Table Of ContentEXECUTIVE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
Representative
Bureaucracy and
Performance
Public Service Transformation
in South Africa
Sergio Fernandez
Executive Politics and Governance
Series Editors
Martin Lodge
London School of Economics and Political Science
London, UK
Kai Wegrich
Hertie School of Governance
Berlin, Germany
The Executive Politics and Governance series focuses on central govern-
ment, its organisation and its instruments. It is particularly concerned
with how the changing conditions of contemporary governing affect per-
ennial questions in political science and public administration. Executive
Politics and Governance is therefore centrally interested in questions
such as how politics interacts with bureaucracies, how issues rise and
fall on political agendas, and how public organisations and services are
designed and operated. This book series encourages a closer engagement
with the role of politics in shaping executive structures, and how admin-
istration shapes politics and policy-making. In addition, this series also
wishes to engage with the scholarship that focuses on the organisational
aspects of politics, such as government formation and legislative institu-
tions. The series welcomes high quality research-led monographs with
comparative appeal. Edited volumes that provide in-depth analysis and
critical insights into the field of Executive Politics and Governance are
also encouraged.
Editorial Board
Philippe Bezes, CNRS-CERSA, Paris, France
Jennifer N. Brass, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Sharon Gilad, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel
Will Jennings, University of Southampton, UK
David E. Lewis, Vanderbilt University, USA
Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling, University of Nottingham, UK
Salvador Parrado, UNED, Madrid, Spain
Nick Sitter, Central European University, Hungary
Kutsal Yesilkagit, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14980
Sergio Fernandez
Representative
Bureaucracy
and Performance
Public Service Transformation in South Africa
Sergio Fernandez
Indiana University Bloomington
Bloomington, IN, USA
Executive Politics and Governance
ISBN 978-3-030-32133-8 ISBN 978-3-030-32134-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32134-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my parents
A
cknowledgements
I owe a great debt of gratitude to many for their assistance, partici-
pation, and support in bringing this book to fruition. I would like to
thank a number of my colleagues for their honest feedback and helpful
advice, including Jennifer Brass, Jill Nicholson-Crotty, Sean Nicholson-
Crotty, Claudia Avellaneda, Nikolaos Zirogiannis, Maureen Pirog,
Brad Heim, Anh Tran, Tom Rabovsky, David Good, and Coady Wing
at Indiana University; Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, David Fourie, Gerda
Van Dijk, Lianne Malan, Natasja Holtzhausen, and Onkgopotse
Madumo at University of Pretoria; Christelle Auriacombe, Danielle
Nel, and Fanie Cloete at University of Johannesburg; and Gerrit Van
der Waldt at North-West University. Chris Thornhill at University of
Pretoria, Kenneth Meier at American University, and Robert Cameron
at University of Cape Town were instrumental in helping me formulate
and refining ideas and offered comments on portions of the manuscript.
I owe a special thanks to Samuel Koma of Milpark Education for teach-
ing me so much about South Africa, introducing me to important and
knowledgeable public figures, and believing in the value of this research.
I am also indebted to anonymous reviewers and editors at Journal of
Modern African Studies, Governance, Public Administration Review, and
Palgrave Macmillan for their critical and constructive assessment of the
research. Michael McGuire and John Graham at Indiana University pro-
vided generous support for travel and research assistance and Nervison
Temba and Shepherd Moyo’s logistical support proved invaluable for
field research. Of course, this book could not have been written without
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
the gracious participation and insight of dozens of public officials from
national departments and Chapter 9 institutions. I owe the biggest debt
of gratitude to Hongseok Lee at University at Albany, who spent count-
less hours searching for sources, coding archival data, and serving as a
frank sounding board. A heartfelt thank you goes out to my wife, par-
ents, and old friend John Clark for their love and encouragement. Most
of all, I give thanks to my Lord for his love and grace.
c
ontents
1 Representative Bureaucracy and Performance 1
2 Apartheid and the Bureaucracy 23
3 Addressing the Legacy of Apartheid 69
4 Public Sector Reform and the Quest for a Capable
Public Service 113
5 The Theory of Representative Bureaucracy 143
6 Representative Bureaucracy and Performance: Empirical
Evidence from South Africa 189
7 Why Do Representative Bureaucracies Perform Better? 239
8 What We Have Learned and the Way Forward 267
Index 281
ix
A A
bout the uthor
Sergio Fernandez is Associate Professor at Indiana University O’Neill
School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Affiliate Faculty in
Indiana University African Studies Program. He also has appointments
as Extraordinary Professor at University of Pretoria School of Public
Management and Administration and Visiting Professor at University
of Johannesburg Centre for Public Management and Governance.
He earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of
Georgia. His research focuses on organizational behavior in the public
sector, public sector leadership, representative bureaucracy, and govern-
ment outsourcing. His work has appeared in leading policy and man-
agement journals, including Public Administration Review, Governance,
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, American Review
of Public Administration, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,
Leadership Quarterly, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and
Journal of Modern African Studies. He has served on six journal edito-
rial boards and is an editor for Africa Today. He lives in Bloomington,
Indiana, with his wife and three dogs.
xi
