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The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era

This dissertation explores the impact of private capital flows on South Africa's developmental state agenda in the post-apartheid era. South Africa is one country that has set, beforehand, the objective to become a developmental state. However, the role of private capital flows as a factor that can...

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Main Author: Mokoena, Itumeleng
Other Authors: Phaahla, Elias
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Studies 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Mokoena, Itumeleng
author2 Phaahla, Elias
author_browse Mokoena, Itumeleng
Phaahla, Elias
author_facet Phaahla, Elias
Mokoena, Itumeleng
author_sort Mokoena, Itumeleng
collection Thesis
description This dissertation explores the impact of private capital flows on South Africa's developmental state agenda in the post-apartheid era. South Africa is one country that has set, beforehand, the objective to become a developmental state. However, the role of private capital flows as a factor that can determine the success, or the failure of that objective is largely missing from the debate about constructing the developmental state in South Africa. By exploring the impact of private capital flows, the study seeks to inform the reader about the nature and composition of private capital flows in South Africa as well as investigate whether these flows hinder or accelerate South Africa's developmental state objective. The study has utilized qualitative methods. It also made use of quantitative data as a secondary supplement to ensure a greater understanding of the research problem. In addition, the study has used the theory of financialization from Marxist Political Economy which posits that private capital flows are unproductive and merely interested in surplus accumulation without producing anything substantive in the long term. The research findings indicate that financial liberalization as a step that was taken by the democratic government to attract private capital flows has not been beneficial for South Africa's long term development as it allows capital flight and illicit financial flows. While South Africa did manage to attract private capital flows after liberalizing its capital account, these flows have been made up mainly of portfolio investments that do not contribute significantly to the productive sectors. Instead, portfolio investments drive excessive household debt, consumption and financial speculation. Moreover, private capital flows reinforce a non-developmental agenda by exacerbating the problem of unemployment, inequality, and poverty which are key developmental goals that South Africa seek to overcome through the developmental state. More importantly, South Africa's reliance on private capital flows constrain its economic policy choices and this, in turn, hinders an emergence of a developmental state.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2021
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32866 The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era Mokoena, Itumeleng Phaahla, Elias International Relations This dissertation explores the impact of private capital flows on South Africa's developmental state agenda in the post-apartheid era. South Africa is one country that has set, beforehand, the objective to become a developmental state. However, the role of private capital flows as a factor that can determine the success, or the failure of that objective is largely missing from the debate about constructing the developmental state in South Africa. By exploring the impact of private capital flows, the study seeks to inform the reader about the nature and composition of private capital flows in South Africa as well as investigate whether these flows hinder or accelerate South Africa's developmental state objective. The study has utilized qualitative methods. It also made use of quantitative data as a secondary supplement to ensure a greater understanding of the research problem. In addition, the study has used the theory of financialization from Marxist Political Economy which posits that private capital flows are unproductive and merely interested in surplus accumulation without producing anything substantive in the long term. The research findings indicate that financial liberalization as a step that was taken by the democratic government to attract private capital flows has not been beneficial for South Africa's long term development as it allows capital flight and illicit financial flows. While South Africa did manage to attract private capital flows after liberalizing its capital account, these flows have been made up mainly of portfolio investments that do not contribute significantly to the productive sectors. Instead, portfolio investments drive excessive household debt, consumption and financial speculation. Moreover, private capital flows reinforce a non-developmental agenda by exacerbating the problem of unemployment, inequality, and poverty which are key developmental goals that South Africa seek to overcome through the developmental state. More importantly, South Africa's reliance on private capital flows constrain its economic policy choices and this, in turn, hinders an emergence of a developmental state. 2021-02-16T10:11:06Z 2021-02-16T10:11:06Z 2020 2021-02-16T07:37:41Z Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32866 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle International Relations
Mokoena, Itumeleng
The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
title_full The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
title_fullStr The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
title_short The Impact of Private Capital Flows on South Africa's Developmental State Agenda in the Post-Apartheid Era
title_sort impact of private capital flows on south africa s developmental state agenda in the post apartheid era
topic International Relations
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32866
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AT mokoenaitumeleng impactofprivatecapitalflowsonsouthafricasdevelopmentalstateagendainthepostapartheidera