’Betwixt and Between’: The South African State’s Search for Autonomy in the Face of Globalisation
Author(s)
Spieb, Clemens
Abstract
Late-coming involves benefits as well as costs. As one of the latest surfers on the ‘Third Wave of Democratisation’ South Africa can draw on a much more supportive international environment as it struggles towards democratic consolidation than most of its post-colonial predecessors. At the same time, it is faced with a shift towards an ever-growing diminution of the roles of the state, as liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation become the thin end of the wedge for international agencies. However, the problem of empowering the formerly oppressed African majority seems to make a strong, interventionist, or, for that matter, autonomous state ever more inevitable. How can the state in South Africa cope with these contradictions? The article explores some of these contradictions, argues the need for a transformative consensus and attempts to put the dilemma of the South African state’s search for autonomy in the time of globalisation into theoretical and comparative perspective.
