Industrial Policy: An Overview of South African Debates

Chapter published in Coetzee, J.K., Graaff, J., Hendricks, F. & Wood, G. (eds.). Development: Theory, Policy and Practice. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. The chapter provides an overview of various theoretical perspectives that have informed industrial policy in South Africa, especially since the end of apartheid. These include the World Bank’s neoliberal approach, the Porterist, or ‘cluster’ approach of the Monitor Company, the post-Fordist approach of the Industrial Strategy Project (ISP), and the political economy approach that sees South Africa’s economy as locked into a mineral-energy complex. In the absence of a clear industrial policy, South Africa has shifted to an approach where trade was liberalised without clear support measures in place to offset the negative consequences of this. This book can be ordered online.