Policies to ensure that economic power is not concentrated, and that outcomes are good even for those who lack power in market relationships, can't be designed where there is a monopoly of political power. This has certainly been the case in South Africa, but there may be room for optimism following the ANC's loss of its majority in recent elections.

Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min Over the past decade or so there has been something of a revolution in economics. The long-held belief that unfettered markets deliver good outcomes for all is now overwhelmingly discredited.

Some of the most prominent economists in the world have been changing their minds about the efficacy of markets. A Nobel Prize-winning economist at Princeton University, Angus Deaton, for example, had this to say in a recent article:

"Our emphasis on the virtues of free, competitive markets and exogenous technical change can distract us from the importance of power in setting prices and wages."

On trade unions he said:

"I long regarded unions as a nuisance that interfered with economic (and often personal) efficiency and welcomed their slow demise. But today large corporations have too much power over working conditions, wages..."

The Nobel Prize winner for 2021, David Card, and his colleagues have shown that minimum wages do not in fact lead to job losses. They can be good economic policy to protect workers.

Much of this rethinking has been in response to economic policies implemented since the early 1970s that favoured unfettered...