The Politics of Housing Delivery: A Comparative Study of Administrative Behaviour in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Grand theories such as neo-patrimonialism that converge on the state penetration of society, have dominated debates on resource allocation models in Africa. Such grand theories have failed to account for the trajectories of the different countries and they risk losing validity as they cannot capture the variations and the determinant factors across countries. This book details how a different resource allocation model shaped by the ?liberation culture?, a culture that originated in the violent exile liberation struggles in southern Africa, influences housing land allocation. In the ?liberation culture?, the ruling parties? networks shape, prioritise and determine who gets state resources and it has an exclusivist orientation that engenders the formation of new political identities thereby constructing a new conception of citizenship. This comparative work demonstrates how service seekers in South Africa and Zimbabwe assume new identities that facilitate access to housing resources. The emphasis is on how the party penetrates the state and society. Academics, students and housing delivery professionals? will find this book useful in understanding the post liberation war state.