State-Business Relations and Economic Transformation in South Africa and Zimbabwe

In State-Business Relations and Economic Transformation in South Africa and Zimbabwe: Unfinished Transformation, Sinan Baran examines state-business relations (SBRs) in semi-peripheral South Africa and peripheral Zimbabwe after each country’s transition to majority rule to address why SBRs are likely to either consolidate or fracture in post-transition communities. In both countries, the majority governments faced unresolved, post-transition divisions relating to race, inequality, and underdevelopment. Baran analyzes the liberalisation and indigenisation policy choices intended to address these areas that are impacting the mining industries in South Africa and Zimbabwe as case studies. Using comparative analysis and a Modern World-Systems lens, he argues that semi-peripheral countries are less susceptible to pressures from domestic and external powers than peripheral countries during periods of economic transformation. He further argues that China’s significant political and economic presence in a peripheral country like Zimbabwe has more effect on SBRs than in a semi-peripheral country like South Africa.