Principles of, and approaches to, rural land (re)distribution: a case study in South Africa

摘要

This thesis is concerned with evaluating the principles of, and approaches to,udcontemporary land redistribution programmes. Using contemporary SouthudAfrican land redistribution policy as a case study, it examines the policy processudof a land reform programme. This enables an assessment of the extent to whichudpolicy implementation difficulties that are often experienced are the result ofudflawed policy conceptualisation and/or policy development, rather than simplyudpoor policy implementation.udDrawing on fieldwork conducted in South Africa between 1998 and 2001, theudthesis provides the first full account of the policy process for contemporaryudSouth African land redistribution policy. This account identifies many of theudbroader political and contextual factors that help explain why and how theudpolicy process evolved as it did, and adds to previous academic research on theudextent to which competing political agendas affected the policy process.udThe main argument of the thesis is that the policy process for conceptualising,uddeveloping and implementing land redistribution policy between 1994 and 2001udwas flawed. The thesis contrasts theoretical models of a policy process withudmodels of the actual policy processes observed in South Africa during thisudperiod, in order to identify how and why the policy process was flawed. Itudproposes that the policy process was influenced primarily by competingudpolitical agendas that weakened and hindered the policy conceptualisation andudpolicy development stages of the process, resulting in a land redistributionudpolicy that was both difficult to implement and unable to meet the challenge ofudrural poverty it was meant to help alleviate.