In his 2005 best-selling book Collapse, Jared Diamond argues that some societies “choose to fail or succeed.”  One of the cases he explores in his book is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which he calls a modern day Malthusian crisis.  However, the arguments he employs to explain why Rwandan society was unable to peacefully and effectively manage rising population pressures overlook a host of political factors that limited the ability of people to respond to increased competition for land in pre-genocide Rwanda.

In this Country Brief, Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux and program associate Johan van der Walt focus on three domestic policy issues that they believe are important to expanding opportunities for South Africa’s poor: employment, education, and security. In addition, they also focus on three foreign policy issues that they believe are significant to leveraging South Africa’s unique position in international affairs: regional integration, good governance, and public and cultural diplomacy.

The endless variety of choices Americans enjoy daily is extraordinary—and yet so common it can be easily taken for granted. This world of choice is so starkly different than the one faced by many African entrepreneurs. What are the economics of choice, and why is consumer choice a fundamental indicator of individual liberty and the condition of democratic societies?

Titling programs transfer property titles from the public sector to private individuals and in the process allow them to convert property into capital. This process is a key step on the road towards the legal empowerment of the poor. However, legal empowerment of the poor is about even more than converting property into capital.