Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization, 1975–2000. By M. Anne Pitcher. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 320p. $60.00.

Mozambique provides a sharp contrast with transition in much of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and even Asia. A Marxist movement (Frelimo) took power in 1975, pledging to construct a socialist state. Only 15 years later, a new constitution made no reference to socialism. By 1994, Mozambique was a multiparty democracy and one of the World Bank's “model” market reformers. Yet Frelimo remains in power, presiding over the private economy it once denounced. Why and how did this happen?