Reinterpreting South African Housing Policy through Welfare State Theory

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that South African housing policy is mainly based on neoliberal principles although some scholars have noted the hybrid nature of welfare programmes. This is because most authors interpret the country’s housing landscape within the dichotomous framework of political economic theory (neoliberalism vs. critical lenses). These analyses do not consider welfare state theories, and most authors end up applying a neoliberal label to South African housing policy and practice. In contrast, this study takes a welfare state perspective. It starts off with a description of Esping-Andersen’s welfare state theory and Hoekstra’s application of this theory to the field of housing, resulting in a housing system typology that distinguishes between social democratic, corporatist and liberal housing systems. In the second part of the study, the post-apartheid development of South African housing policy is reinterpreted through the lens of this housing system typology. Our conclusion is that the South African housing system is of a hybrid nature and that the social democratic, corporatist and liberal welfare state ideologies have all helped to shape the country’s approach to housing.

Key Words:

• Housing policy
• South Africa
• Neoliberalism
• Welfare state theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The current subsidy is an amount of approximately R110,000 provided to households earning less than R3500 per month. It is important to note that though the income segmentation of the initial policy was dropped, the limit of R3500 was retained over a period of 20 years.

2. The rand dollar exchange rate in November 2014 was around R11 for 1 USD.