South Chinamorning Post

"Representative Bureaucracy and Performance: Public Service Transformation in South Africa is a first-rate blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis of one of the major transitions in modern governance.

This timely book examines how the South African National Defence Force has adapted to the country’s new security, political and social environment since 1994. In South Africa’s changed political state, how has civilian control of the military been implemented and what does this mean for ‘defence in a democracy’? This book presents an overview of the security environment, how the mission focus of the military has changed and the implications for force procurement, force preparation, force employment and force sustainability.

“This is an important book, from a global south perspective, on television coverage of South Africa’s post-apartheid general elections. Jones analyses the troubling mismatch between the issues that mattered to the electorate and the issues that mattered in, and to, the media, and explains why this mismatch occurred. She is deeply committed to moving beyond generalisations about media performance, and the limitations of policy and structural analysis. It is a pleasure to read as it is accessible while being academically rigorous, so it will appeal to a wide audience." — Professor Jane Duncan, University of Johannesburg

“Ñusta Carranza Ko's exciting new book deftly challenges the conventional wisdom, showing through detailed case studies of Peru, Uruguay, and South Korea that domestic political factors dominate over international advocacy in explaining long term adherence to–or backsliding from–international human rights and transitional justice norms. Carranza Ko should be commended for an important contribution to international relations and political science.”

“Ñusta Carranza Ko's exciting new book deftly challenges the conventional wisdom, showing through detailed case studies of Peru, Uruguay, and South Korea that domestic political factors dominate over international advocacy in explaining long term adherence to–or backsliding from–international human rights and transitional justice norms. Carranza Ko should be commended for an important contribution to international relations and political science.”