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Self-help Governance and State Dysfunction: Exploratory Perspectives on the South African State and Civil Society

ABSTRACT This article explores the phenomenon of self-help governance initiatives that manifest in the context of state dysfunction in South Africa. It is argued that the inability of dysfunctional states to render adequate public goods and services prompts civil society to respond in protests. Such protest may be violent and destructive, or assume a constructive ‘do-it-yourself’ character. The latter forms the focus of the article and is explored through means of a case study at local government level. It is concluded that self-help governance is one of a range of civil society responses to state dysfunction, and the phenomenon is conceptualised and integrated into an analytic framework to facilitate further scholarly investigation.