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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Political Economy of South Africa in the Interwar Period |
Authors: | Fine, Ben Rustomjee, Zavareh |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | Social Dynamics |
Volume: | 18 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 26-54 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | economic policy history 1910-1919 1920-1929 1930-1939 Politics and Government Economics and Trade History and Exploration |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/02533959208458532 |
Abstract: | Economic policy in South Africa in the interwar period is discussed in the context of differences between the economic power and political influence of Afrikaner as opposed to mining capital. Previous analyses have been limited by methodologies which have overemphasized class agencies at the expense of actual and potential economic linkages. State economic interventions are shown to have differed in influence and in impact by area of application. No coherent policy was followed for the development of industry based on agricultural products. Instead, policies were subordinated to devolving central power to fragmented agricultural interests. Industrial policy is shown to have been confined to protection, other forms of subsidy and the creation of a State sector around heavy industry rather than being linked to a strategy of diversification out of the base provided by the activities associated with mining. Despite this lack of a conducive framework, preliminary research reveals that constrained industrial diversification did occur in isolated cases, including chemical and industrial diamond products, suggesting that other development trajectories were possible. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |