Democracy and distribution in highly unequal economies: the case of South Africa

Given that incomes in South Africa are distributed very unequally, it might be expected that the establishment of representative democracy would resul t in the adoption of redistributive policies. Yet overall inequality has no t declined since 1994. The electoral and party system provides uneven press ure for redistribution. The fact that poor South Africans have the vote ens ures that some areas of public policy do help the poor. The post-apartheid government not only inherited a surprisingly redistributive set of social p olicies (welfare, education and health care), but has made changes that ent ail even more redistribution. But these policies do little to help a core s ection of the poor in South Africa: the unemployed, and especially househol ds in which no one is working. Other public policies serve to disadvantage this marginalised constituency: labour market and other economic policies s erve to steer the economy down a growth path that shuts out many of the uns killed and unemployed. The workings of these policies remain opaque, making it unlikely that poor citizens will use their vote to effect necessary pol icy reforms.