Where liberators meet neoliberals: Statebuilding discourse and Weberian legitimacy at work in Mozambique.

A seemingly new approach to conflict management, statebuilding discourse has depended on a conception of the 'Weberian state' as the object of its endeavours in the global South. Increasingly, authors have tried to conceptualise 'legitimacy' as an element of statebuilding. This paper contrasts these functional views of legitimacy-as-democracy with those of Weber himself, who argued for a 'sociological' approach, resulting in a much more subjectivist, pluralist and relational account that that currently used. The paper explores the case of post-conflict Mozambique using the 'sociological' approach as an attempt to explain and understand the structures of domination in Mozambique that have allowed the consolidation of a one-party state as a seemingly stable centre of power. It is argued that this account is more useful in understanding conflict management in Mozambique in terms of the 'legitimacy' that underpins the state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]