Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa is the remnant of colonial legacies many years post-independence. Riddled with underdevelopment and governance inefficiencies. Debates premised on redress for the above dates to the 1960s with government interventionism and neoliberalism (1980s) on the table. The dismal failure of the neoliberalist approach to development on the continent brought the interventionist state (developmental state) back on the front burner. However, there is wide deliberation around the feasibility of a democratic developmental state in Africa. Scholars cite governance inefficiencies as the predominant reason for predicting low levels of success associated with a democratic developmental state in Africa. Therefore, this study’s intent seeks to understand the role and importance of Good Governance in advancing a Democratic Developmental State in Botswana and South Africa. To achieve this, the study adopts a constructivist philosophy using qualitative inquiry through multiple case studies and unobtrusive data analysis. An analytical framework, comprising both the conceptual and theoretical frameworks, guided the assessment. First, the study assessed the observation of good governance in the respective countries. Second, the study qualified whether the individual countries can be categorised as democratic developmental states. Third, the study assessed the good governance-democratic developmental state nexus- through the theoretical lens of the Stewardship and Quality of Government theories in each case. Despite the advocation of Good Governance practices by scholars of the Democratic Developmental State, literature on the relation between these concepts is scant. The study finds that the relationship between Good Governance and the Democratic Developmental State presents itself at a theoretical, conceptual and practical level. The Botswanan case study reveals that Good Governance is vital to the success of its Democratic Developmental State. The South African case reveals that the absence of Good Governance stifles the country’s realisation of a Democratic Developmental State.