South Africa’s corruption and decay is not due to it being a developing country; it is a Western, liberal, modern state. It is, instead, being intentionally de-developed by a revolutionary, extractive political elite. Read the new article by Lawrence Thomas (link below):
Lawrence argues the defining features of contemporary South Africa are the intertwining of government with organized crime—through both corruption and violence—and the creation of a political economy where extraction, not production, is paramount. Link: https://www.palladiummag.com/2...
Rampant crime, rolling blackouts, violent unrest, a stagnant economy, and emigration are not the causes of dysfunction, but the symptoms: the cause is a political elite who do not see governance or growth as their purpose, but extraction and social upheaval.
The locus of power for this elite is the ruling ANC party, whose ideological and organizational origins are in the radical, revolutionary, guerilla Marxist movements of the 20th century. Despite this, the ANC has sanitized its PR and held power in South Africa for decades.
South Africa is not a unique, faraway country. It is rather the first Western country to have entered this process of intentional de-development and impoverishment. The same ideological and political factors driving it, drive many establishment parties in the Western world.
Read the full article by Lawrence Thomas here: https://www.palladiummag.com/2...
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