The Public in the Exorcism of the Police in Mozambique: Challenges of Institutional Democratization.

This paper examines the role played by the public sphere in demanding the transformation of the police in line with the nascent democratic principles in Mozambican society. It examines the state-centric promotion of good governance through enhancing the technical quality of decision-making in the police and focuses in particular on the role of the public sphere and popular culture in transforming the institution of the police. The paper examines newspaper stories about the police and shows how these are interpretative cultural forms that are widely disseminated as part of dynamic social intercourse. Thus the primary data for this study are the created and expressive materials about the police that the new media in Mozambique disseminates in its fight against anti-democratic practices in the police. Stories written about the police, being genuinely popular and socially and aesthetically significant, may be understood as part of the domain of popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]