Policy, Politics and Poverty in South Africa

Seekings and Nattrass explain why poverty persisted in South Africa after the transition to democracy in 1994. The book examines how public policies both mitigated and reproduced poverty, and explains how and why these policies were adopted. The analysis offers lessons for the study of poverty elsewhere in the world.

Jeremy Seekings is Professor of Political Studies and Sociology and Nicoli Nattrass is Professor of Economics at the universities of Cape Town and Yale. Their previous books include Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa. They have written widely on South African politics, economics, society and history, on AIDS and on the comparative history of the welfare state.