South Africa. The Growth Imperative

(Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1991) 0947464441. 8vo; original red boards; laminated dustwrapper; pp. (vi) + 183. Ex-library copy. Dustwrapper's spine panel sunned; blistering to front pastedown; label scar to front free endpaper; codes and hand-stamps to endpapers and prelims. Good. "Michael O'Dowd is identified with the 'O'Dowd thesis' which he advanced in 1964 and which held that economic development would eventually destroy apartheid in South Africa. ... Here, in contrast with his earlier writings, he does not deal mainly with economic factors, but focuses on the interrelationship between the economic and the political. The book discusses not only South Africa's 'stages of growth', which it still considers to be significant, but also the country's earlier and recent history, the history, traditions and present day characteristics of the different elements of South Africa's population, as well as South Africa's place in the world. This is seen primarily in terms of the main dynamics which really drive the world, which do not relate to South Africa at all. It warns strongly against any expectation that the 'special case' hostility which South Africa encountered in the recent past will be replaced by 'special case' favour." .