Addressing Group Inequalities: Social Policies in Emerging Economies’ Great Transformation

Abstract

This article compares group inequalities and policies of inclusion in four major emerging economies: Brazil, China, India and South Africa. Bringing together the evidence on inequalities in these large countries is important: they have a large influence on global inequalities, and it is critical to understand the different realities behind summary inequality data, and how countries have defined these social groups. There is much to learn from the way different countries have addressed these challenges of inequalities, and the way these link to the very different political systems, through combinations of economic development projects (China), group empowerment (South Africa) and affirmative action (India, Brazil to a lesser extent). For each of these countries, addressing group inequalities is a critical element of the process of nation-building, and there are costs in terms of justice, as well as economically and politically, if these inequalities are left unaddressed.Cet article compare les ine´galite´s entre groupes sociaux et les politiques d 0 inclusion mises en oeuvre dans quatre pays e´mergents majeurs : le Bre´sil, la Chine, l 0 Inde et l 0 Afrique du Sud. Rassembler les preuves concernant les ine´galite´s existant dans ces grands pays est important : elles ont une forte influence sur les ine´galite´s mondiales et il est essentiel de comprendre les diffe´rentes re´alite´s derrie`re les donne´es re´sume´es sur les ine´galite´s et comment ces pays ont de´fini les groupes sociaux. Des lec¸ons importantes peuvent eˆtre tire´es de la manie`re dont les diffe´rents pays abordent les de´fis lie´s aux ine´galite´s, et leur liens avec les diffe´rents syste`mes politiques, a`travers la combinaison de projets de de´veloppement e´conomiques (en Chine), d 0 autonomisation des groupes vulne´rables (en Afrique du Sud), de discrimination positive (en Inde et dans une moindre mesure au Bre´sil). Pour chacun de ces pays, le combat contre les ine´galite´s entre sociaux est un aspect crucial du processus de construction nationale et ne pas prendre en main ce proble`me a un couˆt non seulement en termes de justice, mais aussi en termes e´conomiques et politiques.The four countries discussed here are generally regarded as 'emerging economies', a nowpopular term that evolved from the term 'emerging markets'. 2 This term has also come to de Haan and Thorat 106 r

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