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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Ideology and Social Policy: 'Handouts' and the Spectre of 'Dependency' |
Author: | Meth, Charles |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
Issue: | 56 |
Pages: | 1-30 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | poverty social policy Politics and Government Development and Technology international relations |
External link: | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/181647 |
Abstract: | Recent negative responses by the most senior politicians in South Africa to demands for a basic income grant (BIG) to address the problem of destitution, consequent largely upon mass unemployment, provide the starting point for this paper. The author focuses on frequently voiced concerns about the BIG's alleged 'dependency' creating nature. In the current context, however, the ANC's fear of 'social grants reducing people to victims, waiting for handouts', a persistent theme in policy documents, lacks any foundation. Because adequate empirical evidence on dependency is not available, the author approaches it in theoretical terms. In passing, he demonstrates the limits of extended public work programmes (EPWP). These programmes are useful short-term strategies, but not only will they create dependency, they also cannot solve the poverty problem. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |