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African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity
Legislatures in the Southern Africa have made recent signals that they are becoming active in the budget process through the establishment of Budget Committees, Parliamentary Budget Offices, and Constituency Development Funds. These developments are surprising given the Westminster heritage of these...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Political Studies
2020
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| _version_ | 1867613251633676288 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Heim, Kristen |
| author2 | Mattes, Bob |
| author_browse | Heim, Kristen Mattes, Bob |
| author_facet | Mattes, Bob Heim, Kristen |
| author_sort | Heim, Kristen |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Legislatures in the Southern Africa have made recent signals that they are becoming active in the budget process through the establishment of Budget Committees, Parliamentary Budget Offices, and Constituency Development Funds. These developments are surprising given the Westminster heritage of these institutions and periods of executive dominance that precluded such involvement from independence. If these legislatures are, indeed, modifying their involvement in budgetary matters, this could pointto a fundamental shiftin their overall function and identity. This study thus asks: Are changes really unfolding? And, if so, why? The research employs data collected on the basis of extensive fieldwork in five parliaments in Southern Africa with similar historical attributes. This includes semi-structured interviews with over 160 MPs and staff, focus group discussions, and archival analysis in the Parliaments of Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The results of the study find support for the initial hypothesis: public signals are, indeed, indicative of more extensive changes in legislative budgetary engagement, though to varying degrees within each. Formal legal authority was found to be a poor predictor of legislative change, as were emerging technical abilities. A final congruence test found that a combination of external donor influence and regional peer-to peer legislative exchange are best able to account for the developments underway. The results of this exploratory study serve as an orientation for parliaments presently undergoing institutional change in budgetary matters as well as a basis for further research. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31833 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:10.259Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Department of Political Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Political Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31833 African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity Heim, Kristen Mattes, Bob Political Studies Legislatures in the Southern Africa have made recent signals that they are becoming active in the budget process through the establishment of Budget Committees, Parliamentary Budget Offices, and Constituency Development Funds. These developments are surprising given the Westminster heritage of these institutions and periods of executive dominance that precluded such involvement from independence. If these legislatures are, indeed, modifying their involvement in budgetary matters, this could pointto a fundamental shiftin their overall function and identity. This study thus asks: Are changes really unfolding? And, if so, why? The research employs data collected on the basis of extensive fieldwork in five parliaments in Southern Africa with similar historical attributes. This includes semi-structured interviews with over 160 MPs and staff, focus group discussions, and archival analysis in the Parliaments of Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. The results of the study find support for the initial hypothesis: public signals are, indeed, indicative of more extensive changes in legislative budgetary engagement, though to varying degrees within each. Formal legal authority was found to be a poor predictor of legislative change, as were emerging technical abilities. A final congruence test found that a combination of external donor influence and regional peer-to peer legislative exchange are best able to account for the developments underway. The results of this exploratory study serve as an orientation for parliaments presently undergoing institutional change in budgetary matters as well as a basis for further research. 2020-05-08T07:18:13Z 2020-05-08T07:18:13Z 2019 2020-05-06T01:32:12Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31833 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Political Studies Heim, Kristen African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| title_full | African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| title_fullStr | African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| title_full_unstemmed | African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| title_short | African legislatures active in the budget process?! Emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| title_sort | african legislatures active in the budget process emerging trends and consequences for legislative identity |
| topic | Political Studies |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/11427/31833 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heimkristen africanlegislaturesactiveinthebudgetprocessemergingtrendsandconsequencesforlegislativeidentity |