Do Sovereign Wealth Funds Dampen the Negative Effects of Commodity Price Volatility?

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Beyond the hopes placed in Africa's emergent middle class as an engine of economic growth, some analysts see this group as a bastion of political stability and enduring democratisation across the continent. This paper's approach differs from that of most studies, which treat the middle class as a homogeneous group, through two key contributions. Terms of use: Documents inFirst, using cluster analysis, I propose a novel way of conceptualising social class that broadly draws on the Weberian idea of shared life chances. I apply this method to South Africa and identify five social classes characterised by their members' living standards, overall life satisfaction, and self-perceived upward mobility. Second, the empirical analysis reveals significant discrepancies in attitudes towards democracy between the downwardly and upwardly mobile strata of the middle class, which I term the "anxious" and the "climbers," respectively. On the one hand, the "climbers" show the highest generic support for democracy as a form of government, whereas the "anxious" middle class displays feelings of resignation. On the other hand, I find indicative evidence of a status-quo bias among the "climbers." Rather than assuming a more demanding or critical stance in politics, they allow their political priorities to be at least partly shaped by an interest in securing and expanding attained living standards; being upwardly mobile is even associated with a higher tolerance for government attempts to constrain freedom of information, opinion, or expression.Keywords: South Africa, middle class, democratic consolidation, political attitudes Simone Schotte, M.A.is a doctoral research fellow at the GIGA and a member of the Globalisation and Development (GlaD) research training group at the University of Göttingen. In her dissertation she investigates the economic and political role played by the new middle classes in emerging and developing countries with a focus on South Africa.

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From fiscal stabilization to economic diversification: A developmental approach to managing resource revenues

Chang¹,

Lebdioui²

2020

WIDER Working Paper

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Do Sovereign Wealth Funds Dampen the Negative Effects of Commodity Price Volatility?

Cited by 4 publications

References 25 publications

Addressing the growth and employment effects of the extractive industries: white and black box illustrations from Kazakhstan

Addressing the growth and employment effects of the extractive industries: white and black box illustrations from Kazakhstan

The Anxious and the Climbers: Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Democracy Among South Africa's Middle Class

From fiscal stabilization to economic diversification: A developmental approach to managing resource revenues

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