Law and Economic Development in South Africa: An Assessment through the General Theory of Law and Development

Pooe T. K. ()
Additional contact information
Pooe T. K.: Public Administration and Management, North West University (Vaal campus), 1174 Hendrick Van Eck Boulevard, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

The Law and Development Review, 2019, vol. 12, issue 2, 377-401

Abstract: The ascension of the African National Congress into formal politics through its electoral victory in 1994 resulted in South Africa adopting one of the world’s most heralded social justice and human rights-based documents, the 1996 Constitution. Yet, two-decades of ANC governance this paper argues has not led to the types of economic development needed to advance the formerly oppressed African majority, Colored and Indian populations. This lackluster economic development is even more troubling when one considers the giant economic development steps Asian developmental states have made, without a human rights and social justice approach. It is the contention of this paper that the newly presented General Theory of Law and Development allows for a new type of analysis exploring the reasons why South Africa’s economic development trajectory has been so lackluster, when so many authorities praise the South African legal framework. In making this argument using the General Theory South Africa’s local governments sphere and local economic development will be the subject of analysis.

Keywords: local economic development; law and development; public policy; General Theory of Law and Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2018-0062 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:12:y:2019:i:2:p:377-401:n:1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/ldr/html

DOI: 10.1515/ldr-2018-0062

Access Statistics for this article

The Law and Development Review is currently edited by Yong-Shik Lee

More articles in The Law and Development Review from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().