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Business, government and economic policymaking in the new South Africa, 1990–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2005

Antoinette Handley
Antoinette Handley
Affiliation:
University of Toronto.
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Abstract

The stated economic policy of the African National Congress (ANC) underwent a dramatic shift in the 1990s, away from a soft-left redistributionist position to one much more closely aligned with the policy preferences of the South African business community. To what extent can this shift be attributed to lobbying efforts by that community? The article reviews the development of economic policy by the ANC in the 1990s, and concludes that while business was undoubtedly influential in this process, much of that influence was indirect and derived from two sets of sources: first, the international policy consensus around the neo-liberal reform agenda; and second, indirect signals from ‘the market’ by means of such mechanisms as movements in the value of the currency, and investor and business confidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 211 - 239
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article benefited from comments by Jeffrey Herbst, Richard Sandbrook and two anonymous reviewers. My grateful thanks go to them. I would also like to acknowledge funding assistance received from the South Africa Foundation and the Council of Regional Studies at Princeton University, as well as the gracious hospitality of the South African Institute of International Affairs, under the directorship of Greg Mills. All errors remain the author's own.