South Africa's GEAR Program

Neoliberalism refers to a macro-economic policy based on free market concepts such as privatization of public services, free trade and deregulation (Thorkelson, 2004). These concepts have characterized Western economic development from the nineteenth century and were re-applied to the newly independent and developing economies in Third World countries starting in the 1970s primarily through organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization (Thorkelson, 2004). The term "globalization" is often used to refer to the same trend (Thorkelson, 2004).

Shortly after its election to government in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) accepted an $850 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (Bond, 2004). The loan was made on the conditions that the ANC government would impose certain monetary structure on the South African economy, namely lower import tariffs, cuts in state spending, and large cuts in public sector wages. Many scholars and observers mark this moment as the time when the new government adopted the neoliberal policies of its predecessor, even though such policies may not have been the most effective means of rebuilding a government that had so long worked to favor one segment of the population over the others (Bond, 2004).

This move to neoliberalism was cemented in 1996 when the government worked with the World Bank to craft the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Prog

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