THE APPLICABILITY OF THE RATIONAL-COMPREHENSION MODEL OF PUBLIC POLICIES TO THE MOZAMBICAN POLITICAL CONTEXT

By Constancio Nguja I. Introduction Mozambique adopted the multiparty democracy and market-oriented economic policies in 1992. Since then, 3 elections have taken place: the first in 1994, the second in 1999 and the last in 2004. II. Rational-comprehensive model and Mozambican political context According to Charles Lindblom apud Simon (2007: 26), “the rational-comprehensive model involves the identification of a problem, the identification of its solutions, the implementation of the best solution and finally, the measurement of the impact of the chosen solution.” The Government that comes from 2004 elections identified absolute poverty as the main problem to be attacked. As poverty has emphasis in rural areas, it defined the “district as pole of development” and institutionalized a fund for the districts, locally known as “Fund for Local Initiatives (FIL)” or simply, “7 million”. It aimed to support local economic initiatives that would create jobs and further development. The officials of the local government are not allowed to use the funds. Five years have gone and the balance of the implementation of the “FIL” is negative: • There were corruptive schemes and bribery in the attribution of the funds; • A little number of fund receivers returned the owed money to the Government; • Social and economic differences worsened in some rural areas. These remarks were presented to the President Armando Guebuza while his last visits to the districts, done recently. As incrementalism, 10 administrators and their public officials involved were dismissed of their posts. III. Conclusion To conclude, I will agree with the old saying which says that “the Devil is in the details”.