Transforming Mozambique

Many of the economic transformations in Africa have been as dramatic as those in Eastern Europe. Yet much of the comparative literature on transitions has overlooked African countries. This study of Mozambique’s shift from a command to a market economy draws on a wealth of empirical material, including archival sources, interviews, political posters and corporate advertisements, to reveal that the state is a central actor in the reform process, despite the claims of neo-liberals and their critics. Alongside the state, social forces - from World Bank officials to rural smallholders - have also accelerated, thwarted or shaped change in Mozambique. M. Anne Pitcher offers an intriguing analysis of the dynamic interaction between previous and emerging agents, ideas and institutions, to explain the erosion of socialism and the politics of privatization in a developing country. She demonstrates that Mozambique’s present political economy is a heterogenous blend of ideological and institutional continuities and ruptures.

• Employs a wealth of empirical material, including archival sources, interviews, political posters and corporate advertisements • Focuses on the politics of transitions in a hitherto neglected area • Of interest and importance to historians, political scientists and policymakers

List of figures; Preface; List of abbreviations and acronyms; Glossary; Map; Introduction; 1. The reconfiguration of the interventionist state after independence; 2. Demiurge ascending: high modernism and the making of Mozambique; 3. State sector erosion and the turn to the market; 4. A privatizing state or a statist privatization?; 5. Continuities and discontinuities in manufacturing; 6. Capital and countryside after structural adjustment; 7. The end of Marx and the beginning of the market? Rhetorical efforts to legitimate transformative preservation; Bibliography; Index.

‘This is an important book which all those interested in modern Mozambique will want to read … a fascinating book which tells a largely new story …’ Journal of African History

\'Transforming Mozambique is an important book because it is one of the first to give evidence of what privatisation means in the contemporary African context. Not only does it provide important insights into the most significant economic changes that have taken place in that country in the last twenty years, but it also offers a sensible perspective on a debate that has become overly ideological.\' Journal of Southern African Studies