Growing Democratic Governance Through Democratic Spaces in the South Africa Local Government

Abstract

Democratic local governance is fundamental towards enhancing political accountability and developmental transformation. The created formal mechanisms to promote public participation, local government are obliged to complement representative government by developing a culture of municipal governance. This chapter therefore, interrogates both invited and popular spaces in their quest to promote democratic governance and political accountability at South Africa local government. The chapter argues that the promotion of democratic governance via democratic mechanisms is limiting due to local state incapable to engage societal stakeholders through popular spaces. Thus, straightjacketing participation through invited spaces did not only fail to consolidate democratic and participatory governance, but rather engender democratic deficit, participation fatigue and mistrust. The chapter used a desktop literature review in the form of books, book chapters, accredited journals and government policy documentations.