Hanlon, Joseph (2024) Mozambique: turning a poor country into a rentier state. In: Sanghera, Balihar, (ed.) Global Rentier Capitalism: Theory and Development. Global Challenges in Political Economy. Routledge, Abingdon, UK, 167 - 179. ISBN 9781032423463
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, and at the end of the Cold War, it was one of the few African countries where the IMF and World Bank imposed ‘shock therapy’, to rapidly transform the elite of the socialist ruling party, Frelimo, into capitalists. The Bank and Fund forced the state out of most economic sectors through 1,500 privatisations – mostly to a nomenklatura of key people in Frelimo. This same group gained control of the issuing of state contracts and land titles, and control of police and customs gave them control of illegal trade, including heroin, timber and ivory. They also controlled the spending of aid, which was a major source of revenue in a poor country. This quickly created a rentier economy with small oligarchs, who had to make external links in order to profit from their rents. The discovery of natural resources to be exploited by foreign companies made some of the oligarchs rich. But it also created discontent and inequality which eventually triggered a civil war in northern Mozambique.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | © 2025 selection and editorial matter, the editor; individual chapters, the contributors. |
| Divisions: | International Development |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DT Africa J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Nov 2024 15:27 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Nov 2024 17:24 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126142 |
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