The organisation and behaviour of interest groups: a theoretical review and application to South Africa

Title: The organisation and behaviour of interest groups: a theoretical review and application to South Africa
Creator: Sellars, Christian
Subject: Pressure groups -- South Africa
Subject: Pressure groups
Date Issued: 1997-02
Date: 1997-02
Type: text
Type: book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/75949
Identifier: vital:30486
Description: In recent years. South Africa’s business and union leaders have often been called on to replicate the country’s substantial political achievements, in the economic sphere. Two important documents released in mid 1996 discuss the establishment of structures to facilitate dialogue between government, labour and business. The purpose of this would be to try to find ways of generating the growth and employment sorely needed in the country if democracy is to lead to any improvement in the living conditions of the majority. The government’s macroeconomic strategy paper - ‘Growth, Employment and Redistribution,’ commonly referred to as GEAR, was released first, followed by the report of the Labour Market Commission (LMC) convened by the President to investigate labour policy. The GEAR document proposes ‘a broad national agreement to create an environment for rapid growth, brisk investment and accelerated delivery of public services’ (1996: 26). The agreement would be needed to prevent the recent depreciation of the Rand from triggering a vicious cycle of wage and price increases which would destabilise financial markets and undermine the competitiveness of local industry. This could be achieved, GEAR argues, if labour and business were willing to consider the restraint of wages and prices. The idea of a national agreement is further elaborated in the LMC report, which proposes a ‘National Accord’ (1996). This proposal follows from the LMC’s belief that the negotiation of economic issues through institutional structures, as opposed to direct regulation by government statute, is both socially desirable and economically efficient (ibid, 219). Price restraint, wage restraint and investment decisions, together with tangible commitments from government on training, social welfare provision and industrial promotion would be the main issues covered by the accord. South Africa’s economic policy framework has been subject to heated debate since the release of GEAR. The union movement has expressed serious reservations about the market orientation of the government’s macroeconomic strategy. Given this position, together with the complex and fragmented structure of interest organisation in South Africa, the prospects for an accord or national agreement are not promising. Yet, the government has expressed the desire to set one up. This paper provides a review of political theory on interest groups. The purpose of this is to draw concepts and ideas from contributions in this area to see if they can shed any light on the nature of interest group interaction in South Africa, particularly with respect to the possibility of establishing a social accord. The review draws from two bodies of thought. The first is the theory of corporatism and the second that of public choice (often referred to as rational choice). Corporatist theory has enjoyed a fair degree of popularity amongst South African social scientists. However, the debate between them has not progressed very far, mainly due to confusion over terminology. Further, as argued Section 1, some local contributions have misread the international literature, ignoring aspects which might be of relevance to South Africa. These omissions are re-examined, but the section concludes that there are limitations in the extent to which corporatist theory is able to explain the dynamics of interest group formation and behaviour. Section 2 tries to find alternative explanations in the theory of public choice. The methodological integrity and general value of public choice theory has been strongly questioned (Green & Shapiro, 1994). While the paper provides a synopsis of public choice literature and a review of its critics, the focus is on the analysis of collective action. Despite the shortcomings which it shares with general public choice, this analysis provides useful theoretical pointers which can assist in developing an understanding of interest group dynamics which goes beyond corporatist theory. In the third section, the paper comes back to South Africa and looks at the recent history of interest organisation to establish whether any of the theoretical tools picked up in previous sections are helpful in understanding the local experience. After a general background, the section goes into the discussion of three particular issues, being: community participation in policy formation, trade policy and the labour market. Section 4 acknowledges that there is potential to build the capacity of interest organisations in South Africa and to restructure their interaction in socially beneficial ways. However, a number of issues are identified which mitigate against the conclusion of an effective social accord. These include the weaknesses evident in interest group organisation, the alliance between the African National Congress and the union federation Cosatu,1 and the absence of competition in South Africa at party political level. It is concluded that electoral reform might be a better means of democratising the country’s political environment than attempts at managing interest groups.
Description: Working paper (South African Network for Economic Research) ; v. 1
Format: 28 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: South African Network for Economic Research
Language: English
Rights: South African Network for Economic Research
Rights: No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher

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