‘Settlers and comrades’. The variety of capitalism in South Africa, 1910–2016

Grietjie Verhoef ()

Business History, 2021, vol. 63, issue 8, 1413-1446

Abstract: The complexities of business in Africa are illustrated through the case study of economic and business development of the different countries. By the time decolonisation brushed across Africa from the late 1950s, South Africa enjoyed political independence under white rule, controlling a viable economy based on mineral and industrial capitalism. This article shows the change in a powerful state-capitalist nexus from mining to the industry to ethnic or race-based ‘empowerment’. Contesting nationalisms between Afrikaners and loyal British imperial sympathisers, constituted the rationale for inward-looking economic policies for national economic development. The formation of unstable coalitions for market co-ordination managed market distortion to faci­litate the development of the leading modern industrial economy in Africa, while the rest of independent Africa experimented with central planning, socialism and state-capitalism. This study illustrates the peculiarity of capitalist development in Africa, specifically South Africa, considering the particular institutional contexts and broad business environment in which business acts strategically. South African business proactively engaged in a dynamic state/business relationship from national capitalism under minority rule, to an unstable balance of majority black capitalism, socialist worker welfare capitalism and tribal communalism. The manifestation of an unstable but unique state-business nexus involving market and non-market elements, adds innovation to the VoC framework.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2020.1796972 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:bushst:v:63:y:2021:i:8:p:1413-1446

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FBSH20

DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1796972

Access Statistics for this article

Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms

More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().