Wage regulation helped create apartheid’s industrial color bar

Evidence

32. Bauer used South Africa’s skilled white labor force to illustrate his argument. These privileged workers succeeded in fending off new entrants (poor white and black workers) by wage regulation and an “industrial color bar enforced by custom and trade unions” (Bauer 1958b, 12). Apartheid in this perspective was caused in no small measure by the institution of wage regulation, though it would be interesting to understand what Bauer referred to as “custom.” The South African case particularly bolstered his claim of the (negative) effects of wage regulation beyond the economic sphere. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1368

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how market-liberal economists (Bauer) argued that wage regulation—not just racial ideology—constructed the color bar in South Africa, reframing apartheid as partly an economic-institutional artifact.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing knowledge of how institutions and regulations shape exclusionary outcomes, and to Milgrom’s work on institutions. — connects to: Apartheid’s labor restrictions caused skills shortages and market constriction damaging industry — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 560; South Africa couples industrial capitalism with race as an articulating principle of social structure.; Class-focused analysis of apartheid neglected racist institutions outside the capitalist nexus (+4 more)
• QUESTION: What did Bauer mean by ‘custom’ — is he gesturing toward informal norms separate from formal regulation, and did he see them as self-organizing or policy-driven?

Broader Connections

• Apartheid’s labor restrictions caused skills shortages and market constriction damaging industry #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 560
• South Africa couples industrial capitalism with race as an articulating principle of social structure. #expands (0.80)
• British industrial capital intensified rather than moderated South African racial order #corroborates (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1484
• White labor’s approval of color caste subordinated colored labor to white profits worldwide #expands (0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 950
• Class-focused analysis of apartheid neglected racist institutions outside the capitalist nexus #corroborates (0.75)
• Racism in South Africa stems from its economic structure, not petty official bias #corroborates (0.75)
• Black labor exploitation continued past emancipation through colonial and wage regimes #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 601