Book Description
This handbook, jointly produced with the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank Institute and the United Nations Fund for Women, was inspired by a series of regional and national seminars on Parliament and the Budgetary Process, Including from a Gender Perspective. Intended as a reference tool, it sets out practical examples of parliament's active engagement in the budgetary process, seeking to advance parliaments' own institutional capacities to make a positive impact on the budget, and to equip parliament, its members and parliamentary staff with the necessary tools to examine the budget from a gender perspective.--Publisher's description.
Author: Neeta Misra-Dexter Publisher: African Books Collective ISBN: 1920409386 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 314
Book Description
The book interrogates the relationship between democracy and development and how underdevelopment prevents citizens from participating in democracy. Section One is a collection of experts writing on key issues such as the single-party state; development policy; poverty, inequality and growth; the institutions of governance; the public service; and the role of civil society. Section Two, Idasas Democracy Index 2010, releases Idasas findings on Participation, Elections, Accountability, Political Freedom, Human Dignity and Democracy. The third in Idasas Democracy Index series, this book argues that democracy needs economic development along with an embedded system of institutions, supported by active citizens and a vibrant political culture.
Author: Russell Wildeman Publisher: African Books Collective ISBN: 1920409823 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 59
Book Description
The implementation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), 1999 is reviewed in this book, focussing on the development and reform of financial governance arrangements after 2000. South Africa has a long way to go to ensure that financial reforms are translated into service delivery gains. Implementing reforms and making sure that citizens benefit is proving difficult, yet the convergence of various government agencies in addressing financial governance is beginning to inspire the kind of confidence needed to overcome the country's financial governance challenges. The authors find that, despite the challenges, the PFMA has begun to make a difference and, if properly implemented, may still provide the ground for a fundamental transformation of public-sector service delivery.
Author: J. Wehner Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230281575 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 183
Book Description
What is the role of legislatures in the budget process? Do powerful assemblies give rise to pro-spending bias? This survey of legislative budgeting tackles these questions using cross-national data and case studies. It highlights the tension between legislative authority and prudent fiscal policy, exploring strategies for reconciliation.
Author: Shane Martin Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0198890869 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 433
Book Description
By whatever name they are known (Parliaments, Legislatures, or Assemblies, to name but three) legislative assemblies in democratic societies face the twin challenges of institutional capacity and accountability to their citizens. In addressing these challenges, assemblies vary in the extent to which they serve the respective interests of three critical sets of actors: their members, party leaders, and voters. In this book, Shane Martin and Kaare W. Strøm identify three ideal types of democratic assemblies - the members' assembly, the leaders' assembly, and the voters' assembly - and analyze national legislative assemblies in the world's 68 most populous democracies, from Finland to Papua New Guinea, in light of these models. Based on extensive new cross-national data, they trace the implications of the three assembly types for the design, internal organization, resources, and powers of democratic national assemblies, develop indices of each assembly type, and score each of the 68 legislative assemblies on these indices. The analysis of legislative re-election rates in these countries reveals that the fate of incumbents depends on member resources as well as on leadership control, but is ultimately constrained by voter confidence. In conclusion, the authors discuss the past and future trajectories of legislative assemblies, including their susceptibility to democratic backsliding.
Author: Inter-parliamentary Union Publisher: UN ISBN: Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 126
Book Description
The Convention was adopted by the UN's General Assembly in 1979 and entered into force in 1981. It amplifies some of the existing provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Its provisions include obligations for states to pursue policies for eliminating discrimination against women in the areas of government, nationality, access to education and employment opportunities, health care and equality before the law. As of December 2002, the Convention had 170 ratifications.
Author: Jacklyn Cock Publisher: IDRC ISBN: 1552501515 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 277
Book Description
Remember the global peace dividend - the budget surpluses that were supposed to result from the raising of the Iron Curtain and the end of the arms race? As war-torn societies in the Middle East, Latin America, and parts of Africa found peace and began building democratic societies, governments were supposed to use the money they once spent on the military to better meet basic human needs. But has it happened?
Author: Alta Fölscher Publisher: Idasa ISBN: Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 332
Book Description
In the concluding decade of the 20th century Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia all underwent democratic or constitutional renewal, raising expectations of increased transparency, accountability and participation in public budgeting, stepping stones towards reduced corruption and improved spending outcomes. This book assesses the progress made against a systematic framework of internationally accepted standards. Each of the country chapters looks at transparency through the eyes of the ordinary citizen and the legislatures and asks what information they would need to assess the link between policy priorities, spending and services. Therefore while the study poses the standard codified questions on the availability, accuracy, timeliness and usefulness of information, it asks them with one yardstick in mind: is the information adequate to enable meaningful participation of citizens. In addition it asks a series of questions about participation itself. The assessments were done by in-country non-governmental organisations over a two-year period and as such offer a rich understanding of the technical and political obstacles to open management of the public purse.These and other cross-country implications of the study are captured in a synthesis chapter.
Author: Len Verwey
Author: Jeremy Seekings
Author: Joachim Wehner
Author: Neeta Misra-Dexter
Author: Russell Wildeman
Author: J. Wehner
Author: Shane Martin
Author: Inter-parliamentary Union
Author: Jacklyn Cock
Author: Alta Fölscher