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More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture

Before South Africa's current constitutional dispensation, the apartheid government, through its parliamentary sovereignty mode of governance, did very little to ensure accountability and oversight of the Executive branch of government. As a result, the Executive was able to establish what has been...

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Main Author: Davids, Kirsten
Other Authors: Calland, Richard
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Law 2025
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access_status_str Open Access
author Davids, Kirsten
author2 Calland, Richard
author_browse Calland, Richard
Davids, Kirsten
author_facet Calland, Richard
Davids, Kirsten
author_sort Davids, Kirsten
collection Thesis
description Before South Africa's current constitutional dispensation, the apartheid government, through its parliamentary sovereignty mode of governance, did very little to ensure accountability and oversight of the Executive branch of government. As a result, the Executive was able to establish what has been called a culture of authority. The advent of the Constitution, which entrenches the rule of law, a separation of powers doctrine, and the principle of legality, seeks to do away with the culture of authority and entrench a culture of 'justification'. However, to the extent that the Constitution includes clear accountability and oversight prescripts, to which all branches of government are bound, it envisages more than the idea of 'justification'. In this sense, at least, the Constitution seeks to ensure a 'culture of accountability' and oversight that ensures that certain checks and balances are in place between the different branches of government. Corruption and, specifically state capture phenomenon, are not exempt from these constitutional prescripts. This research suggests that corruption must be understood against the constitutional framework and in particular against the requirements of accountability and oversight.
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40859 More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture Davids, Kirsten Calland, Richard public law Before South Africa's current constitutional dispensation, the apartheid government, through its parliamentary sovereignty mode of governance, did very little to ensure accountability and oversight of the Executive branch of government. As a result, the Executive was able to establish what has been called a culture of authority. The advent of the Constitution, which entrenches the rule of law, a separation of powers doctrine, and the principle of legality, seeks to do away with the culture of authority and entrench a culture of 'justification'. However, to the extent that the Constitution includes clear accountability and oversight prescripts, to which all branches of government are bound, it envisages more than the idea of 'justification'. In this sense, at least, the Constitution seeks to ensure a 'culture of accountability' and oversight that ensures that certain checks and balances are in place between the different branches of government. Corruption and, specifically state capture phenomenon, are not exempt from these constitutional prescripts. This research suggests that corruption must be understood against the constitutional framework and in particular against the requirements of accountability and oversight. 2025-01-31T09:33:01Z 2025-01-31T09:33:01Z 2024 2025-01-31T09:27:54Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40859 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle public law
Davids, Kirsten
More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
thesis_degree_str Master's
title More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
title_full More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
title_fullStr More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
title_full_unstemmed More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
title_short More than a ‘culture of justification': evaluating the content and importance of parliament's accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
title_sort more than a culture of justification evaluating the content and importance of parliament s accountability and oversight functions in a time of state capture
topic public law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40859
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