Socio-economic inequality in South Africa is due to the institutionalized ideological misalignment between work and economic policy. Economic growth is shaped by the political context and promoted most effectively when it is consistent with both the liberal-market and coordinated-market ideal varieties of capitalism. Political inconsistency slows down economic growth. Post-apartheid South Africa attempted to adopt a coordinated, social democratic version of capitalism. This failed due to the adoption of neoliberal macroeconomic policies. Organized job-protected labor market policies leading to policy inconsistencies regarding trade liberalization. Trade liberalization combined with labor market protection leads to unemployment. (Nattrass 2013, 56) Insert some definitions VoC approach highlights policy inconsistencies There was the possibility of a post-apartheid political economy shaped by social arrangements/tripartite negotiations, but the state preferred to act unilaterally regarding macroeconomic policy. Businesses were divided and preferred bilateral engagement with the government. Organized labor has an ideological preference for managing capitalism through a developmental state charged with promoting wage and productivity growth. Economic growth has been slower in MMEs than in ECMs or LMEs. But Hall and Soskice demonstrated that government can create a win-win situation. through institutional design. Businesses gravitate towards strategies that exploit opportunities provided by institutions (2001:15) South Africa is like an LME in that it has high levels of market capitalization and inequality, but labor regulations are consistent with those of the ECM, which makes it an ECM with the associated problems of...... half of the paper ......alism is uncertain (Nattrass 2013, 75).A variety of capitalismIt is a variety of capitalism that provides support for an ECM to employed workers, assets and corrupt support to black business sectors, neglecting the predominantly unskilled and unemployed to such an extent that similar events occur in Marikana. Works Cited “An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism”. In Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, by P Hall and D. Soskice. Oxford University Press, 2001. Nattrass, Nicoli. “A South African variety of capitalism?” New Political Economy 19, n. 1 (2013): 56-78.Parsons, R. “The emergence of institutional social dialogue in South Africa.” South African Journal of Economics 75, no. 1 (2007): 1-21. Robinson, V and S Brummer. “SA Democracy Embedded: Corporate Fronts and Political Party Financing.” 2006.