Explaining the endurance of poverty and inequality : social policy and the social division of welfare in the South African health system
- Authors: Du Plessis, Ulandi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Health system , Private health , Public health , Poor , Subsidies , Profit motive , Quality , Efficiency , Public health -- Finance -- Research -- South Africa , Medical care -- Research -- South Africa , Poverty -- Research -- South Africa , Equality -- Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2755 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002002
- Description: This thesis examines the structure and flow of public funding between the public and private sectors in the South African health system and the consequences thereof for the achievement of equity. The conceptual framework used to undertake the analysis derives from Richard Titmuss’ core theoretical framework, the Social Division of Welfare. The application of the Social Division of Welfare applied to the South African health care context demonstrates how state resources end up benefitting the non-poor and, as a result, reproduce inequality. Those who access public institutions such as public health care are assumed to be ‘dependent’ on the state, whilst those who access private health facilities claim to be ‘independent’ of the state. However, this thesis shows that these assumptions are flawed. Access to the formal labour market, and subsequently the paying of taxes, authorises one to access state subsidies not available to those who do not. The application of the Social Division of Welfare shows that tax-paying private health care patients benefit considerably from state resources. This thesis argues that due to cost escalation in the private health sector, a consequence of the commodification of health care, these private health care ‘consumers’ as well as the private health industry in general are dependent upon state resources. This thesis analyses the role played by the profit motive present in the private health industry and the consequences for equity, quality, access and efficiency in health care provision
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Du Plessis, Ulandi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Health system , Private health , Public health , Poor , Subsidies , Profit motive , Quality , Efficiency , Public health -- Finance -- Research -- South Africa , Medical care -- Research -- South Africa , Poverty -- Research -- South Africa , Equality -- Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2755 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002002
- Description: This thesis examines the structure and flow of public funding between the public and private sectors in the South African health system and the consequences thereof for the achievement of equity. The conceptual framework used to undertake the analysis derives from Richard Titmuss’ core theoretical framework, the Social Division of Welfare. The application of the Social Division of Welfare applied to the South African health care context demonstrates how state resources end up benefitting the non-poor and, as a result, reproduce inequality. Those who access public institutions such as public health care are assumed to be ‘dependent’ on the state, whilst those who access private health facilities claim to be ‘independent’ of the state. However, this thesis shows that these assumptions are flawed. Access to the formal labour market, and subsequently the paying of taxes, authorises one to access state subsidies not available to those who do not. The application of the Social Division of Welfare shows that tax-paying private health care patients benefit considerably from state resources. This thesis argues that due to cost escalation in the private health sector, a consequence of the commodification of health care, these private health care ‘consumers’ as well as the private health industry in general are dependent upon state resources. This thesis analyses the role played by the profit motive present in the private health industry and the consequences for equity, quality, access and efficiency in health care provision
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Impact of human dimensions on smallholder farming in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
- Authors: Kibirige, Douglas
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Entrepreneurship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Economic conditions , DEA approach , Stochastic production frontier , Production efficiency , Human dimensions , Irrigation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Agricultural Economics)
- Identifier: vital:11201 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007532 , Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Entrepreneurship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Economic conditions , DEA approach , Stochastic production frontier , Production efficiency , Human dimensions , Irrigation
- Description: Considering the backward and forward linkages, the agro-industrial sector contributes about 12 percent of South Africa‘s GDP, and employs approximately 8.5 million people. In the Eastern Cape Province, the sector contributes about 1.9 percent of the Provincial GDP, and over 3 million people derive their livelihoods from subsistence smallholder farming. Despite its importance, agricultural productivity has stagnated for several years across the Eastern Cape rural communities. There have been several attempts by the government to improve the agricultural productivity on smallholder farms since the end of apartheid, especially through the establishment of small-scale irrigation schemes, subsidization of farm inputs, and provision of credit facilities and enacting a number of land reform policies. In spite of the government support, most rural communities like Qamata and Tyefu are still faced with high levels of poverty affecting 76 percent and 91 percent of the population, respectively. This research evaluated the current smallholders‘ production efficiency, and the link between smallholder farmers‘ human dimensions (entrepreneurial spirit and positive psychological capital, goals and social capital, and other efficiency related variables) with production efficiency and household commercialisation index/level. The study used participatory approaches for site selection, sample selection and data collection. The analysis was based on both information from informal interviews and formal primary data collection. The Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Production Frontier techniques were used to determine the relative efficiencies of individual farmers and to identify the major factors that influence the efficiency of production. Overall, 158 farmers were interviewed both at Qamata and Tyefu irrigation schemes. Descriptive statistics of this study indicated that most of the farmers were men with an average age of 61 years, and mean household size of 4 persons with the household head having at least obtained some primary school education. Farming is the major source of livelihood for smallholders with an average income of R4527.49 per crop season. Smallholders use improved seeds, fertilizers and tractor for ploughing with less use of pesticides and herbicides. Although smallholder irrigators generate more gross margins from maize and cabbage enterprises, generally both categories of farmers exhibited a low average household commercialization index for maize and cabbage at 0.41 and 0.22, respectively. Both Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Production Frontier results indicate that farmers are about 98 percent technically efficient in maize and cabbage enterprises, respectively. However, farmers were allocatively inefficient as they were under-utilizing seed and pesticides while over-utilizing inorganic fertilizers. Factors that are positively associated with technical efficiency in maize production included household size, farming experience, off-farm income, use of agro-chemical; gross margins and commercialisation level of maize output. Determinants of technical efficiency in cabbage enterprise included farming experience, amount of land owned, use of agro-chemicals, group membership and gross margins accrued to cabbage sales. Farmers‘ human dimensions that could be more positively and significantly associated with production, efficiency and household commercialisation level included risk taking (hope), innovativeness (confidence) and optimism for entrepreneurial/positive psychological capital. Farmers‘ goals included self-esteem and independence, and only external social capital which were identified to be more positively and significantly associated with farmers‘ production efficiency and commercialization level. The transition from homestead subsistence to commercial oriented small-scale irrigation farming is inevitable since smallholder irrigators earn more incomes from maize and cabbage and are relatively food secure. However, the key policy options that must be considered to address inefficiencies and improved commercialization level to aid the transition include: agricultural policies geared toward attracting youth in farming, improved quality of extension services, speeding up the land reform process, and formation of cooperatives and participatory policy formulation that takes full cognizance of the farmers‘ human dimensions. Since farmers‘ human dimensions as defined in the literature and this study are not things that are amenable to direct policy intervention, they can only be modified indirectly through policy actions that affect their determinants. This means that a number of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics such as age, sex and education level of household head, farming experience, size of land owned, crop incomes, source of water for irrigation and location of the irrigation scheme that govern the way people perceive reality and respond to them must be the focus of concerted policy actions over the medium to long term.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Kibirige, Douglas
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Entrepreneurship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Economic conditions , DEA approach , Stochastic production frontier , Production efficiency , Human dimensions , Irrigation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Agricultural Economics)
- Identifier: vital:11201 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007532 , Farms, Small -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Entrepreneurship -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Economic conditions , DEA approach , Stochastic production frontier , Production efficiency , Human dimensions , Irrigation
- Description: Considering the backward and forward linkages, the agro-industrial sector contributes about 12 percent of South Africa‘s GDP, and employs approximately 8.5 million people. In the Eastern Cape Province, the sector contributes about 1.9 percent of the Provincial GDP, and over 3 million people derive their livelihoods from subsistence smallholder farming. Despite its importance, agricultural productivity has stagnated for several years across the Eastern Cape rural communities. There have been several attempts by the government to improve the agricultural productivity on smallholder farms since the end of apartheid, especially through the establishment of small-scale irrigation schemes, subsidization of farm inputs, and provision of credit facilities and enacting a number of land reform policies. In spite of the government support, most rural communities like Qamata and Tyefu are still faced with high levels of poverty affecting 76 percent and 91 percent of the population, respectively. This research evaluated the current smallholders‘ production efficiency, and the link between smallholder farmers‘ human dimensions (entrepreneurial spirit and positive psychological capital, goals and social capital, and other efficiency related variables) with production efficiency and household commercialisation index/level. The study used participatory approaches for site selection, sample selection and data collection. The analysis was based on both information from informal interviews and formal primary data collection. The Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Production Frontier techniques were used to determine the relative efficiencies of individual farmers and to identify the major factors that influence the efficiency of production. Overall, 158 farmers were interviewed both at Qamata and Tyefu irrigation schemes. Descriptive statistics of this study indicated that most of the farmers were men with an average age of 61 years, and mean household size of 4 persons with the household head having at least obtained some primary school education. Farming is the major source of livelihood for smallholders with an average income of R4527.49 per crop season. Smallholders use improved seeds, fertilizers and tractor for ploughing with less use of pesticides and herbicides. Although smallholder irrigators generate more gross margins from maize and cabbage enterprises, generally both categories of farmers exhibited a low average household commercialization index for maize and cabbage at 0.41 and 0.22, respectively. Both Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Production Frontier results indicate that farmers are about 98 percent technically efficient in maize and cabbage enterprises, respectively. However, farmers were allocatively inefficient as they were under-utilizing seed and pesticides while over-utilizing inorganic fertilizers. Factors that are positively associated with technical efficiency in maize production included household size, farming experience, off-farm income, use of agro-chemical; gross margins and commercialisation level of maize output. Determinants of technical efficiency in cabbage enterprise included farming experience, amount of land owned, use of agro-chemicals, group membership and gross margins accrued to cabbage sales. Farmers‘ human dimensions that could be more positively and significantly associated with production, efficiency and household commercialisation level included risk taking (hope), innovativeness (confidence) and optimism for entrepreneurial/positive psychological capital. Farmers‘ goals included self-esteem and independence, and only external social capital which were identified to be more positively and significantly associated with farmers‘ production efficiency and commercialization level. The transition from homestead subsistence to commercial oriented small-scale irrigation farming is inevitable since smallholder irrigators earn more incomes from maize and cabbage and are relatively food secure. However, the key policy options that must be considered to address inefficiencies and improved commercialization level to aid the transition include: agricultural policies geared toward attracting youth in farming, improved quality of extension services, speeding up the land reform process, and formation of cooperatives and participatory policy formulation that takes full cognizance of the farmers‘ human dimensions. Since farmers‘ human dimensions as defined in the literature and this study are not things that are amenable to direct policy intervention, they can only be modified indirectly through policy actions that affect their determinants. This means that a number of the demographic and socio-economic characteristics such as age, sex and education level of household head, farming experience, size of land owned, crop incomes, source of water for irrigation and location of the irrigation scheme that govern the way people perceive reality and respond to them must be the focus of concerted policy actions over the medium to long term.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
New ways of understanding: a governmentality analysis of basic education policy in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Prinsloo, Estelle Helena
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: South Africa -- Department of Basic Education , Basic education -- Government policy -- Research -- South Africa , Post-apartheid era -- Education -- South Africa , Educational change -- Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2751 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001384
- Description: Social problems that are identified by government policy are articulated in ways that confer the responsibility of their management onto the state. In this way, policy reform serves as a means to justify political rule, as the ‘answers’ to policy failures are located within the realm of state intervention. This role of policy is maintained by the traditional definition of policy as it enables policies to be presented as the outcome of ‘necessary’ actions taken by state institutions to better the wellbeing of citizens. Since 1994, mainstream research on basic education policy in South Africa has employed traditional understandings of policy and its function. In doing so, these inquiries have failed to question the very idea of policy itself. They have also neglected to identify the productive role played by policy in the practice of power. To illuminate the necessary limits of policy reform, an alternative approach to analyse basic education policy is necessary. This thesis premises policy as discourse and advances a governmentality analysis of basic education policy during the first fifteen years of democracy (1994-2009) in South Africa. By drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, the study argues that government – ‘those actions upon the actions of others’ – during this period in South Africa was informed by both a liberal and a neo-liberal mentality of rule. The tensions between these two rationalities contributed to the continuation of apartheid’s socio-economic inequalities in the postapartheid era; an outcome buttressed by the contradictory impulses within basic education policy. By considering policy as a productive translation of governmental reasoning, the boundaries of intervention for future policy reforms are highlighted. These show that the inequalities that were perpetuated during the first fifteen years of democracy justify policy responses similar to those responsible for their production
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Prinsloo, Estelle Helena
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: South Africa -- Department of Basic Education , Basic education -- Government policy -- Research -- South Africa , Post-apartheid era -- Education -- South Africa , Educational change -- Research -- South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2751 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001384
- Description: Social problems that are identified by government policy are articulated in ways that confer the responsibility of their management onto the state. In this way, policy reform serves as a means to justify political rule, as the ‘answers’ to policy failures are located within the realm of state intervention. This role of policy is maintained by the traditional definition of policy as it enables policies to be presented as the outcome of ‘necessary’ actions taken by state institutions to better the wellbeing of citizens. Since 1994, mainstream research on basic education policy in South Africa has employed traditional understandings of policy and its function. In doing so, these inquiries have failed to question the very idea of policy itself. They have also neglected to identify the productive role played by policy in the practice of power. To illuminate the necessary limits of policy reform, an alternative approach to analyse basic education policy is necessary. This thesis premises policy as discourse and advances a governmentality analysis of basic education policy during the first fifteen years of democracy (1994-2009) in South Africa. By drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, the study argues that government – ‘those actions upon the actions of others’ – during this period in South Africa was informed by both a liberal and a neo-liberal mentality of rule. The tensions between these two rationalities contributed to the continuation of apartheid’s socio-economic inequalities in the postapartheid era; an outcome buttressed by the contradictory impulses within basic education policy. By considering policy as a productive translation of governmental reasoning, the boundaries of intervention for future policy reforms are highlighted. These show that the inequalities that were perpetuated during the first fifteen years of democracy justify policy responses similar to those responsible for their production
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Objecting to apartheid: the history of the end conscription campaign
- Authors: Jones, David
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) , Apartheid -- South Africa , Government, Resistance to South Africa , Conscientious objection South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA (History)
- Identifier: vital:11538 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1005998 , End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) , Apartheid -- South Africa , Government, Resistance to South Africa , Conscientious objection South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Politics and government
- Description: It is important that the story of organisations like the End Conscription Campaign be recorded. The narrative of the struggle against apartheid has become a site of contestation. As the downfall of apartheid is still a relatively recent event, the history is still in the process of formation. There is much contestation over the relative contributions of different groups within the struggle. This is an important debate as it informs and shapes the politics of the present. A new official narrative is emerging which accentuates the role of particular groupings, portraying them as the heroes and the leaders of the struggle. A new elite have laid exclusive claim to the heritage of the struggle and are using this narrative to justify their hold on power through the creation of highly centralised political structures in which positions of power are reserved for loyal cadres and independent thinking and questioning are seen as a threat. A complementary tradition of grassroots democracy, of open debate and transparency, of “people’s power”, of accountability of leadership to the people fostered in the struggle is being lost. It is important to contest this narrative. We need to remember that the downfall of apartheid was brought about by a myriad combination of factors and forces. Current academic interpretations emphasize that no one group or organisation, no matter how significant its contribution, was solely responsible. There was no military victory or other decisive event which brought the collapse of the system, rather a sapping of will to pay the ever increasing cost to maintain it. The struggle against apartheid involved a groundswell, popular uprising in which the initiative came not from centralised political structures, orchestrating a grand revolt, but from ordinary South Africans who were reacting to the oppressive nature of a brutally discriminatory system which sought to control every aspect of their lives.4 Leaders and structures emerged organically as communities organised themselves around issues that affected them. Organisations that emerged were highly democratic and accountable to their members. There was no grand plan or centralised control of the process. As Walter Benjamin warned in a different context, but applicable here: “All rulers are the heirs of those who have conquered before them.” He feared that what he referred to as a historicist view constructed a version of history as a triumphal parade of progress. “Whoever has emerged victorious” he reminds us “participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. According to traditional practice the spoils are carried along in the procession.” 5 He was warning of just such a tendency, which has been repeated so often in the past, for the victors to construct a version of history which ends up justifying a new tyranny. To counter this tendency it is important that other histories of the struggle are told – that the stories of other groups, which are marginalised by the new hegemonic discourse, are recorded.This aim of this dissertation is thus two-fold. Firstly it aims to investigate “the story” of the End Conscription Campaign, which has largely been seen as a white anti-apartheid liberal organisation. The objective is to provide a detailed historical account and periodisation of the organisation to fill in the gaps and challenge the distortions of a new emerging “official” discourse.Secondly within this framework, and by using the activities and strategies of the organisation as evidence for its suppositions, the question of the role played by the ECC in the struggle.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Jones, David
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) , Apartheid -- South Africa , Government, Resistance to South Africa , Conscientious objection South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Politics and government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA (History)
- Identifier: vital:11538 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1005998 , End Conscription Campaign (South Africa) , Apartheid -- South Africa , Government, Resistance to South Africa , Conscientious objection South Africa , South Africa -- Social conditions , South Africa -- Politics and government
- Description: It is important that the story of organisations like the End Conscription Campaign be recorded. The narrative of the struggle against apartheid has become a site of contestation. As the downfall of apartheid is still a relatively recent event, the history is still in the process of formation. There is much contestation over the relative contributions of different groups within the struggle. This is an important debate as it informs and shapes the politics of the present. A new official narrative is emerging which accentuates the role of particular groupings, portraying them as the heroes and the leaders of the struggle. A new elite have laid exclusive claim to the heritage of the struggle and are using this narrative to justify their hold on power through the creation of highly centralised political structures in which positions of power are reserved for loyal cadres and independent thinking and questioning are seen as a threat. A complementary tradition of grassroots democracy, of open debate and transparency, of “people’s power”, of accountability of leadership to the people fostered in the struggle is being lost. It is important to contest this narrative. We need to remember that the downfall of apartheid was brought about by a myriad combination of factors and forces. Current academic interpretations emphasize that no one group or organisation, no matter how significant its contribution, was solely responsible. There was no military victory or other decisive event which brought the collapse of the system, rather a sapping of will to pay the ever increasing cost to maintain it. The struggle against apartheid involved a groundswell, popular uprising in which the initiative came not from centralised political structures, orchestrating a grand revolt, but from ordinary South Africans who were reacting to the oppressive nature of a brutally discriminatory system which sought to control every aspect of their lives.4 Leaders and structures emerged organically as communities organised themselves around issues that affected them. Organisations that emerged were highly democratic and accountable to their members. There was no grand plan or centralised control of the process. As Walter Benjamin warned in a different context, but applicable here: “All rulers are the heirs of those who have conquered before them.” He feared that what he referred to as a historicist view constructed a version of history as a triumphal parade of progress. “Whoever has emerged victorious” he reminds us “participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. According to traditional practice the spoils are carried along in the procession.” 5 He was warning of just such a tendency, which has been repeated so often in the past, for the victors to construct a version of history which ends up justifying a new tyranny. To counter this tendency it is important that other histories of the struggle are told – that the stories of other groups, which are marginalised by the new hegemonic discourse, are recorded.This aim of this dissertation is thus two-fold. Firstly it aims to investigate “the story” of the End Conscription Campaign, which has largely been seen as a white anti-apartheid liberal organisation. The objective is to provide a detailed historical account and periodisation of the organisation to fill in the gaps and challenge the distortions of a new emerging “official” discourse.Secondly within this framework, and by using the activities and strategies of the organisation as evidence for its suppositions, the question of the role played by the ECC in the struggle.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »