In Mozambique, the ruling Frelimo party has maintained power continuously since independence. Is this evidence of a strong state or a strong party? This Crisis States Research Centre paper argues that it is evidence of a strong party and a weak state. Outside intervention in Mozambique, for example by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, has served to strengthen the Frelimo party rather than the Mozambican state.
Scholars such as Ignatieff and Zartman define failed states as those that lose their monopoly on the use of violence and where the structure, authority, law and political order have fallen apart. Based on this definition, the Mozambican state largely collapsed during the 1977-1992 civil war. By the mid-1980s, Frelimo had effectively lost control of 80 per cent of Mozambique’s territory.
Some scholars stress the importance of internal factors in state formation. However, Frelimo’s retention of power from 1975 to the present is explained by powerful external, as well as internal, factors. These factors can be clearly defined by the background to and progression of the situation:
- Many members of Frelimo came from an indigenous urban elite, called the assimilados, formed by the Portuguese colonial administration.
- This elite became increasingly unified after independence because of shared social background, ideological affinity and intermarriage. This helped to make the Frelimo party increasingly strong.
- However, their social background helped to develop a specific social vision as to how to build the nation that spoke to certain population segments much more than others.
- As a result, Frelimo lost control of the majority of Mozambique’s territory in the 1980s, though they still had a seat in the United Nations and received international aid and support.
- In 1989, Frelimo created a liberal, free-market constitution, in line with Western ideologies. This undermined their opponent in the civil war, Renamo, who espoused a similar ideology.
- Frelimo also insisted on a “winner takes all” system of democracy, which concentrated power in their hands.
It is still difficult to determine where the state ends and the Frelimo party begins in Mozambique. The external forces that have allowed Frelimo to maintain power have created, not a strong state, but a strong party. There is a danger that this style of politics could leave statebuilding in Mozambique on a fragile foundation, which may not withstand future shocks.
- In the mid-1980s, the Frelimo leadership came to an agreement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to implement pro-market reforms.
- The major beneficiaries of the privatisation process have been a few select social groups supported by Frelimo.
- Liberalisation has empowered a Frelimo-led effort at creating rentier capitalism.
- Because the ruling Frelimo elite gains power and legitimacy from foreigners, they have relatively little need to incorporate large sections of the population into the state framework.
