TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bunk, Bettina
T1  - The dynamics of donor and domestic elite interaction in Mozambique
BT  - formal decentralisation and informal power structures
JF  - Conflict, Security & Development
N2  - This paper analyses the interaction of domestic political elites and external donors against the backdrop of Mozambique’s decentralisation process. The empirical research at national and local levels supports the hypothesis that informal power structures influence the dynamics of this interaction. Consequently, this contributes to an outcome of externally induced democratisation different to what was intended by external actors. The decentralisation process has been utilised by ruling domestic elites for political purposes. Donors have rather focused on the technical side and ignored this informal dimension. By analysing the diverging objectives and perceptions of external and internal actors, as well as the instrumentalisation of formal democratic structures, it becomes clear, that the ‘informal has to be seen as normal’. At a theoretical level, the analysis contributes to elite-oriented approaches of post-conflict democratisation by adding ‘the informal’ as an additional factor for the dynamics of external-internal interaction. At a policy level, external actors need to take more into account informal power structures and their ambivalence for state-building and democratisation.
KW  - Decentralisation
KW  - democratisation
KW  - donors
KW  - elites
KW  - informal
KW  - interaction
KW  - legitimation
KW  - Mozambique
KW  - power
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2018.1483555
SN  - 1467-8802
SN  - 1478-1174
VL  - 18
IS  - 4
SP  - 321
EP  - 346
PB  - Routledge
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - THES
A1  - Bunk, Bettina
T1  - Governance and the Politics of Local Economic Development - South Africa and Mozambique
Y1  - 2017
ER  -