Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on ideas and public policy. This article examines South Africa’s Child Support Grant in order to identify the ideas that have influenced its design and implementation and understand the causal relationship between these ideas and the programme.

Paper long abstract:

The goal of this paper is to contribute to a wider debate on the relationship between ideas and public policy. This article examines South Africa's Child Support Grant. The aim is to identify the ideas that have influenced the programme's design and implementation in its different stages. The actors involved in the promotion of certain ideas, their strategies and the barriers and the drivers to the crystallization of the ideas into public policy are also examined.