ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that semi-presidentialism in Mozambique has had minimal independent impact on the nature of politics and governance there. Instead, it mirrors underlying patterns of inter-elite relationships. In particular, it reflects a degree of mistrust and polarization between the two major parties and former belligerents, the ruling Frelimo party and the former armed opposition group Renamo. The semi-presidential arrangement that holds in Mozambique today was a product of a threefold transition from war to peace, from state-centred to market economy, and from single-party rule. It is the product of grudging compromise by both major parties, and is perhaps acceptable to both because it helps to sustain a level of ambiguity regarding at least the perception of executive dominance. The best way to see this is first to set out the context in which today’s constitution, promulgated in 1990, emerged, and then to examine the failure of efforts to reform that constitution, moving it toward a less presidentialist type, in 1998.
