Browsing by Author "Shenga, Carlos"

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    Commitment to democracy in Mozambique : performance evaluations and cognition : evidence from round 2 of the Afrobarometer survey data
    (2007) Shenga, Carlos; Mattes, Robert
    Word processed copy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-103).
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    Open Access
    Commitment to democracy in Mozambique: performance evaluations and cognition: evidence from round 2 of the Afrobarometer survey data
    (2007) Shenga, Carlos
    This study explores the nature of Mozambicans' commitment to democracy by testing and examining cognitive and performance evaluation factors, using Round 2 of the Afrobarometer survey. It finds that Mozambicans are less committed to democracy than many other Africans but their levels of procedural understanding of democracy are higher. My main findings are as follows: First, levels of information are the main source of popular commitment to democracy. Second, both evaluations of economic and political performance matter for Mozambicans' commitment to democracy. Third, the effects of political performance matter more than economics. Fourth, people who have high levels of information (from news media use and formal education), discuss politics with friends or neighbors and obtain their information from relatively more independent sources (such as participation in collective action and contacting religious leaders) are more likely to be committed democrats. Fifth, procedural understandings of democracy are positively relevant for individual commitment to democracy.
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    Legislative Institutionalization in Mozambique: A Comparative Analysis of Three Legislatures
    (University for Peace, 2013) Shenga, Carlos
    This study assesses and compares legislative institutionalization by employing statistical analysis and original data from the first three Mozambican democratic legislatures. Two out of three measures used pointed to the Assembly being relatively institutionalized. By the first measure, the Assembly tends not to be institutionalized�that is, membership tends to be unstable, and it experiences frequent turnover. By the second and third measures, however, the Assembly is moving toward institutionalization. First, its leaders tend to be selected at least after having served for a time in office. Second, rather than using particularistic criteria or a discretionary method for conducting its internal business, the Assembly employs universalistic criteria. The procedure for distributing positions of power is based on legislators' political capital, indicated by formal education, and seniority. The findings also reveal that while Mozambican legislatures are moving toward institutionalization, the current level of institutionalization remains low.
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    The Mozambique legislature in comparative perspective : legislative development, performance and legitimacy
    (2014) Shenga, Carlos; Mattes, Robert
    One-party Mozambican assemblies were weak institutions limited to ratifying executive decisions. However their multiparty successors are increasingly becoming institutions that matter in politics assigned with responsibilities of law-making, oversight, representation and constituency service. Nevertheless, theoretical and comparative work on the development of the Mozambican legislature has been limited. This study contributes to comparative legislative studies by assessing and comparing the process of legislative development and performance in Mozambique’s first three multiparty assemblies – Fourth (1995-1999), Fifth (2000-2004) and Sixth (2005-2009). It examines the extent to which the Mozambican legislature developed and performed its main responsibilities using institutional level data from legislative standing orders, legal provisions and archives, and the African Legislatures Project over a 15-year period from 1995 to 2009.
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    Uncritical Citizenship in a Low-Information Society: Mozambicans in Comparative Pespective
    (2013) Mattes, Robert; Shenga, Carlos
    Mozambique is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped societies in the world. While poverty and the lack of infrastructure have many social and political consequences, perhaps the most important from the standpoint of the country’s democratic development are the limitations these obstacles place on the ability of its people to act as full citizens. Yet even compared to other poor societies, Mozambicans suffer from extremely low levels of formal education (the adult literacy rate is 46 percent, compared to an average of 61 percent across all low income countries),1 and extremely low levels of access to public information: the country has just three newspapers per 1,000 people (compared to 44 for low income countries), 14 television sets per 1,000 (compared to 84), and 44 radios per 1,000 (compared to 198).2 Extremely low rates of formal education, high levels of illiteracy and limited access to news media strike at the very core of the cognitive skills and political information that enable citizens to assess social, economic and political developments, learn the rules of how societies and governments function, form opinions about political performance, and care about the survival of democracy.