PR - Agricultural Policy Implementation: Introducing Real-life Complexity

The paper deconstructs the commonly used terms “state” and “agriculture” at a provincial level and dwell on the concept of the rational civil servant. In the case of state the challenge of moving beyond institutionalised silos are discussed. It was shown that agriculture consists out a multitude of actors, that representation often overlap and that similarities with a “tragedy of the commons” can be observed in the way some of the actors maximise personal gains. To understand the system non-traditional schools of thought such as Social Economic Systems and Bounded Rationality may provide answers.

Keywords: agricultural policy, South Africa