Politics of the marginalized in the United States and South Africa

Recent scholarship points to the rise of new classes that are not organized into unions. They are variously labeled "precariat", "informal proletariat", and "sub-proletariat". These new classes share a combination of economic and political marginalization: they have a lower standard of living than unionized workers, lack political power, and often have restricted rights and legal protections. While identifying the new classes, however, scholars have paid little attention to their politics. They are often assumed to be disorganized and without a politics at all.

This paper addresses the gap by theorizing and examining marginalized politics. Following Nancy Fraser, I posit that marginalized politics has two dimensions: politics of redistribution, which pertain to the distribution of goods and services; and politics of recognition, which pertain to status and respect. Due to uneven patterns of economic and political development, the content of each politics varies across locations within the world system.

I explore this variation empirically by examining marginalized politics in two places where they have been particularly visible: California, United States and Gauteng, South Africa. In California the marginalized have economic leverage because they are incorporated into the economy as low-wage workers, but they are politically excluded as non-citizens. This leads to market-oriented politics of redistribution, which take the form of struggles against employers, and state-oriented politics of recognition, which take the form of struggles for immigrant rights. In Gauteng the marginalized have political leverage because they are South African citizens, but they are largely excluded from the formal economy. This leads to state-oriented politics of redistribution, which take the form of struggles for basic service delivery, and market-oriented politics of recognition, which take the form of attacks against non-citizens.