Apartheid

Abstract

Apartheid was an array of racist laws governing South Africa from the election of the National Party in 1948 until the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. Apartheid's codified racism required discrimination, violated the rights of individuals as individuals, and shackled the South African economy for the transitory benefit of special interests. Apartheid combined mercantilism, colonialism, nationalism, and socialism with racism to produce a constellation of oppressive institutions that cost the country dearly in blood and treasure by limiting its potential to develop internally and eventually leading to its isolation from international markets

Keywords: Apartheid, racism, rent-seeking

JEL Classification: J15, J18, P49, P52, D72, D78