The Dialectic of National Autonomy and Global Participation: Alternatives to Conventional Strategies of Development—Mozambique Experience *

Abstract

The promise and limitations of the much discussed development strategy of self-reliance are exemplified in Mozambique, whose program for initiating a transition to socialism centers on creating new party and state organs, hastening rural transformation, promoting heavy industry, and restructuring links with the international economy. The major obstacles include an acute shortage of technical cadres, uncertain range of political debate on key matters to rectify mistakes, a labyrinthine bureaucracy, and potential or actual coercion. The economy, deformed by colonialism, can take major strides toward overcoming the anarchy of the global marketplace and the spasms of capitalist accumulation by regionalizing national production and enlarging national markets. Yet, expanding the size of the market may heighten the tension between increasingly internationalized production and private appropriation by a few. The central lesson is the continual need to meld theory and practice in a creative and original manner appropriate to local conditions.