ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contribute to the understanding of the opposition parties in Angola and Mozambique, as well as of their party systems in general, by analysing development of the local state institutions and channels of representation that together constitute the most important pillars of local governance. It analyses the local political space for opposition parties in Angola and Mozambique. A side agenda, one of less theoretical importance, is to draw attention to political processes in these two lusophone countries and to the role of their main opposition parties, which are, in the African context, unusual in both size and longevity. The chapter briefly outlines the Angolan and Mozambican contexts of local governance from colonialism to the present. It then explains the mechanisms which reduce local political space for opposition parties, drawing on close observation of local governance reform processes spanning nearly the whole of the post-war period in each country.
