Democratization in Malawi: Responding to International and Domestic Pressures

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  • Nikolas G. Emmanuel
Donors hope that their foreign aid can be influential, far beyond the development projects that they fund. Frequently, aid providers attach political conditions to their monies in the hope that these demands can serve as catalysts to improve the governance in the recipient. This is called a political conditionality approach. Few countries have felt the weight of conditionality as much as Malawi did in the 1990s. Here, donors were able to use aid sanctions to successfully encourage democratization, while strengthening the demands of domestic opposition forces. This paper argues that three factors were critical in this process: 1) aid dependency, 2) donor coordination, and 3) a strong and persistent domestic opposition. With their combined weight, foreign donors and Malawian civil society were able to change the tide in this once highly authoritarian country.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAfrican and Asian Studies
Volume12
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)415-434
Number of pages20
ISSN1569-2094
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2013

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Democratization in Malawi:

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