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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Politics after the Time of Hunger in Mozambique: A Critique of Neo-Patrimonial Interpretation of African Elites
Author:Sumich, JasonISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:34
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:111-125
Language:English
Geographic term:Mozambique
Subjects:political elite
legitimacy
middle class
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070701832916
Abstract:This article offers a critique of Patrick Chabal's and Jean Pascal Daloz's (1999) 'neo-patrimonial' interpretation of elite politics in Africa. It does so through an exploration of Mozambican society and politics in the period of democratic transition since 1992. By examining the relationship between the ruling Frelimo elite and the middle class in the capital Maputo, the author argues that State politics cannot be explained by elites competing with each other through vertical clientelist networks as elaborated in the 'neo-patrimonial' thesis. Instead, he suggests that the liberal transition appears to have ushered in a hardening of Mozambican class structures developed in the socialist period, with elites maintaining their position through access to political power and networks developed initially in the postindependence period, and demonstrating a high degree of internal solidarity. Many members of the middle class have decided to stay with the devil they know, who may be corrupt but towards whom they still feel a vestigial loyalty. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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