Lowenberg, Anton D(avid) 1957-

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LOWENBERG, Anton D(avid) 1957-

PERSONAL: Born March 26, 1957, in Johannesburg, South Africa; son of William (an attorney) and Elaine Lesley (a psychologist; maiden name, Lomey) Lowenberg; married Susan Eichelberger (a librarian), May 21, 1988; children: Derek Arthur. Education: University of Natal, B.A. (with honors), 1979; Simon Fraser University, M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of Economics, College of Business and Economics, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8374. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: California State University, Northridge, began as assistant professor, became professor of economics, 1984—.

MEMBER: American Economic Association, Association of Comparative Economic Studies, Western Economic Association.

WRITINGS:

(With William H. Kaempfer) International Economic Sanctions: A Public Choice Perspective, Westview (Boulder, CO), 1992.

(With William H. Kaempfer) The Origins and Demise of South African Apartheid: A Public Choice Analysis, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: Anton D. Lowenberg's The Origins and Demise of South African Apartheid: A Public Choice Analysis, written with William H. Kaempfer, studies South Africa's transition to democracy, which led to the freeing of Nelson Mandela, the legalizing of the African National Congress, and open elections in 1994. This volume provides responses to a number of questions, including why the white leaders were willing to give power to a black government, and what the prospects for political and economic freedom in post-apartheid South Africa may be. The authors conclude that had apartheid continued, living standards of both whites and blacks would have declined, in large part because of the failing economic problems caused by apartheid itself, which were a much more significant factor than foreign sanctions.

Walter E. Williams reviewed the book for Independent Review, noting that the authors reject the argument "that apartheid is a unique form of South African capitalism in which industrial, mining, and agricultural entrepreneurs allied themselves with a powerful central government in order to exploit black workers. . . . Public choice theory treats individual politicians, bureaucrats, voters, interest groups, and other political actors as utility-maximizing agents. These actors are not abstract entities such as the state, society, and social classes. Instead, they are coalitions of individuals who share common goals and seek to promote them through state coercion." Williams commented that he would have benefited from "the insightful analysis" set forth in this volume when he had written is own South Africa's War against Capitalism ten year earlier.

Williams called The Origins and Demise of South African Apartheid "yeoman work [that] makes an important contribution to the analysis of interest-group policies. The authors conclude that the real challenge facing post-apartheid South Africa is to insure that the apartheid state is not replaced by an equally inefficient nonracial Leviathan. . . . As has been too often the case on the African continent, one form of injustice has been eliminated only to be replaced by another that is far worse."