"Inspired by “extra-market” initiatives to ensure media diversity in social-democratic Northern Europe, the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) is a path-breaking attempt by a developing country to support the media needs of marginalized communities too poor to be of interest to advertising-driven commercial media. This paper examines the policy process towards the establishmentof the MDDA as a partnership between the state, capital, and civil society within the constraints of South Africa’s re-entry into a global economy that privileges “free market” solutions to developmental problems. Under these onditions, do partnerships between the state, the private sector, and civil society facilitate or hinder the achievement of social objectives aimed primarily at uplifting the poor and marginalized?" (Abstract)