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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:When Professionalism Clashes with Local Particularities: Ecology, Elections and Procedural Arrangements in Botswana
Author:Poteete, Amy R.ISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:29
Issue:2
Period:June
Pages:461-485
Language:English
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:land reform
natural resource management
civil service
grasslands
Development and Technology
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3557373
Abstract:The characterization of a bureaucracy as Weberian does not capture the ambiguous developmental implications of relations among bureaucrats and other political entities. Nor do electoral politics guarantee broad representation of social interests in policymaking. Local conditions, informal patterns of social and political organization at the local and national level, the competitiveness of elections, and national structures of administration all come into play. The interplay of these factors can be seen in the implementation of policies for privatizing rangeland in Botswana in the 1990s, where diverse local reactions to privatization resulted in uniform policy outcomes. Procedural advantages allowed professionals within the bureaucracy to make progress toward policy implementation contingent on their own preferences and on the reactions they anticipated from local political bodies. Intervention in natural resource management appeared to progress furthest in the least likely district precisely because bureaucrats could count on competitive politics to produce the results the majority of bureaucrats desired. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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