DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESSES AND POLITICAL COMPETITION IN 1990’s AFRICA: THE CASE OF MOZAMBIQUE AND ZAMBIA

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the processes of democratization and political competition in Africa in two case studies: Mozambique and Zambia. The work of the evidence that democracy is a system that should allow the confrontation of various social and political forces and its legitimacy arises from the recognition of the actors involved in their political processes and election as a whole. Methodologically, the work was developed in a comparative perspective, following the analysis of secondary data available concerning the election results in southern Africa, helped with the theoretical discussion about political history of Africa and of electoral systems and supporters. In the same way, reinterpret data aggregated election, demonstrating the variations along the political competition and partisan in the two cases. Thus, the study concludes that there is a relationship between the historical trajectory and politics and the patterns of electoral competition in both countries, and which have been decisive in the process of transition to democracy. Differently, the two countries have had experiences of single party (Mozambique: 1975 to 1994 and South Africa 1972 to 1991) notwithstanding the process of realization and political openness was differential.