The historical logic of the mode of capital accumulation in Mozambique

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article critically analyses the political economy dynamics and trajectory of the mode of capital accumulation in post-independence Mozambique, focusing on the capitalist restructuring that followed the adoption of the Washington Consensus from the late 1980s. The article highlights the main structural characteristics, dynamics and tensions in the economy, the relationships and conflicts that explain why they reproduce and expand, what makes them change and the nature of the crises that emerge. The historical logic of the mode of capital accumulation is explored focusing on the historically built and class-structured conditions of capital accumulation, highlighting linkagency, which is the dynamic relationship between agents and linkages. The historically specific traits of the mode of accumulation in Mozambique are derived from the structures of accumulation and class struggle conditions, both domestic and international. The argument is that the recent trajectory of the Mozambican economy was not inevitable, and that it can be logically understood and derived from the existing historical conditions of accumulation. Understanding this historical logic enables us to articulate socially transformative actions which are drawn from the objective and concrete analysis of the mode of accumulation and its contradictions, countering idealistic perspectives in political economy.