Globalization, information technology and state autonomy: Explaining the political economy of telecommunications sector restructuring in South Africa, from 1985-1995

This dissertation assesses the impact of globalization, the information technology revolution and the changing world economy on the autonomy of the national state. It accomplishes this goal by explaining the political economy of telecommunications sector restructuring in South Africa, from 1985-1995.;This study combines a theorization on globalization with an empirical analysis of the on-going efforts to restructure the South African telecommunications sector, including the National Telecommunications Policy Project (NTPP) launched in 1995.;The analytical framework developed for this study, called the Global Innovation-Mediated Paradigm Shift (GIMPS), consists of five components: Production Profile Explanation (PPE); Intermediate Association Explanation (IAE); State Structure Explanation (SSE); Economic Ideology Explanation (EIE); and International System Explanation (ISE). It also includes a typology of potential policy options for telecommunications restructuring, which is used as the dependent variable for the study.;Data for the study include: verbatim submissions to the Green Paper on Telecommunications Restructuring, personal interviews, participant-observation, government documents, statistical databases, published literature and unpublished papers.;The study contributes to the literature on globalization, the efficacy of international regimes, regime change, and the changing nature of state autonomy. Much of this literature is dominated by realist and neo-realist philosophical assumptions, which see the state as a cohesive unit and the predominant actor in world affairs. On the other hand, liberal theorists often ignore national and international structural considerations, the impact of the transformation of the global economy, and the linkages between global and domestic influences on state behavior.;The dissertation attempts to answer one fundamental question, are the changes in the South African telecommunications sector the result of the restructuring of the global political economy, or does the unique structure of the South African political economy create sufficient space for the state autonomy to mediate between conflicting interests?;One interesting findings is that, while we would expect the increasing pressures from the international system to result in the complete liberalization and privatization of the telecommunications sector in South Africa. However, the complex mix of global and domestic forces in South Africa leads to a tenuous balance between the restructuring needs of the global economy and the domestic demands for social and economic development, evidence of the relative autonomy of the state.