State Building & state capacity
Strong party, weak state? Frelimo and state survival through the Mozambican civil war: an anlytical narrative on state-making
One party dominance weakens the State
Authors:
J. Sumich; J. Howana
Publisher:
Crisis States Research Centre, LSE, 2007
Mozambique has been described as a model of state resilience as the ruling Frelino Party has managed to maintain power through years of economic collapse and civil conflict. This paper explains how a post independence political order was constructed in Mozambique, which allowed the Frelino party to monopolize state power and create legitimacy among key constituencies, while at the same time creating a new system that excluded and alienated large section of population vulnerable to crisis.
By tracing the social formation of the elite who eventually went on to dominate the Frelino Party leadership, the author demonstrates how they were able to maintain internal unity and survive the trials of the post independence period. The author argues that since independence power has primarily been located in the Frelino Party, not in supposedly neutral state structure that could be inherited by another political force.
The paper concludes that the very success of the party in rebuilding their hegemony and their disinclination to share power with social forces outside of their control could intensify the divisions and inequalities that helped to fuel the civil war in the first place. There is a danger that this style of politics could leave the project of state-building on a very fragile foundation.
