State, Capital and the Emergence of a New Power Elite in South Africa: ‘black Economic Empowerment’ at National and Local Levels

The premise of this paper is that, while classic models of capitalist development were predicated on the assumption of the rise of a class of native entrepreneurs, particularly industrialists, completely distinct from the state although obviously functioning in an at least partially enabling environment created by the state through omission or commission, in what we could term later industrialisation capitalism has often (not always) proceeded through and with the creation of close ties between state officialdoms and business elites. This picture of intertwined elites, educated together, interacting socially, can be drawn for developed, industrialised economies as witness the classic sociological work of C. Wright Mills for the USA or Pierre Bourdieu for France. (Mills, 1956; Swartz, 1997, Hall, 1986 on France) for various purposes. In less developed countries, we can add the ingredient of a nationalist-minded development ideology unifying bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and perhaps parastatal directors and military officers. At the same time, one has to add in the role of foreign firms and their representatives, sometimes powerful to the point of dominance in particular economic sectors or areas of policy. The interpenetration of the state and capital has been observed classically for students of the industrialisation of Germany and particularly Japan, as well as in more recent studies of the Asian Tigers and the Newly Industrialising Countries. It can certainly be argued that the evolution of large-scale business organisations and the multi-national firm lend themselves to this development very forcefully although there may well continue to be tensions and difficulties in shaping a uniform policy outlook within this elite.