Seminar on 'tokenistic' social policy, 19 February Patrick Bond seminar on 'tokenistic' social policy at UKZN Development Studies, 19 February Talk left, walk right” in South African social policy Tokenistic extension of state welfare versus bottom-up commoning of services Patrick Bond January 2014 South Africa’s welfare state expansion is said to be one of the leading “social democratic” achievements of the post-apartheid era. However, tokenistic features – including a neoliberal (fiscally-austere) context, the extension (not transformation) of apartheid’s inheritance, and commercialization of state services – mean the deeper crises of society and economy are not being effectively mitigated, in spite of alternative strategies of decommodification pursued by civil society activists. More  Back