Mozambique: The Troubled Transition: From Socialist Construction to Free Market Capitalism

In the wake of the agreement between the Government and Renamo, Mozambique may at last be on the threshold of an unprecedented period of peace in which serious attention can now be paid to development. This book makes a uniquely timely contribution with its analysis of the socio-economic and political experience of the past twenty years. In particular, it documents the extraordinary historical transition in which Frelimo, originally intent on meeting people's needs by building socialism, is today trying to rebuild a war-ravaged economy by means of market capitalism.What happened to Mozambique's development? How have international, regional, national and local factors interacted to shape policies and outcomes? What are the implications for people's livelihoods of this transition to market capitalism? What are the prospects for pursuing such a strategy in a country with almost no indigenous capital-owning and entrepreneurial class? Are there lessons to be learned for other impoverished Third World societies? These are just some of the questions explored in this book which combines much new economic information with a willingness to question hitherto accepted assumptions about modern Mozambican history.