Phadi, MosesVale, Peter Christopher Julius2021-11-192021-11-192020Phadi, M. & Vale, P. 2020, 'Inside the municipality : locating debates on local government', Transformation: critical perspectives on Southern Africa, vol. 103, pp. 1-11.0258-7696 (print)1726-1368 (online)10.1353/trn.2020.0010http://hdl.handle.net/2263/82767The rise of African liberation parties to power in the 1960s brought to the fore ‘questions about the role and position of the African state’ (Doornbos 1990:179, also see Mamdani 1996, Amin 1972). Leaders of newly independent African states looked upon the state as the machinery to drive far-reaching social and economic transformation, following the sustained ravages of colonial rule. As the ‘institutionalised expression of political power’ (Doornbos 1990:180), the state was to be directed towards confronting the ills and contradictions of the colonial past and foster ‘development’. Faith that the state would provide a path towards salvation emerged from both liberal and Marxist ideologies, but for antagonistic reasons. While the former viewed the state as a vehicle to advance capitalism, the latter saw it as means to dismantle it and engender a classless society (Doornbos 1990:182-3). But the enormous expectations about what can be achieved through the state since the heady days of the 1960s have undergone profound rethinking.enTransformationIndependent African statesEconomic transformationLocal governmentMunicipalityAfrican statesArticle