South Africa and Mauritius in a Macro-Causal Social Inquiry

Comparative historical research plays a vital role bringing to the surface the roots of welfare divergence in Mauritius and South Africa. As nascent welfare states, they were pioneering in their own right as South Africa invented state-funded safety nets ahead of the rest of the world while Mauritius invented Africa’s first universal pensions. While the two welfare regimes differ in size, this chapter makes a case for comparison, with the focus placed on the mobilisation efforts of the cross-class movement. Relying on John Stuart Mill’s Methods of Comparison, the focus is placed on dissimilar social policy outcomes these social actors engendered. Thus, the method of difference is presented as a reliable explanatory tool to bring these dynamics into intelligible perspective.