The overall purpose of this book assesses the quality of democracy in South Africa after 20 years of democracy and in so doing, to ascertain whether or not this growing perception is valid.

This volume focuses on how power relationships affect border integration in the fields of political cooperation (with specific focus on local government), spatial planning, language policies and practices and environmental management. While integration processes differ in each of these fields, the common thread that they share is that local power relationships affect integration in each of these arenas.