Abstract:
Public policy uncertainty has become as destructive and inhibiting to developing
political economies seeking entrance into the new, information-driven international
political economy as uncivil contests between the state and society had been in
the aftermath of decolonisation. The notion of a weak state persists as well as the
doggedness of authoritarian urges in the guise of dispersed power politics beyond
the distributive interests of the liberal-democratic experiments. This article reflects
on the contest between two dominant, but contending regime preferences; the
information-age-driven (market) political economy versus the distributive interests
of systemic patronage. The latter might well infuse a degree of legitimacy in times
of inadequate extraction, but could also be the reason for divesting in the economy
and the policy uncertainty which precedes the low economic growth trajectories
since 2009. The conclusion is that depending on which of these two regime
preferences prevail over the other in the milieu of rapid transformation within the
international (political and economic) regime South Africa’s prospect for social
stability can be mapped.
