South Africa and the Question of Hegemony in Africa

Olusola Ogunnubi and Adeoye Akinola
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Olusola Ogunnubi: Faculty of Management Sciences, Mangosuthu University of Technology
Adeoye Akinola: Department of Public Administration University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa

Journal of Developing Societies, 2017, vol. 33, issue 4, 428-447

Abstract: This article examines the viability of mainstream neo-realist international relations scholarship for understanding regional power dynamics within Africa by offering a critical evaluation of the categorization of South Africa as a hegemonic power on the continent. Using the theoretical framework of hegemonic stability theory, it argues that there is a somewhat weak link between South Africa’s foreign policy character and its hegemonic disposition in Africa. The South African state, which is the driving force for political, economic and foreign policy processes, is itself subordinate in relation to international capital and lacks the influence expected of a regional hegemon. Despite South Africa’s development, the article demonstrates that its dependency provides the theoretical construct for understanding the country’s ambiguous hegemonic projection. This analytical framework captures the crux of the “hegemonic debate†as well as other conversations in relation to the adaptation of the concept of hegemony to Africa. Therefore, any application of the hegemonic discourse to South Africa necessarily requires a deeper understanding that takes cognizance of the fact that country’s regional hegemony operates within the orbit of a dependent-development paradigm in the global economic order, a neo-liberal order that continues to deepen Africa’s dependency syndrome. Dependency, as well as other complexities, impedes the reality of South Africa’s hegemonic ambitions in Africa.

Keywords: dependency; hegemonic stability theory; international capital; regional hegemon; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:33:y:2017:i:4:p:428-447

DOI: 10.1177/0169796X17736583

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