THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN DAIRY INDUSTRY: A PUBLIC CHOICE ANALYSIS

P. D. Wright and W. L. Nieuwoudt

Agrekon, 1993, vol. 32, issue 01

Abstract: The political economic structure of the South African Dairy Industry is analyzed using public choice theory. The Industry is comprised of various interest groups which are found to be interdependent. Some groups have the ability to inflict internal and external effects on other groups as a result of political power they possess. Manufacturers are the most politically effective group, having the ability to inflict external effects on other interest groups. They can spread the costs of the 'milk is milk' system among interest groups in the Industry. Their political power is mainly due to the dominant position they attained under protection of the Board before deregulation. Extensions of the public choice theory were found to be beneficial in explaining certain actions within the Industry. A gradual phasing out of regulation is recommended. Policymakers can still play an important role in providing traditional public goods and services such as information, restricting monopoly control and marketing promotions. Freedom of entry of new dairies is essential to protect the interests of consumers and producers.

Keywords: Livestock Production/Industries; Political Economy; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1993
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267564/files/agrekon-32-01-004.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267564/files/a ... 4.pdf?subformat=pdfa (application/pdf)

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:ags:agreko:267564

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.267564

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Agrekon from Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().