ABSTRACT

Why is dissatisfaction with local democracy endemic, despite the spread of new participatory institutions? This book argues that a key reason is the limited power of elected local officials, especially to produce the City. City Hall lacks control over key aspects of city decision-making, especially under conditions of economic globalisation and rapid urbanisation in the urban South.

Demonstrated through case studies of daily politics in Hout Bay, Democracy Disconnected shows how Cape Town residents engage local rule. In the absence of democratic control, urban rule in the Global South becomes a complex and contingent framework of multiple and multilevel forms of urban governance (FUG) that involve City Hall, but are not directed by it. Bureaucratic governance coexists alongside market, developmental and informal forms of governance. This disconnect of democracy from urban governance segregates people spatially, socially, but also politically. Thus, while the residents of Hout Bay may live next to each other, they do not live with each other.

This book will be a valuable resource for students on programmes such as urban studies, political science, sociology, development studies, and political geography.

chapter |28 pages

Introduction

The paradox: more participation but an enduring democratic deficit

chapter 1|24 pages

The Republic of Hout Bay

A house divided

chapter 2|25 pages

A river of grime

Governing water and waste

chapter 3|24 pages

Selling the mountain

Property, housing, and neo-apartheid segregation

chapter 4|20 pages

Defending the shack

The politics of developmental governance

chapter 5|21 pages

Poaching the bay

Turning fisherfolk into smugglers

chapter 6|23 pages

Upgrading Imizamo Yethu

Contests of governance and belonging

chapter 8|18 pages

Protesting Chapman’s Peak toll road

Market governance versus environmental politics

chapter 9|25 pages

Guarding the bay

Securing safety beyond the police

chapter |26 pages

Conclusion

Democracy, governance, and neo-apartheid