The Political Economy of Social Protection: Labour and the Emergence of a Southern Welfare State

• In Event: 573 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Paper Session. Labor Formations in the Global South

Abstract

It is generally understood that trade unions were key actors in the development of the welfare state in the global North. However, in the global South, the role of organized labour in shaping social welfare policy has been seen as much more ambiguous. Unions in the South have often been associated with narrow “workerist” forms of welfare, which benefit only the minority of Southern workers who are in formal wage employment. This paper presents an analysis of the development of welfare policy in post-Apartheid South Africa. The South African case provides a clear example of the role that unions can play in pushing for generalizable forms of social welfare. The South African case also shows that the presence of workerist welfare systems is not always the result of the narrow demands of workers. In South Africa, the shape of the welfare system excludes many who are not in formal wage work. However, this system has been driven not by unions, but by the state, as it has attempted to respond to the demands of unions and other social actors for broad generalizable forms of welfare within the confines of the workerist system inherited from the Apartheid era.

Author

• Ben Scully, University of the Witwatersrand