LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Although holding “free and fair” elections is a necessary condition for democracy and democratization, elections alone do not make a polity to be classified as a democracy. Democratization is a process of establishing mechanisms for holding rulers accountable to the ruled. Besides elections, this requires the establishment of strong institutions of countervailing power that limit executive authority between elections and ensure that such authority is exercised in a transparent and accountable manner. The legislature is one such institution of countervailing power. Legislatures are necessary conditions for representative democracy.

In Mozambique, to date there is no single research project that focuses on legislatures that produces scientifically reliable data. CPGD aims to fill this gap.