Manning explains Mozambique can be categorized as a "highly presidentialized semi-presidential regime;" generally, this category tends to perform badly. However, Mozambique is a unique success story. She also compares Mozambique's president and prime minister relationship to that of the U.S.'s president and vice president relationship. In general, the prime minister position is filled by someone with a similar background to that of the president and the actual "semi-presidential" image is only symbolic of an ideology. My overall question, therefore, revolves around this ideology Manning references; I am interested in comparisons with other countries who previously practiced or currently practice true "semi-presidentialism." Since Mozambique's case is unique according to Manning, an original explanation of the basics of semi-presidentialism would be helpful.

Also, on page 9, Manning writes, "In the 2004 general elections, President Chissano, who had served the maximum two terms, was replaced by Armando Guebuza." This makes it sound as if Chissano did not voluntarily step down.....?

Chapter Four in the New IDEA National Handbook was a tough read for me. Although it specifically mentions Mozambique using a two-round system and describes similarities among presidential and semi-presidential systems, I had trouble relating many of its sections to Mozambique (i.e. electing federal/state assemblies and autonomous jurisdictions, electing supranational bodies, electing an upper house). Although the chapter occassionally mentioned other African nations, Mozambique was not often included (unless I missed it?). Having little political science background, explanations in class regarding how these topics relate to Mozambique would be EXTREMELY helpful.

We will follow up on as many of these areas as we have time for.
On semipresidentialism, there is amazingly enough (or, knowing the internet, not so amazingly) a blog on this subject alone with links to papers that help explain it.
http://www.semipresidentialism.com
Wikipedia's not bad on this, though the map is a bit askew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-presidential_system

And it's true, Chissano was required by the constitution to step down. It's also true that he probably could have found a way to have the constitution changed so that he could stay on.

Excellent questions. Any more?

On page 134, Manning writes, “ In Mozambique, however, major conflicts have rarely been definitively resolved through formal democratic process and institutions alone”. He further states, “..these have been supplemented by parallel process of sustained elite bargaining…”. I would question if these processes are somehow superior to the formal process that fail to account for the “weaknesses” in the formal systems. I would be curious to know how these types of negotiations are handled (consensus agreement, compromise, etc.) since they seem to be used for more difficult/complicated issues?