Role of Legislature in the Democratization Process in Malawi
Abstract
Among the many countries that underwent the democratization process in Africa in the mid-1990s, Malawi remains in the transition process while struggling to fully consolidate. Its parliament faces challenges impacting its performance of the core functions: executive oversight, constituency service and legislation. Despite the challenges the Malawi parliament faces, it distinguished itself in 2002 when it helped to maintain constitutionality by denying the president's bid to change the constitution to allow him to stand beyond the constitutional limit of two terms. Since then, the parliament has been less effective in performing its main functions. This thesis compares the parliament's performance of its core functions in the periods 1994-2004 and 2004-2009 to explain why its performance declined over time. It finds that the struggle for control of the House undermined the parliament's ability to perform these key functions, and thereby weakened the democratization process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA536460
Entities
People
- Frank Kayanula-banda
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School