The Dirty Work Of Democracy By Anthony Altbeker 'Fats' Makaye

Anthony Altbeker tells the story of police officer ‘Fats’ Makaye in chapter twelve of his book, “The Dirty Work of Democracy”. Fats’ attitude toward his role and occupation of being a South African police officer is one of disillusionment, detachment, disenchantment; he is also a very negative man who is highly unmotivated. Although these may be Makaye’s attitudes to his job, they do not always support his actions. It will be shown in this essay how the sociological concepts of structure and agency allow us to understand Makaye’s attitude to his job and why he engages in the actions that he does. The implications of this on the “structure-agency” debate will also be discussed.

The structure-agency debate is a debate surrounding the question: To what extent
2013 :3), and to what extent do we use agency to shape our biographies (Van Huyssteen, E. 2003 :56 ). Structure is a complex framework of social groups, institutions, culture and processes that make up a society, and within which people create relationships and interact with each other (Van Huyssteen, E. 2003 :56). Structure refers to how these social forces affect our daily lives. In the case of Fats Makaye, the social force that affects his life is the apartheid era and the apartheid system. Even though Altbeker’s interview with Makaye takes place almost over a decade after the coming of democracy in South Africa, Makaye still feels the effects of the oppressive system. He feels that because of his ascribed status, given to him involuntarily at birth (Kendall, D. 2013 :21), of being a black, South African man, he is being held back in his profession and is unable to increase his achieved status, which is voluntary (Kendall, D. 2013 :21), in this profession. I think that Makaye does