Race, Class and the Apartheid State by Harold Wolpe (book review)

Literature › Works

Doug Hindson (1989). Race, Class and the Apartheid State by Harold Wolpe (book review). Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 15, No. 4. Taylor & Francis.

Type	journal article
Scope	Wider apartheid literature
Method	synthesis review
Period studied	1945–1989
Regions	South Africa
Themes	politics ideology elections, comparative theory, business and state, resistance social movements, inequality poverty unemployment, labour markets wages
Citation key	hindson1989

Argument

Hindson reviews Wolpe's UNESCO-commissioned book on race, class and the apartheid state. He credits Wolpe with rejecting pure class-struggle approaches and with trying to rescue the theory of colonialism of a special type (CST) from functionalism. He argues, however, that the book is not original, ignores relevant work, tilts towards structural determinism, and sidesteps the causal weight of race versus class. He also finds its treatment of contemporary class formation thin and its account of state reform neglectful of economic policy and out of date. He holds that the economy, more than the state, determines class formation, and that fuller empirical study of class differentiation would force a serious reappraisal of CST.

Evidence and method

The book under review (Wolpe 1988), read closely and set against the wider South African literature (Greenberg, Posel, Saul and Gelb). The review itself presents no new data.

Place in the debates

• Race versus class reductionism in South African political economy (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Accepts Wolpe's critique of reductionism but says his 'interiorised' race-in-class idea does not settle the causal weight of race and class.
• Liberal vs radical/revisionist views on the capitalism-apartheid relationship (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Argues that liberal writers first identified the contradictory relationship between capitalism and apartheid and deserve credit, and that Wolpe's account of 1970s worker and student action could be read as supporting the liberal thesis.
• Theory of colonialism of a special type (CST) (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Sympathetic to the effort to rescue CST from functionalism, but thinks empirical work on class differentiation would lead to a far more serious reappraisal of it.
• Structure vs agency in state-opposition interaction (see Historiographical approaches). Agrees that structural analysis matters but says Wolpe swings too far into structural determinism, for example in explaining the turn to armed struggle.

Findings

• Hindson says the book's stated aims are to assess the literature on race and class and to analyse contemporary politics. (p. 2)

  The first is to assess positions in the existing literature on race, class and South Africa's political system (p. 1). The second is to analyse facets of contemporary politics in South Africa (pp. 1-2).

• Only CST is seen by Wolpe as escaping race or class reductionism. (p. 2)

  Only the theory of colonialism of a special type (CST) avoids this problem, so he argues, because it integrates race and class into a single explanatory framework.

• The contingency of the capitalism-apartheid link is not new, having been opened up by the crisis of apartheid and state reform since the late 1970s. (p. 2-3)

  The point about the historical contingency of the relationship between capitalism and apartheid is well taken, but by no means new.

• Wolpe's 'interiorised' concept leaves the causal weight of race and class unresolved. (p. 3)

  Wolpe's approach does not really confront the issue of the causal weight of race and class within political struggle.

• Wolpe's explanation of the 1970s resurgence of worker action could support the liberal thesis. (p. 4)

  A liberal critic might claim - and with some justification - that this is evidence in support of the liberal thesis.

• Hindson finds growing differentiation within the African working class, with some upward mobility into non-manual work. (p. 4)

  rapid upward movement of growing numbers of African workers into semi-professional, clerical and technical work and a wide variety of routine non-manual jobs in the growing teritiary sectors.

• Structural unemployment is creating a political fault line within the African working class that Wolpe overlooks. (p. 4)

  The corollary of upward mobility and stabilisation of one section of the African workforce is the growth of structural unemployment and permanent marginalisation of another.

• Hindson gives the economy primacy over the state in class formation. (p. 4)

  The main determinant of class formation and the changing interconnections between class and race in South Africa is surely the economy, and only secondarily the state.

• The state is attempting to integrate political reform with industrialisation, urbanisation and regional development, and has the resources to experiment. (p. 4-5)

  elements within the state are attempting to link the building of political structures to an overall strategy encompassing the areas of industrialisation, urbanisation, regional development and so on.

• State strategy shifted decisively around 1985/86, leaving Wolpe's analysis dated. (p. 5)

  It is fairly widely recognised - at least within South Africa - that a distinct break occurred in state strategy from about 1985/86.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source	Kind	Period	How used
Harold Wolpe, Race, Class and the Apartheid State (London: James Currey, 1988) — the book under review, including its discussion of the existing literature on race, class and the South African state	secondary literature compilation	post-World War Two to 1980s	The reviewer's critique rests entirely on the argument and coverage of this book; the review itself generates no new empirical evidence.
S Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development (Johannesburg, 1980), especially ch. 17; D Posel, 'Rethinking Race and Class', Social Dynamics 9/1 (1983)	secondary literature compilation	1980-1983	Cited as examples of scholarship that already treats the relationship between capitalism and apartheid as historically contingent, in order to show Wolpe's point is not new.
J Saul and S Gelb, The Crisis in South Africa: Class Defense, Class Revolution (New York, 1981)	secondary literature compilation	late 1970s	Cited as a comparator that the reviewer judges better at grasping the interaction of political struggles and state structures than Wolpe.

Inference

Quantification: None.

A book review. The reviewer evaluates Wolpe's theoretical argument by close reading and comparison with other literature, and by his own contextual knowledge of South Africa's labour market, class formation and state reform strategy. He offers no systematic data.

Key claims

Claim	Basis	Strength
Wolpe's central argument, that the relationship between capitalism and apartheid is historically contingent, is not new and was already developed by other scholars. (p. 688-689)	Comparison with Greenberg and Posel, cited in footnote 1; no data.	Illustrative or anecdotal
Wolpe's treatment of class formation and differentiation within the African working class, coloured and Indian groups is lopsided and thin, ignoring the growth of semi-professional, clerical and technical African workers and of structural unemployment. (p. 690)	Reviewer's own knowledge of labour-market changes over the previous fifteen to twenty years; no statistics or sources cited.	Asserted
Wolpe pays insufficient attention to state economic and social policy, and fails to periodise reform, so his book addresses a phase already superseded by a break in state strategy around 1985/86. (p. 691)	Reviewer's assertion about the timing of the registration debate and the abolition of pass controls; no documents cited.	Asserted
Wolpe's explanation of the 1970s worker and student resurgence through labour market expansion and restructuring supports the liberal thesis he dismisses. (p. 690)	Logical reading of Wolpe's own argument; no empirical evidence.	Asserted
A thorough empirical investigation of class differentiation would lead to a serious reappraisal of the theory of colonialism of a special type (CST). (p. 691)	Reviewer's expectation only; no empirical investigation is presented.	Asserted

Gaps in the evidence

The review rests on no cited data. Its claims about African occupational mobility, structural unemployment and the 1985/86 shift in state strategy would be better tested with population census occupational tables, Manpower Survey data, labour force surveys, and records of the abolition of influx control and the urbanisation strategy. Most of this material existed in published official form by 1989 and is available today in archives and statistical series.

Replicability: Not applicable.