Institutions and Policy Change: The Development of the Child Support Grant in South Africa
Leon Amos Schreiber (2014) Institutions and Policy Change: The Development of the Child Support Grant in South Africa, Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, 41:2, 267-288, DOI: 10.1080/02589346.2014.905258
Posted: 10 Aug 2014
Date Written: April 14, 2014
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.
Keywords: Social Policy, Social Assistance, Cash Transfer, Neoinstitutionalism, Historical Institutionalism, Rational Choice, South Africa, Child Support Grant
JEL Classification: I30, I38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation