Direito e Ciência Política | Capítulos/artigos em livros internacionais / Book chapters/papers in international books
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- AngolaPublication . Vidal, NunoThis chapter provides an analysis of the Angolan electoral processes since the transition to a multiparty democracy in the 1990s. The focus is primarily on the electoral management body, in consideration within the whole evolving and dynamic political context and its interaction with other electoral organs, structures and actors. The chapter is structured in three major parts, each one dedicated to one of the three elections that occurred since the transition. The first section deals with the first multiparty elections of 1992, the major electoral organs, the legislation endorsing them and their performance within the context of a troubled transition that was halted by the resumption of civil war right after elections. The extra ten years of civil war and its outcome in 2002, within a different international and domestic context, determined the new electoral structuring that set the stage for the following electoral process in 2008. Such a new context and setting majorly contributed to a qualified majority victory of the party in power. These issues are analysed in the second section. The third and final section is dedicated to the period evolving from the 2008 elections to the third electoral process of an Angolan multiparty system in 2012. Here attention is focused on the new constitution of 2010, which favoured an age-old concentration of powers in the presidency; the ensuing electoral engineering; and the renewed qualified majority in 2012.
- Landmines of democracy: civil society and the legacy of authoritarian rules in AngolaPublication . Vidal, NunoAngola has largely been under authoritarian rule from the colonial era to the present. The nationalist war against the Portuguese (1961-1975) promised freedom, but independence in 1975 marked the beginning of a civil war with major foreign involvement right from the start. With few interruptions, the war lasted for almost 27 years - to February 2002, when the rebel leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, was killed in action. From 1975 to 1977, there was a period of relative freedom in Angola. However, in 1977 an aborted coup resulted in a major purge with massive killings all over the country. An authoritarian and repressive one-party socialist regime was put in place by the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). A feared apparatus of State security was placed in charge of political repression. Non-state media were closed and the right to association was limited to mass organisations of the MPLA. The judicial system became 'militarised', juxtaposing civilian and military courts with the ability to impose heavy penalties, including the death penalty (mainly for political and security crimes). The judiciary was politically dependent and operated under the direct influence of the party and ultimately of the President. A culture of fear, intimidation and repression became entrenched. The regime in place and the priority given to defence and internal security did not allow any room for civil society to emerge and impeded the development of any kind of 'democratic institutions' or any sense of transparency and accountability . Violations of human rights by both sides of the conflict became regular as well as impunity for perpetrators of these crimes.
- Modern and post-modern patrimonialismPublication . Vidal, NunoThis paper discusses the Angolan political system after independence. Its haracterisation confronts two interpretative perspectives or what is here called modern and post-modern patrimonialism, each will be exposed.
- The genesis and development of the Angolan political and administrative system from 1975 to the presentPublication . Vidal, NunoThis paper discusses the development of the Angolan political-administrative system since the independence, not so much in terms of its inner working logic which I called post-modern in a recently published work , but focusing in one of its specific processes, namely the concentration of political power and administrative centralization paralleled by an increasing 'elitism' in the access to patrimonial benefits and privileges. Such type of processes are common to many other political systems of patrimonial character in sub-Saharan Africa, however, contrary to what is usually referred as the common path, the Angolan case did not reach a point of operative stabilisation but continued unabated towards an extreme. Constructed over two presidential administrations (since the independence) and having survived the end of the Socialist model, such distinctiveness of Angolan patrimonialism runs the risk of perpetuating itself in the supposedly 'new era' of multiparty democracy. This paper is divided in three parts, the first gives a brief analytical framework, the second and the third deal with the administration of Agostinho Neto and Eduardo dos Santos respectively.