Mozambique: an unsustainable democracy
Year: 1994
Type: article
Abstract: This debate aims to assess the possibilities of democracy succeeding in Mozambique, that is, reproducing itself within Mozambican society in a sustainable manner through processes rooted in the social formations of Mozambique. This involves two principal considerations: first, the political and economic context in which democratisation is operating; second, the processes and institutions which are evolving within Mozambique to support and sustain democratisation. It will be argued here that the political and economic context for democratisation is unfavourable, especially the antidemocratic way in which economic liberalisation (codified in structural adjustment programmes or SAPs) is carried out by the IMF and World Bank (Endnote 1). Economic liberalisation percolates through and interacts with transformations in Mozambican society, which is undergoing various changes as a result of democratisation. Of course, in a period of transition such as this, it is impossible to make hard and fast assertions, but the evidence presented here strongly suggests that the processes and institutions evolving in Mozambican society do not have the capacity to deal with the contradictions of structural adjustment either by co-opting the main tenets of SAP into a popular programme within Mozambique or setting out a counter-hegemonic alternative.
Author: Graham Harrison
Institution: University of Staffordshire
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2007709864