Social Democracy in Mauritius
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Stellenbosch University SUNScholar Repository Development with Social Justice? Social Democracy in Mauritius Letuku Elias Phaahla 15814432 Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (International Studies) at Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Professor Janis van der Westhuizen March 2010 ii Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Signature:……………………….. Date:…………………………….. iii To God be the glory My dearly beloved late sisters, Pabalelo and Kholofelo Phaahla The late Leah Maphankgane The late Letumile Saboshego I know you are looking down with utmost pride iv Abstract Since the advent of independence in 1968, Mauritius’ economic trajectory evolved from the one of a monocrop sugar economy, with the latter noticeably being the backbone of the country’s economy, to one that progressed into being the custodian of a dynamic and sophisticated garment-dominated manufacturing industry. Condemned with the misfortune of not being endowed with natural resources, relative to her mainland African counterparts, Mauritius, nonetheless, was able to break the shackles of limited economic options and one of being the ‘basket-case’ to gradually evolving into being the upper-middle-income country - thus depicting it to be one of the most encouraging economies within the developing world. Indeed it is captivating that the fruits of the island’s prosperous sugar industry went a long way in meeting the island’s diversification agenda. Moreover, the ‘Mauritian miracle’ is glorified by the emergence and sustenance of a comprehensive welfare state which was able to withstand the harshest economic challenges the country ever faced. This thesis seeks to provide a broad historical over-view of the factors which aided the construction of the social democratic regime in Mauritius. It is of the premise that the social consciousness of the post-colonial leadership in Mauritius laid the foundation for the entrenchment of ideals of social justice into the Mauritian polity. Instead of letting market forces operate in their pure form, the state was propelled instead, to take the driver’s seat into the running of the economy so as to ensure the market and labour become partners in a bid to help the state meet its social development ideals. It is no wonder that current day welfare state in Mauritius is the one which is inextricably linked to elections, not just as tool to duck socio-ethnic disharmony. v Opsomming Sedert onafhanklikheidswording in 1968 het Mauritius se ekonomiese ontwikkeling gevorder van die van ’n enkel kommoditeit suiker uitvoerder as die basis van die ekonomie tot een met ’n dinamiese en gesofistikeerde tekstiel vervaardigingingssektor. Verdoem weens ’n tekort aan natuurlike hulpbronne in vergelyking met ander state in Afrika, het Mauritius nogtans daarin geslaag om sy tekortkominge te bowe te kom en geleidelik te ontwikkel tot ’n opper-middel inkomste staat. Suiker uitvoere het inderdaad ’n sleutelrol gespeel in die diversifikasie van die ekonomie. Die sukses van die ‘Mauritius wonderwerk’ is verder stukrag gegee deur die inwerkingstelling en voortbestaan van ’n omvattende welvaart staat wat gehelp het om die ergste ekonomiese uitdagings die hoof te bied. Hierdie tesis poog om ’n breë historiese oorsig te bied van die faktore wat die konstruksie van ’n sosiale demokratiese orde in Mauritius aangehelp het. Daar word gewerk van die premis dat die sosiale bewussyn van die na-koloniale leierskap in Mauritius die grondleggers was vir die vestiging van ideale van sosiale geregtigheid in die staat se politieke kultuur. In plaas van ’n ongebreidelde vrye mark ekonomie het die staat egter ’n sleutel rigtinggewende rol in die ontwikkeling van die ekonomie gespeel en om seker te maak dat die privaatsektor en arbeid vennote word om sleutel sosiale ekonomiese doelwitte te bereik. Dit is dus geen wonder dat die bestaande welvaartstaat in Mauritius nou verweef is met plaaslike verkiesingsverwagtinge nie en nie bloot ’n manier is om sosio-etniese onstabiliteit te verminder nie. vi Acknowledgments o First and foremost to the genius of a man I was privileged to work under, Prof. Janis van der Westhuizen. Your support and guidance throughout the duration of this project has been tremendous and is gratefully acknowledged o My dear parents, Mmakutswi and Mokgubi Phaahla for their care, moral and financial support o The Mandela Rhodes Foundation for their moral and financial support o The staff of the Department of Political Science and J.S. Gericke Biblioteek o My always encouraging and witty uncle, Mr. Obadia Maphankgane o My kind grandmother, Mrs. Malebane Phaahla o Mandela Rhodes Mentor, Prof. Jos Hille, for his invaluable guidance and encouragement throughout the year o My siblings, Gavin, Calvin and Letumile Phaahla for their moral support, I am greatly indebted o Professor Jeremy Seekings of the University of Cape Town for his assistance o Supportive friends and relatives vii Map of Mauritius Obtained from: www.mauritius-seychelles.co.uk viii Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1. Background 1 1.2. Problem Statement 6 1.3. Aims and Significance 10 1.4. Conceptualisation 10 1.5. Theoretical Framework 16 1.6. Literature Review 21 1.7. Methodology 23 1.8. Chapter Outline 23 1.9. Limitations of Study 24 Chapter 2 The Role of Democratic Institutions and the Paving of a Sustained Developmental Trajectory 26 2.1. Introduction 27 2.2. Early discovery of Mauritius and Colonial domination 22 2.3. Constructing the bureaucratic state in Mauritius 29 2.3.1. Road to Independence 32 2.3.2. Mauritius and the post-independence political culture 34 2.3.3. The Paradox of Inter-ethnic ‘harmony’ and the 1999 ethnic riots 38 2.3.3.1. The plague of ethnic cleavages 38 2.3.3.2. Understanding the socio-economic dimension of the riots 39 2.3.3.3. The 1999 ethnic riots in Mauritius 41 2.3.4. Paralleling Mauritius with the Newly Industrialised Countries (NIC’s) 43 2.3.4.1. Favourable conjunction of circumstances and events 44 2.3.4.2. Mauritius as a symbol of social stability 47 2.3.4.3. Political Stability 49 2.3.4.4. Consensus on an outward-looking, export-led macroeconomic approach 53 2.3.5. Factors Fostering Democratic Outcome in Mauritius 57 2.3.5.1. Sequential colonialism 57 2.3.5.2. Bilingual advantage 58 ix 2.3.5.3. Democratic institutions and culture 61 2.3.5.4. The Indian work-ethic 64 2.3.5.5. Electoral system 65 2.3.5.6. Geography 66 2.3.6. Concluding remarks 66 Chapter 3 The Economic Diversification Challenge and the Quest for the Sustenance of the Welfare State 3.1. Introduction 69 3.2. Historical Account of Mauritius’ Economic Trajectory (1964-1979) 71 3.3. The drive towards industrialisation and development in the 1970s 73 3.4. Structural adjustment regime in Mauritius (1979-1986) and the development of manufacturing-dominated economy 77 3.5. Public-private sector dialogue 84 3.6. Challenges and opportunities for growth 86 3.6.1. Is AGOA a disincentive or a functional tool for economic growth in Mauritius? 86 3.6.1.1. Feminisation of Poverty in Mauritius in a rapidly expanding Economy 88 3.6.2. Exploiting the untapped market in SADC 90 3.6.3. Expanding the horizons into Africa 93 3.6.4. Adding a new dimension to the tourism sector 94 3.6.5. The rise of the new sector of the economy: could the ICT sustainably be the fifth leg of the Mauritian economy? 95 3.7. Development policy and further diversification 99 3.8. Constraints to diversification 100 3.8.1. The plight of the education sector 100 3.8.2. Large variation of technological sophistication between SMEs and large firms 102 3.9. Concluding remarks 104 x Chapter 4 Promoting Equity with Growth 4.1. Brief assessment of the welfare state in Africa 108 4.2. Overview 112 4.3. Section A: Unpacking the successes and shortcomings of the contemporary welfare state in Mauritius 114 4.3.1. Historical background of the welfare state in Mauritius 114 4.3.1.1. Sugar, poverty and the 1937 riots 116 4.3.1.2. Procrastinating welfare reform, 1938-1945 118 4.3.1.3. Democratisation and welfare reform, 1945-1950 120 4.3.2. The welfare state in post-independence Mauritius 122 4.3.2.1. Rapid economic development, full employment and unemployment 126 4.3.2.2. The influence of Fabianism and welfare state in Mauritius 126 4.3.2.3. The developmental state 127 4.3.2.4. The sugar export tax 128 4.3.2.5. Human-faced development 130 4.3.3. Electoral cycles and challenges faced by the welfare state in Mauritius 131 4.3.3.1. The success of comprehensive primary health care system 132 4.3.3.2. The truth about the 1999 riots: A social policy perspective 133 4.3.3.3. Mauritius education system: Accessible but symmetrical 134 4.4. Section B: Highlighting the socio-economic precedence of non-contributory 136 pensions in Mauritius 4.4.1. Social pensions as a tool to alleviate poverty among the elderly population 136 4.4.2. Deflecting extreme poverty and vulnerability among the old-age population 138 4.4.2.1. Patterns of distribution of old-age pensions 138 4.4.2.2. Are non-contributory pensions in Mauritius sustainable? 140 4.4.3.