The establishment of an ethnically based middle class in South Africa and Malaysia : context, policy and outcome

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The core question this study aims to address is whether a state-sponsored ethnic middle class in a dominant party political system premised on ethnic politics, will punish the ruling party by not according them their electoral vote. The latter core question stems from the conventional notion of a large middle class producing stronger democratic tendencies within a society. However, South Africa and Malaysia are dominant political party systems where politics is aligned along ethnic lines fundamentally because of the colonial and apartheid histories. Furthermore, the ethnic middle classes' (Malays and Blacks) grew as a result of affirmative action policies implemented by the same political parties that dominated the political scene in the respective countries.An analytical framework of one-party dominance, ethnic politics and the composition of the state bureaucracy, is applied to analysing the Black and Malay middle classes' behaviour in South Africa and Malaysia. This study looks at how the Black and Malay middle classes' grew via state affirmative action policies implemented in public service employment, business and education; which are fundamental spheres for social upward mobility. This was done by looking at the implementation of the NEP in Malaysia between 1971 to 1990, and the implementation of BEE and employment equity in South Africa post-1994.South Africa and Malaysia's colonial and apartheid histories created economic imbalances amongst majority and minority ethnicities primarily. Therefore, after independence and the inauguration of democracy the assumption of political power of ethnic majorities resulted in a need for the past's economic imbalances to be addressed. Hence, affirmative action policies were implemented that would benefit the ethnic majority groupings (Malays and Blacks) where the electorate is highly polarised. Therefore, the outcome of this study suggests that because politics are aligned along ethnic lines under a climate where the ANC and the UMNO have political hegemony, the Malay and Black middle classes' are unlikely to bite the hand that feeds it.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University