Abstract
Despite the attempt to transform the system of state child support in South Africa shortly after the transition to democracy, the initial changes resulting in the implementation of the Child Support Grant were only partial in nature. This paper explains why institutional stickiness in the shape of failed reform efforts occurred in certain areas, while radical change took place in others. This effort involves the sequential integration of insights from the historical and rational choice variants of neoinstitutionalism. The resulting analysis accounts for the formation of distinct reform preferences, the strategic interactions which shaped eventual outcomes, as well as the ultimate incompleteness of policy transformation in a process of institutional layering. The paper therefore represents a practical attempt at overcoming the divisions between these neoinstitutionalist approaches, while also producing an analysis of a policy arena that is undertheorised.
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