Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables & Figures
- Foreword by Laurence Whitehead
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 African Democratisation
- 2 Senegal since 2000
- 3 Côte d'Ivoire since 1993
- 4 Ghana since 1993
- 5 Nigeria since 1999
- 6 Kenya since 2002
- 7 Zambia since 1990
- 8 South Africa since 1994
- 9 Mozambique since 1989
- 10 Rwanda & Burundi since 1994
- 11 Zimbabwe since 1997
- 12 Conclusion
- Index
9 - Mozambique since 1989
Shaping Democracy after Socialism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables & Figures
- Foreword by Laurence Whitehead
- Notes on Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 African Democratisation
- 2 Senegal since 2000
- 3 Côte d'Ivoire since 1993
- 4 Ghana since 1993
- 5 Nigeria since 1999
- 6 Kenya since 2002
- 7 Zambia since 1990
- 8 South Africa since 1994
- 9 Mozambique since 1989
- 10 Rwanda & Burundi since 1994
- 11 Zimbabwe since 1997
- 12 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Mozambique has undergone radical changes since 1989. After Frelimo's fifth Congress in 1989, the country abandoned Socialism and moved to a liberal democratic political and economic system. After negotiations in Rome in 1990-92 in which Frelimo and Renamo came to agreement over their differences, the civil war ended and peace returned. Mozambique has thereafter seen peace and a blossoming of liberalism in social, economic and political affairs. Almost everything changed in Mozambique in the 1990s. In matters political, elections have been held every three years, at the national and municipal level. Although Frelimo has won all the elections and thus remained in power, the political sphere has become competitive.
The literature on Mozambique has tended to interpret the transformation of the late 1980s-90s in two ways. To some, the historical changes constitute the return to a normal state of affairs and the question is how to consolidate economic growth and political democracy. Authors have accordingly investigated issues of ‘elite habituation’ or the development of political parties (Manning 2002; Carbone 2005; Ostheimer 2001). To others in contrast, the historical shift of the late 1980s is a return to an abnormal state of affairs. Mozambique is being ‘re-colonised’ by the very capitalist forces which were behind the civil war. Analyses have accordingly focused on imperialism, the development of a local ‘comprador class’ and popular resistance (Saul 1993; Hanlon 1996).
One way or another, the literature has tended to naturalise the changes in Mozambique in the late 1980s-early 1990s. These changes have often been under-studied or dismissed as external impositions, with little attention being paid to the precise chronology of events, their forms and the struggles around them.
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- Information
- Turning Points in African Democracy , pp. 153 - 166Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009