Structural Power and Emerging Regional Order in Post-Apartheid Southern Africa

Abstract

Analysis of relations between South Africa and its neighbors from either the hegemonic or interdependence perspectives fail to explain recent changes in the pattern of inter-state, state-firm and inter-firm diplomacy and economic interactions in the region. This paper, instead, argues that essentially, a constellation of economies led by South African economic and technological operating outside the realms of the state is rapidly crystallizing, and has led to a re-ordering of coordinated national and regional development and foreign policy objectives. These transformations are captured by the structural power of capital framework which suggests that states as authoritative institutions that allocate values, particularly weak ones, have lost much of their authority over society and economic transactions within their defined territorial borders. This pre-eminence of the private sector in setting the direction of change in the region is a microcosm of the global and regional realignment in the relations between the nation-state and the multifarious and complex nature of relative to other social forces and the state itself. This framework is applied to the study of the strategic sectors of Southern African economies, especially the transportation sector. It shows that for all intents and purposes, the emerging post-apartheid South Africa's relations with its neighbors is driven largely by the interests of capital. The African National Congress (ANC) has had to either acquiesce, despite its otherwise rhetorical commitment to even regional development. The study demonstrates further that this emerging order is being facilitated by economic liberalization, and that these trends have serious implications for future relations between South Africa and its neighbors.