Comparative Perspectives on South Africa’s and Brazil’s Institutional Inequalities under Progressive Social Policies

Abstract

South Africa and Brazil are burdened with persistent inequality and poverty two decades after democratisation. Both countries have developed ambitious social policies aimed at addressing these challenges. In this article, I seek to answer the following question: to what extent are the social policies pursued in South Africa and Brazil leading to the realisation of a new social contract? The article will compare the two countries’ social policy architectures in their evolution under the governance of the African National Congress and the Partido dos Trabalhadores. This analysis should be read in a dynamic global context where cash transfers have shaped their social policies, the Social Grant in South Africa and the Bolsa Família in Brazil, culminating in a re-invigorated discussion and debate within the global social policy architecture. The article departs from the mainstream approach of social protection as an instrumental tool for reducing poverty and inequality, which, I argue, is a narrow vision of social policy. I advocate an institutional analysis to social policy, where mechanisms of production, protection and redistribution are pivotal in addressing the socio-economic challenges that face both countries.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• Brazil
• durable inequality
• poverty
• institution(s)
• social policy
• global south

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation, and the South African Research Chairs Initiative for supporting my work, housed at the Archie Mafeje Research Institute (AMRI) at UNISA. This publication was made possible by support from the Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) (New York, USA) Next Generation of Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship, with funds provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York through the Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2016–17); Dissertation Completion Laureate through the Council for the Development of Social Science in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal; and the African Pathways Doctoral Scholarship through the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Science (NIHSS), Johannesburg, South Africa. I would like to thank Professor Jimi Adesina for initial comments and Carrie Schwartz for editing the first draft. The views expressed in this article are my own, and any remaining errors are solely my responsibility.

Notes

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² E.Lieberman, ‘National Political Community and the Politics of Income Taxation in Brazil and South Africa in the Twentieth Century’, Politics and Society, 29, 4 (2001), pp. 515–55; E. Lieberman, Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003); G. Seidman, Manufacturing Militance: Workers’ Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970–1985 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1994).

³ G. Fredrickson, White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981); A. Marx, Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States, South Africa and Brazil (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998).

⁴ A. Quijano, Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and Latin America (Durham, Duke University Press, 2000); R. Grosfoguel, ‘The Epistemic Decolonial Turn: Beyond Political-Economy Paradigms’, Cultural Studies, 21, 2–3 (2007), pp. 211–23; A. Escobar, ‘Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise: The Latin American Modernity/Coloniality Research Program’, Cultural Studies, 21, 2–3 (2007), pp. 179–210.

⁵ B. Magubane, The Political Economy of Race and Class in South Africa (New York, Monthly Review Press, 1979); H. Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour-Power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid’, Economy and Society, 1,4 (1972), pp. 425–56; S. Terreblanche, Western Empires: Christianity and the Inequalities between the Rest and the West (Johannesburg, Penguin South Africa, 2014); S. Terreblanche, A History of Inequality in South Africa, 1652–2002 (Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2002).

⁶ G. Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986).

⁷ D. Sánchez-Ancochea and L. Mattei, ‘Bolsa Família, Poverty and Inequality: Political and Economic Effects in the Short and Long Run’, Global Social Policy, 11, 2–3 (2011), pp. 299–318.

⁸ I. Woolard, K. Harttgen and S. Klasen, ‘The History and Impact of Social Security in South Africa: Experiences and Lessons’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 32, 4 (2012), pp. 357–80.

⁹ Ibid., p. 364.

¹⁰ L.H. Paiva, T. Falcao and L. Bartholo, ‘From Bolsa Família to Brasil Sem Miseira: A Summary of Brazil’s Recent Journey Towards Overcoming Extreme Poverty’, in Bolsa Família Programme: A Decade of Social Inclusion in Brazil (Brasilia, Institute for Applied Economic Research, 2014), p. 15.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² R.P. Barros, ‘A Focalização do Programa Bolsa Família em Perspectiva Comprada’, in J.C. Abrahão and L. Modesto (eds), Bolsa Família 2003–2010: Avanças e Desafios (Brasilia, Institute for Applied Economic Research, 2010).

¹³ Paiva et al., ‘From Bolsa Família to Brasil Sem Miseira’, p. 15.

¹⁴ G. Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Cambridge, Polity, 1990).

¹⁵ B. Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’, Working Paper 2013–10 (Geneva, UNRISD, 2014); J. Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm: Social Policy in Africa’s Development’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 32,4 (2011), pp. 454–70; T. Mkandawire, ‘Targeting and Universalism in Poverty Reduction’, Social Policy and Development Paper, 23 (Geneva, UNRISD, 2005); T. Mkandawire, ‘Transformative Social Policy and Innovation in Developing Countries’, European Journal of Development Research, 19,1 (2007), pp. 13–29.

¹⁶ C. Tilly, Durable Inequality (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998); C. Tilly, Social Movements, 1768–2004 (Boulder, Paradigm, 2004).

¹⁷ R. Connell, Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2007); J. Comaroff and J. L. Comaroff, ‘Theory from the South: Or How Euro-America is Evolving Toward Africa’, Anthropological Forum, 22, 2 (2012), pp. 113–31.

¹⁸ P. Heller and P. Evans, ‘Taking Tilly South: Durable Inequalities, Democratic Contestation, and Citizenship in the Southern Metropolis’, Theory and Society, 39, 3 (2010), p. 435.

¹⁹ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’; J. Adesina, ‘Introduction’, in J. Adesina (ed.), Social Policy in Sub-Saharan African Context: In Search of Inclusive Development (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); T. Mkandawire, ‘How the New Poverty Agenda Neglected Social and Employment Policies in Africa’, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 11, 1 (2010), pp. 37–55; Mkandawire, ‘Transformative Social Policy’.

²⁰ S. McGregor, ‘Welfare: Theoretical and Analytical Paradigms’, Working Paper 2013–1’ (Geneva, UNRISD, 2014), p. 1.

²¹ Epsing-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism.

²² McGregor, ‘Welfare’, p. 9.

²³ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’; Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’; Mkandawire, ‘Transformative Social Policy’.

²⁴ Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’.

²⁵ Ibid., p. 3.

²⁶ L. Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’, New Left Review, 84 (2013), pp. 5–40.

²⁷ Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’; Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’.

²⁸ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’; Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’; Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’; McGregor, ‘Welfare’; Mkandawire, ‘Transformative Social Policy’.

²⁹ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’; Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’; B. Fine, ‘Locating the Developmental State and Industrial and Social Policy after the Crisis’, in The Least Developed Countries Report 2011: The Potential Role of South–South Cooperation for Inclusive and Sustainable Development, Background Paper No. 3 (New York and Geneva, UNCTAD, 2011).

³⁰ J. Hanlon, A. Barrientos and D. Hulme, Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution from the Global South (Sterling, Kumarian Press, 2010).

³¹ Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’.

³² S. Soares, ‘Bolsa Família, its Design, its Impact, and Possibilities for the Future’, Working Paper No. 89, (Brasilia, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth[IPC–IG], 2012), pp. 1–37; Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’. While South Africa’s spends close to 10 per cent of its GDP on social assistance, this is far from the proportion spent in Brazil: the BFP, the flagship programme for Brazil’s social policy, amounts to 0.5 per cent of GDP. Non-contributory assistance through pensions constitutes a spending of 4–5 per cent. Excluding health and education spending, the BFP and pensions constitute a negligible amount of social spending relative to Brazil’s GDP of US$ 2.2 trillion.

³³ Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’.

³⁴ S. Devereux, ‘Is Targeting Ethical’, Global Social Policy, 16, 2 (2016), pp.166–81.

³⁵ Mkandawire, ‘Targeting and Universalism in Poverty Reduction’.

³⁶ Devereux, ‘Is Targeting Ethical’, p. 176.

³⁷ See, for example, Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’; B. Schubert, ‘The Pilot Social Cash Transfer Scheme Kalomo District – Zambia’, Chronic Poverty Research Centre Working Paper, 52 (2005), available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=1753690, retrieved 30 March 2017; M. Phiri, ‘The Political Economy of Mozambique Twenty Years On: A Post-Conflict Success Story?’, South African Journal of International Affairs, 19, 2 (2012), pp. 223–45.

³⁸ Ibid., p. 32.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ B. Magubane, ‘Imperialism and the Making of the South African Working Class’, Contemporary Marxism, 6, Proletarianization and Class Struggle in Africa (1983), p. 35.

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 47.

⁴² M. Legassick, ‘South Africa: Capital Accumulation and Violence’, Economy and Society, 3, 3 (1974), pp. 253–91.

⁴³ Magubane, ‘Imperialism’, p. 35; Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power in South Africa’.

⁴⁴ S. Dubow, ‘Afrikaner Nationalism, Apartheid, and the Conceptualisation of “Race”’, Journal of African History, 32, 2 (1992), p. 217.

⁴⁵ W. Santos, Cidadania e justiça: a política social na ordem Brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, Campos, 1979).

⁴⁶ B. Fausto and S. Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 25.

⁴⁷ R. Segal, The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995); Fausto and Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, p. 25.

⁴⁸ Fausto and Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, p. 25.

⁴⁹ Quijano, Coloniality of Power; Fausto and Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil; Segal, The Black Diaspora.

⁵⁰ Quijano, Coloniality of Power, p. 565.

⁵¹ C. Hasenbalg and S. Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy: Reality or Myth’, Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 10, 1 (1982), pp. 129–42.

⁵² Segal, The Black Diaspora, p. 345.

⁵³ Fausto and Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil.

⁵⁴ Hasenbalg and Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy’, p. 133; B. Burns, A History of Brazil (New York, Columbia University Press, 1993).

⁵⁵ D. Pierson, Negroes in Brazil: A Study of Race Contact in Bahia (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1942); C. Wagley, Race and Class in Rural Brazil (New York, Columbia University Press, 1963); T. de Azevedo, Elites de Cor, Um Estudo de Ascensão Social (São Paulo, Companhia Editora Nacional, 1955).

⁵⁶ Hasenbalg and Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy’, p. 134.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ F. Fernandes, A Integração do Negro na Sociedade de Classes, 2 vols (São Paulo, Daominus, 1965); F. Fernandes, O Negro no Mundo dos Brancos (São Paulo, Difusão Europeia do Livro, 1972).

⁵⁹ Hasenbalg and Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy’, p. 134.

⁶⁰ M. Mamdani, ‘When Does a Settler Become a Native? Reflections of the Colonial Roots of Citizenship in Equatorial and South Africa’, inaugural lecture as A.C. Jordan Professor of African Studies, University of Cape Town, 1998, p. 1.

⁶¹ Ibid.

⁶² Hasenbalg and Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy’, p. 139.

⁶³ Ibid., pp. 129–42; G.R. Andrews, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy, 1900–90: An American Counterpoint’, Journal of Contemporary History, 31, 3 (1996), pp. 483–507.

⁶⁴ Hasenbalg and Huntington, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy’, p. 139.

⁶⁵ G. Fredrickson, White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981); Marx, Making Race and Nation.

⁶⁶ G. Baiocchi and L. Corrado, ‘The Politics of Habitus: Publics, Blackness, and Community Activism in Salvador, Brazil’, Qualitative Sociology, 33, 3 (2010), pp. 369–88; Andrews, ‘Brazilian Racial Democracy, 1900–90’; Segal, The Black Diaspora.

⁶⁷ Segal, The Black Diaspora, pp. 342–4.

⁶⁸ The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, and the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988.

⁶⁹ F. Barchiesi, ‘That Melancholic Object of Desire: Work and Official Discourse before and after Polokwane’, The Johannesburg Salon, 1 (2009), available at http://works.bepress.com/franco_barchiesi/29/, retrieved 17 April 2016.

⁷⁰ A. Pereira, ‘Bolsa Família and Democracy in Brazil’, Third World Quarterly, 36, 9 (2015), p. 1685.

⁷¹ Ibid.

⁷² J. Netshitenzhe, ‘A Lula Moment for South Africa: Searching for Sugar Man?’, in E. Webster and K. Hurt (eds), A Lula Moment for South Africa: Lessons from Brazil, A Collection of Essays (Johannesburg, Chris Hani Institute, 2014), pp. 61–7; N. Coleman, ‘What Can South Africa Learn from Lula’s Brazil? A Cosatu Perspective’, in Webster and Hurt (eds), A Lula Moment, pp. 81–103.

⁷³ Heller and Evans, ‘Taking Tilly South’, p. 446.

⁷⁴ Republic of South Africa, Millennium Development Goals: Country Report 2013 (Pretoria, Ministry of the Presidency, 2013); Statistics South Africa (SSA), Poverty Trends in South Africa: An Examination of Absolute Poverty between 2006 and 2011(Pretoria, SSA, 2014), p. 14.

⁷⁵ J. Seekings, ‘The Colour of Desert: Race, Class and Distributive Justice in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) Working Paper , 126 (Cape Town, UCT, 2005); S. Terreblanche, A History of Inequality.

⁷⁶ SSA, Poverty Trends in South Africa, p. 14.

⁷⁷ L. Cluver, M. Boyes, M. Orkin, M. Pantelic, T. Molwena and L. Sherr, ‘Child-Focused State Cash Transfers and Adolescent Risk of HIV Infection in South Africa: A Propensity–Score Matched Case-Control Study’, The Lancet Global Health, 1, 6 (2013) pp. 362–70.

⁷⁸ Ibid., p. 369.

⁷⁹ L. Chisholm, ‘The State of South African Schools’, in J. Daniel, R. Southall and J. Lutchman (eds), State of the Nation: South Africa 2004–2005(Cape Town, HSRC, 2006).

⁸⁰ F. Lund, M. Noble, H. Barnes and G. Wright, ‘Is there a Rationale for Conditional Cash Transfers for Children in South Africa?’, Working Paper No. 53 (Durban, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008).

⁸¹ B. Budlender and I. Woolard, The Impact of the South African Child Support and Old Age Grants on Children’s Schooling and Work (Geneva, International Labour Office, 2006).

⁸² P. Bond, Talk Left Walk Right: South Africa’s Frustrated Global Reforms (Scottsville, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006); P. Bond, ‘“Power” in Pretoria’, New Left Review, 58 (2009), pp. 77–88; P. Bond ‘South Africa’s Bubble Meets Boiling Urban Social Protest’, Monthly Review, 62, 2 (2010), pp. 17–28.

⁸³ P. Bond, ‘Tokenism in South African Social Policy’, Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa, 86 (2014), pp. 48–77.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ V. Padayachee, ‘The South African Economy, 1994–2004’, Social Research, 72, 3 (2005), pp. 549–80.

⁸⁶ Ibid.

⁸⁷ N. Nattrass and J. Seekings, Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa (London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 2005).

⁸⁸ SSA, Poverty Trends in South Africa, pp. 20–21.

⁸⁹ R. Neto and C. Azzoni, ‘Social Programmes and the Recent Decline in Regional Income Inequality in Brazil’, in Bolsa Família Programme: A Decade of Social Inclusion in Brazil (Brasilia, Institute for Applied Economic Research, 2014), p. 39.

⁹⁰ Getúlio Vargas Foundation, ‘Miséria, Desigualdade e Estabilidade: O Segundo Real (Poverty, Inequality and Stability: The Second Real) (São Paulo, FGV, 2006).

⁹¹ T.B. Fenwick, ‘Stuck between the Past and the Future: Conditional Cash Transfer Programme Development and Policy Feedbacks in Brazil and Argentina’, Global Social Policy, 13, 2 (2013), pp. 156–7.

⁹² Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’, p. 30.

⁹³ Ibid.

⁹⁴ Ibid.

⁹⁵ Ibid.

⁹⁶ Ibid.; S. Soares and P. de Souza, ‘No Child Left Without: A Universal Benefit for Children in Brazil’, Research Brief No. 27 (Brasilia, IPC–IG, 2012).

⁹⁷ Soares and de Souza, ‘No Child Left Without’, p. 6.

⁹⁸ Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’, p. 31.

⁹⁹ Soares, ‘Bolsa Família, its Design, its Impacts’, p. 29.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., p. 30.

¹⁰¹ Ibid.

¹⁰² Ibid., p. 31.

¹⁰³ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’, p. 455.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., p. 459.

¹⁰⁵ Mkandawire,‘Targeting and Universalism in Poverty Reduction’.

¹⁰⁶ Adesina, ‘Beyond the Social Protection Paradigm’, p. 459.

¹⁰⁷ Segal, The Black Diaspora.

¹⁰⁸ Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, ‘Demographic Census’ (Brasilia, IBGE, 2010).

¹⁰⁹ Ibid.

¹¹⁰ F. Wilderson, ‘Biko and the Problematic of Presence’, in A. Mngxitama, A. Alexander and N. Gibson (eds), Biko Lives: Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p.104.

¹¹¹ Ibid.

¹¹² Ibid.

¹¹³ Ibid.

¹¹⁴ Sánchez-Ancochea and Mattei, ‘Bolsa Família, Poverty and Inequality’.

¹¹⁵ N. Freeland, ‘Superfluous, Pernicious, Atrocious and Abominable? The Case Against Conditional Cash Transfers’, IDS Bulletin, 38, 3 (2007), p. 75.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., p. 77.

¹¹⁷ M. Quijano, ‘Social Policy for the Rural People in Colombia: Reinforcing Traditional Gender Roles and Identities?’, Social Policy and Administration, 43, 4 (2009), pp. 397–408.

¹¹⁸ Fine, ‘The Continuing Enigmas of Social Policy’, p. 40.

¹¹⁹ Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’, p. 9.

¹²⁰ Ibid. In the 1960s, Robert McNamara commissioned RAND analysts to write reports for the Pentagon applying economic thinking to various aspects of military strategy. The ‘shock therapy’ approaches prescribed in policy experiments of the 1980s and 1990s can be traced to this militarisation of policy. Zechhauser, however, moved on to the problem of welfare, writing a RAND report in 1968, which asked, ‘[h]ow should assistance programmes to the poor should be structured so as to maximise the utility function of the representative citizen’? The answer was ‘targeting’, by encouraging the poor to work through tax incentives – something Zeckhauser recommended to the Nixon administration in 1970, influenced by Friedman’s ideas on a ‘negative income tax’. These ideas have shaped neo-liberalism and social policy in general, a point made in Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’.

¹²¹ Soares, ‘Do CCTs Lessen the Impact of the Current Economic Crisis? Yes, but …’, Policy Brief No. 96, (Brasilia, IPC–IG, 2009), p. 1.

¹²² Lavinas, ‘21st Century Welfare’, pp. 9, 11.